Three Things that Must Improve from Week 1

Credit: Brian Spurlock-USA TODAY Sports

Indianapolis, IN – The Indianapolis Colts face off with the Miami Dolphins this afternoon, and there are three key things that they must improve on from their Week 1 performance in order to defeat this talented Dolphins team. This one will be a good game, no doubt about it, but in order for the Colts to come out the victors, they need to take their Week 1 performance and improve from it.

1. Offensive Line Blocking

The offensive line has not lived up to standards, and Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay took to Twitter earlier in the week as we here at Naptown’s Finest covered to show his displeasure. Miami has a very good pass rush, and Indianapolis has to protect their franchise quarterback Andrew Luck and keep him upright to have a chance. The rushing attack also needs good blocking with Ahmad Bradshaw taking over following the Bradshaw injury.

Indianapolis made moves in the off-season to help shore up the O-Line, but to this point it doesn’t look too much better. The talent is there to be a very high quality offensive line, but they have to pull together and play as a unit. They will certainly be tested against the Dolphins.

2. Defensive Pass Coverage

The Colts went up against a young quarterback who isn’t known for his arm, and a very unproven corps of wide receivers in their Week 1 match-up with the Raiders, but they still showed weaknesses. Miami has Mike Wallace, Brian Hartline, and Brandon Gibson to go up against the Colts’ secondary, and Indianapolis needs to find a way to stop that three-headed monster.

Both Greg Toler and especially Vontae Davis have to step up in order for the Colts pass coverage to play at its best. Davis had a rough Week 1, but is more than capable of making plays, and he’ll be needed to go up against big-play threat Mike Wallace who is also coming off of a rough start to the season. There’s no doubt that the Dolphins will work to get their second-year quarterback Ryan Tannehill into the game early, and the Colts need to do their best to stop that from happening.

3. Defensive Pass-Rush

As we stated in the pass coverage point, the Colts are facing a young quarterback in Ryan Tannehill, and they need to get him out of his comfort zone early. The most effective way to make a quarterback feel uncomfortable is to rush him, and force him to make plays quicker than he’d like.

Robert Mathis and Erik Walden are two guys that the Colts need to step up and take leadership. They’ll need them to get to the quarterback and encourage their teammates to do the same. There’s no doubt that the Colts have the talent to put a good pass rush on Tannehill and force quick decisions, but they absolutely have to do that in order to keep him out of his rhythm.

This game is going to be a hard fought contest between two very good teams, and the winner is going to come down to who executes their gameplan the best. These are three things that the Colts absolutely have to improve upon from Week 1 in order to play their best and improve to 2-0 on the young 2013 season.

Evan Massey is an Editor at Naptown’s Finest. Follow Evan and Naptown’s Finest on Twitter.