Colts have to play smarter

The Colts did not play their best game against the Raiders yesterday. But there were a multitude of issues that were very concerning that they have to fix.

Yesterday was a big test for this team. The Colts were caught in a trap game. They were playing a Raiders team that wasn’t supposed to be very good right before they went to Kansas City on Sunday night. This was a trap game. They fell right into that trap.

A big reason why is because they played very undisciplined football. They had too many penalties and had a very costly turnover. They also were caught being out of position multiple times on defense because of over-aggressiveness. All of that added up to this bad loss.

Some of those undisciplined plays can be fixed. Penalties are something coaches hate to see no matter what. Frank Reich and his staff will be harping on fixing those penalties all week long. But being out of position is what is most concerning.

The linebackers were the players most out of position in this game. This unit has been a disaster all year long. Having Darius Leonard out the last two games hasn’t helped that cause. But the linebackers have to be more aware of where they are supposed to be on the field.

Maybe this team isn’t as good as we thought they were. It could be as simple as that. But no matter what the reason, they still  have to play smarter than what they did on Sunday.