The Indianapolis Colts
are on the road to take on the Kansas City Cheifs in week 2 of the 2026 season, kickoff is at 8:20 p.m. EST.Week one didn’t go how any Colts fan would have liked. The offense started most of the day with terrible field position due to poor special teams play. They didn’t have many answers for the Ravens blitz and couldn’t consistently sustain drives. Defensively it was a complete and total excrement show. The number of words I could use to describe and further explain the happenings
of last weeks defensive performance is in the tens of thousands, so instead I’ll just say it was terrible.
But wait! There is reason for hope!
Jonathan Taylor was as good as ever and Daniel Jones played as well as an quarterback in his first game back from a torn Achilles. There is plenty of reason to believe the offense will improve as the season goes along. The same can be said for the defense. There are only two ways you haven’t heard or read some variation of “the green dot” five thousand times over the past week, but I’m going to use it one last time. Lou Anarumo’s plan to give play calling duties to Cam Bynum was amongst the worst he has had in Indianapolis but to the teams credit, they have identified the issue and given the green dot to Akeem Davis-Gaither. There’s a reason linebackers are almost always the guy given that responsibility and the Colts have made the change.
Given how disorganized the defense was in week one it’s difficult to even begin to determine where the holes are. There are almost certainly holes but until all 11 guys know what they’re supposed to be doing on every play, it’s impossible to know where those holes are. The hope (if you can call it that) is that the defense will be organized enough today that we will be able to tell exactly what part of this defense needs work. Because right now if someone asked me “What are the holes in the Indy defense?” I would just say “yes”.
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The Cheifs are coming off of a nice week one win over a Denver Broncos team that expects to contend in a good AFC. Patrick Mahomes is coming off of his own late, season ending injury from a season ago (torn ACL), and week one was good for ole Pat but he wasn’t quite the Mahomes of old. Though I’m sure he’ll be there soon. Kenneth Walker III had a career day with something like 172 yards rushing, after contact.
Defensively the Chiefs made Bo Nix and the rest of the Broncos offense look pretty rough. Their entire offense only mustered 176 total yards and 10 points on Monday Night Football.
If Indy wants to keep this one competitive offensively they’ll need to find quick win answers for beating the blitz. Chiefs defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo sent pressure on just over 30% of their week one snaps which is right around league average. But Spags’ blitz packages are famous for their ability to confuse offenses and get home, taking a quality over quantity approach. They’ll need to feed Jonathan Taylor the ball to control the pace of the game and they’ll need to try to generate touches for Tyler Warren. If they can get Warren matched up against Chiefs linebacker Nik Bonitto and exploit it, the Indy offense will have a chance to look much better in week two.
Defensively, I’ll just focus on these Chiefs as there’s too much to say otherwise, Indy needs to wrap up and make their tackles. Kenneth Walker III will make teams pay if they don’t rally to the ball and make sure tackles. Travis Kelce remains the Chiefs most concerning pass catching threat, so making sure the defensive backs are on top of their game so they don’t let someone who is a league average receiver 16 games out of the season, have a career day, needs to be a priority.
This game probably isn’t going to go great for our Colts. It may, but I wouldn’t bet on it. Ultimately the defense moved on from multiple long term leaders, replacing them with younger options. No matter how you felt about those old team leaders and their leaving, ultimately it will take time, actually on the field, to fill those roles and work out the kinks those moves created. We may not see this defense peak until the midway point, if it even does. This is the toughest stretch of the Colts season, expect turbulence.
Prediction:
Chiefs: 24
Colts: 20
As always, go Colts.
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This is your week two open thread so hang out here, chat, celebrate, commiserate, and argue in the comments! Go wild (within reason)!
Go Colts!
