The Indianapolis Colts are at home to take on the Denver Broncos in week 2 of the 2025 season, kickoff is at 4:05 p.m. EST.
Whew. Week one was one for the record books. Daniel Jones led the Colts offense to seven straight scoring drives, the first time that’s happened for an NFL team since the mid-1970’s. Jones played a clean game and distributed the ball well to his playmakers. Last week I said this about rookie tight end Tyler Warren:
I’m excited to watch Tyler Warren in real game action. Also, don’t
expect the world from Warren, at least not yet. We live in a post-Bowers world but it’s still true that NFL tight ends typically take time to develop and Warren isn’t likely to be different. I’m excited to see what the kid has but I’m not expecting 6 catches for 100 yards and a touchdown. You shouldn’t either.
You can pretty much just throw that sentiment in the trash as Warren in fact had 7 catches for 71 yards and if not for an uncalled DPI in the endzone he would have had 8 catches and a touchdown. He was nearly perfect in his first game as a pro.
Last week I said this about the Colts defensive backfield:
I’m probably most excited to see how this defensive backfield performs against a very good Miami Dolphins receiving corps. While I’m looking forward to seeing it, it’s important to remember this is a group of 5 guys (on the field at the same time, most of the time) and only Kenny Moore and Nick Cross played together last year. It’s also important to remember that none of them played in Lou Anarumo’s system last year, either. It could be a rough outing. But if it’s not, well kids, we might start going to the bathroom when the offense is on the field instead of the other way around.
As it turns out you practically had to go to the bathroom with the offense on the field because this secondary did such a good job getting the Dolphins off the field they were on the field for fewer than 50 snaps. I’ll be looking forward to watching this Anarumo defense all year long.
Here’s what I said about the Colts offensive line:
I’m anxious to watch the right side of the line. Matt Goncalves steps in for his first start at right guard next to Braden Smith. Smith I’m not as worried about, though eventually age will catch up to him as he is 29 and has spent most of his career dealing various injuries that don’t tend to lead to improved mobility. Watching Goncalves last season it was apparent that he is a very physically talented lineman. My anxiety isn’t tied to wondering “can he be good at this” it’s more tied to “how long will it take him to figure this out” and in my mind that’s the biggest question on the right side. His starting quarterback isn’t known to be great under pressure.
As it turned out Goncalves and Smith more than held their own and Jones was pressured on less than 25% of his dropbacks. If this is the performance the Colts line turns in all year long, Indy is going to be primed to win a lot of games. The line, all five guys, looked very good a week ago.
So where does that leave us heading into week 2 against a 1-0 Broncos team?
It’s a tricky thing to try and predict. There’s almost no chance we see a repeat performance in week two. There’s just no way a team led by a journeyman quarterback could be this good all year long, right? Probably not. But we have seen what this team can look like when everything breaks right. This week Indy will be facing a much tougher defense than they did against the Dolphins and they’re without Charvarius Ward (concussion) and Laiatu Latu (hamstring). They also lost cornerback Jaylon Jones (hamstring) who is now on injured reserve. While the Broncos don’t have the receiving corps of the Dolphins the Indy secondary is seriously depleted. It will be interesting to see if Lou Anarumo can do enough to confuse second year quarterback, Bo Nix, who looked bad in week one.
Offensively we’re likely to see them turn the ball over at some point and while I’m not predicting Daniel Jones will fail or otherwise crash back down to Earth, this Broncos defense has high level playmakers at all three levels of the field. It’s not going to be as easy for Indy on either side of the ball this week.
If Indy is able to look even 60% as good as they looked a week ago, then it will be cause for celebration for Colts fans everywhere. If they come out and lay a week 2 egg, then well, I would argue we don’t really know what this team is or how far it can go. I’m hopeful but I’ve been hurt before.
Prediction:
Broncos: 17
Colts: 23
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!
