The Indianapolis Colts (0-1) travel to the Kansas City Chiefs (1-0)(-6.5) for Sunday Night Football (8:20 PM EDT) to try to avoid a difficult 0-2 start, after an embarrassment of a Week 1 showing last weekend.
The primetime matchup can be viewed on NBC, where Mike Tirico (play-by-play), Cris Collinsworth (analyst), and Melissa Stark (sideline) will be handling the national television duties.
Meanwhile, Colts fans can tune in locally on 93.5 and 107.5 The Fan / 97.1 Hank FM or nationally on Sirius XM
Channel 193. For those listening in, Matt Taylor (play-by-play), Charles Arbuckle (analyst), and Larra Overton (sideline) will be on the call as usual for the Colts.
At Arrowhead, it’s expected to be partly to mostly cloud with temperatures in the high sixties/low seventies at kickoff, and a chance of later game rain or isolated storms.
Anytime Indianapolis heads into a tough road environment like Arrowhead, especially against the future Hall of Fame duo of quarterback and head coach Patrick Mahomes and Andy Reid, they’re going to be in a for a tough challenge. After Week 1, the Chiefs currently rank 8th in points scored (31.0 ppg) and 2nd in points against (10.0 ppg), which means the Colts will need a lot stronger and spirited of a showing than they demonstrated last week.
In particular, the Colts will need to shore up their run defense, which another future Hall of Famer, Derrick Henry, carved up last weekend. Chiefs running back Kenneth Walker carries a lot of momentum into this one, having rushed for 173 total rushing yards and a rushing touchdown last weekend in a Chiefs win vs. Denver.
Communication will also be key. The Colts suffered a number of miscommunication issues last weekend defensively, which resulted in a number of blown coverage assignments. The hope is that by transitioning the green dot and thus, the helmet transmitter duties, from safety Cam Bynum to veteran linebacker Akeem Davis-Gaither that it’ll be cleaned up logistically.
The officiating unit for this one will be Craig Wrolstad and his crew for tonight.
Indianapolis leads the all-time series against Kansas City, 18-11-0, with the Colts narrowly losing to the Chiefs in Week 12 of last year, 23-20, on the road in overtime.
To-date, superstar Chiefs quarterback Mahomes is 1-2 against the Colts in his Canton-bound career.
The Colts enter this one pretty healthy after the regular season opener, with just wideout Ashton Dulin (ankle) declared out. With Dulin absent, on Saturday, the Colts elevated fellow wideout Anthony Gould from their practice squad to presumably help handle special teams return duties.
Backup running back DJ Giddens is questionable, but was a full participant during team practice on Friday.
Colts Injury Report:
WR Ashton Dulin (ankle): Out
RB DJ Giddens (knee): Questionable
Chiefs Injury Report:
DB Chamarri Conner (knee): Out
OT Josh Simmons (back): Out
CB Mansoor Delane (shoulder): Questionable
DT Chris Jones (calf): Questionable
