Colts are a playoff team

After stunning the Kansas City Chiefs in Arrowhead on Sunday Night Football last week, the Indianapolis Colts have the early makings of a playoff team.

It was a big spot for the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday night, but they got it done in one of the most raucous environments in the NFL. The Colts improved to 3-2 on the year by stunning the Kansas City Chiefs in Arrowhead on Sunday Night Football. This has them atop the AFC South and looking very much like a playoff team in the AFC in the early part of the season.

On this week’s episode of Stacking the Box, FanSided‘s Matt Verderame, Josh Hill and Mark Carman make sense of what just happened in Arrowhead on primetime between the Colts and the Chiefs, deciding just how good the Colts can be this season (11:17).

“First of all, you have to give the Colts a lot of credit,” said Verderame. “The Colts are a Cover 2 team, they play a ton of zone.” Verderame would point out that the Colts typically play close to 70 percent of their defense in zone concepts, but played 73 percent of the time in man coverage to keep the Chiefs offense in check. Colts defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus had a great game plan.

To put it simply, this is the type of game that playoff teams win. The Colts weren’t perfect offensively but found a way to pound the rock relentlessly with running back Marlon Mack to break Kansas City’s will defensively. Even the best teams in football don’t often win in Arrowhead. Indianapolis might have the best win of any team thus far this season.

As for if the Colts are a playoff contender, it’s a combination of the AFC being down and the Colts having a really strong culture under head coach Frank Reich and general manager Chris Ballard. Even if they are going with Jacoby Brissett as quarterback going forward after Andrew Luck’s retirement, the Colts have the structure in place to succeed regardless and make the playoffs.

What it will really come down to is how the Colts stack up in the ultra-competitive AFC South. From top to bottom, the entire division is separated by one game. While the Colts and Houston Texans are 3-2, the Jacksonville Jaguars and the Tennessee Titans are only one game back at 2-3. Entering Week 6, the Colts have the feel of a playoff team, but only time will tell.

Here are a few other topics that were discussed on this week’s episode of Stacking the Box:

• Hiring Freddie Kitchens was Plan B for the Cleveland Browns (2:10).
• The San Francisco 49ers need to still prove themselves (5:25).
• Is Gardner Minshew the Rookie of the Year (48:50)?
• Is Christian McCaffrey the MVP (51:13)?

All this and more!

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