What is the story about?
On Sunday, the Indianapolis Colts suffered one of those losses that was going to take some time to rightfully recover from. After waiting months for the 2026 regular season to start, Colts fans saw the Baltimore Ravens demolish the Colts at home, 41-23, in a laugher that was already over by halftime.
Rather than immediately nose myself back into that utter stink of a showing, I wanted to take some time to gather my thoughts on some of the few silver linings from Sunday’s opener—and highlight some of the few and far
between silver linings, as well as a lot of the bad that was readily apparent.
Horse Power
- Offensive Line Run Blocking: Colts star workhorse Jonathan Taylor rushed for nearly 100 rushing yards, as he had 19 carries for 98 total rushing yards and 2 rushing touchdowns on the afternoon. The unit collectively was able to open up rushing lanes for Taylor, who would’ve made this grouping as well, had it not been for his mid-second quarter fumble—which effectively ended any chance of a realistic comeback.
- Sauce Gardner: The Ravens manipulated the coverage matchups by having their best wideout Zay Flowers (*5 receptions for 150 total receiving yards and a touchdown reception before halftime) go up against the Colts debuting slot cornerback Justin Walley, and the latter showed his greenness initially in this one before Flowers left early with an injury. Gardner was reportedly only targeted twice in man coverage, surrendering just one catch for 12 total receiving yards. The Colts had their fair share of secondary problems on Sunday, but Gardner wasn’t largely one of them. Rather than have Gardner lock up Flowers, the Ravens just avoided him all together and took advantage of Indianapolis’ other more vulnerable DBs to routinely pick on in the passing game. The Colts really ought to think about having Sauce shadow the opposing team’s best wide receiver going forward, if this is the alternative.
- Rigoberto Sanchez: The Colts longtime, recently re-signed punter had 5 punts, averaging 52.6 yards per punt. Yes, highlighting a punter shows what type of day it was for Indianapolis, but that’ll certainly play.
Horse Play
- Lou Anarumo and the Colts defense collectively: This was Week 1, and the Colts had months to prepare for this defensive matchup against the Baltimore Ravens, which makes this one so frustrating. This wasn’t a short turnaround ahead of Thursday Night Football or something to that effect. Yes, the Ravens have a new offensive coordinator, Declan Doyle, without the luxury of NFL tape regarding his play-calling, but some of the miscommunication and blown coverage assignments and gaffes were certainly within their control prior to this one kicking off. The run defense was awful, allowing veteran Derrick Henry to rush for 144 total rushing yards and 3 rushing touchdowns, averaging 6.0 yards per carry. The linebackers were either in the wrong spots or non-existent, as starter Jaylon Carlies did not even record a single stat in 42 total snaps.The secondary also got torched, as the inexperience of both rookie safety AJ Haulcy and slot cornerback Walley, as mentioned, clearly showed in particular. Some of the expected reliable veterans such as Charvarius Ward and Cam Bynum didn’t fare all that much better though. The Colts surrendered 506 total offensive yards, which is their most since Week 8 of the 2023 regular season.
- Colts O-Line Pass Blocking: On the other side of blocking, this was not a banner day for the Colts offensive line as it relates to pass blocking. Returning starting quarterback Daniel Jones was the most pressured NFL passer of Week 1, having been pressured on over half (52.9%) of his passing dropbacks.The plan seems to be to blitz Jones into oblivion, until he and the Colts prove they can consistently handle it, which so far hasn’t happened, since even around midseason of last year—when Jones and the offense arguably began to cool off a bit following their historic hot start, even before his injuries.
