As the Indianapolis Colts try to turn their season around, they will be challenged with one of the toughest remaining schedules in the NFL.
The Indianapolis Colts have played some horrible football. So bad, in fact, that Indy decided to bench veteran quarterback Matt Ryan in favor of second-year QB Sam Ehlinger. Typically, when a team does that it’s because the season is already lost or it’s done as a last-ditch effort to save the season. For the Colts, neither of those really fits their circumstances. While things have been bad, the team is only 3-3-1 after seven weeks and is squarely in the mix for the playoffs and the division.
That doesn’t mean that turning things around will be easy. Indianapolis will actually be challenged over the next 10 weeks of the regular season because it has one of the toughest remaining schedules in the NFL. According to Tankathon, Indy has the seventh-toughest remaining schedule in the league. Entering Week 8, five of the Colts’ next 10 opponents are at or above .500.
Combined, Indy’s opponents have a 37-28-1 record. This doesn’t necessarily mean that the Colts have no chance of going on a second-half run, but it does mean Indianapolis needs to figure things out fast, or there will be a lot more ugly games for Indy.
As of this tweet, the #Colts remaining 10 opponents are currently 37-26-1.
— Brett Bensley (@brettbensley) October 23, 2022
Only 4 teams have losing records (WAS, LAS, PIT, HOU).
The other 6 are at or above .500 (NE, PHI, DAL, MIN, LAC, NYG).
Colts have the seventh-toughest remaining schedule
Indianapolis was in a similar spot last season. After starting the season slowly, as the Colts tend to do under Reich, they were sitting at 5-5 after Week 10. However, everyone looked at Indy’s remaining schedule and realized things didn’t look good for the team. But, Indianapolis traveled to Buffalo to embarrass the Bills and they went on a run that shocked the league.
After blowing out the Buffalo Bills 41-15, Indy lost a one-score game to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers but defeated the New England Patriots and Arizona Cardinals, games that no one had Indy winning. That set the Colts up to make the playoffs with one more win, but as we know, they collapsed down the stretch. However, the point isn’t the collapse, it’s that the games have to be played and Indy could pull off several upsets.
But, we’ve already learned that this year’s Colts team is not last season’s team. The current team can’t run the ball as well or force turnovers at the same rate. Those were the two things that won games last year. Indianapolis will have to find something else it can lean on to win games this season.
Things didn’t work out with the Colts but Matt Ryan shouldn’t be condemned
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