Through the first four games of the season, the Indianapolis Colts have made strides to improve their stagnant offense from last season. In 2025, it took nearly two and a half games for the Colts to send their punter on the field and score on nearly every possession. Even better, the Colts scored on every turnover, the biggest criticism of the Anthony Richardson offense from last year.
This week, the Colts faced a Rams team with something to prove. Heading into the season, the Rams were likely going to be contenders for the NFC West at the bare minimum, and could reach the conference championship.
The biggest factor in this was the play of Matthew Stafford and his back injury before the season started. In this game, Stafford proved he could still pick apart a defense.
Although the Colts' box score shows some turnovers and some big plays from the Rams, the reality is that the Colts should have won this game. From leaving 14 points off the board due to a rough game by AD Mitchell to having 10 players on the field during a critical late-game drive where Tutu Atwell scored a long touchdown, the Colts made some major mistakes.
All-22 film shows the Rams took away the big-play ability from the Colts in Week 4
Watching the All-22 film, the story of the game wasn't the lack of Colts offensive production, but rather the Rams' defensive discipline.
In the previous three games, the Colts' bread and butter has been the play-action passing attack mixed in with outside zone runs to keep the defense honest. In Week 1, the Dolphins played rather aggressively against the run, and the linebackers were protecting the run.
Against the Broncos, the Colts did the same, but Denver added blitzes to the mix. Finally, in Week 3, the Titans were fooled by bootlegs and hi-lo concepts, which attacked the safeties.
In Week 4, the Rams took away the big plays off play action and forced the Colts to go underneath with their attacks. The safeties made great strides in baiting Daniel Jones into making those throws, in particular, on the interception early in the first quarter. The Rams showed a Cover-2 shell, and in reality, the coverage was Cover-3 with the strong safety robber.
Understanding the play, the strong safety left his robber assignment and provided underneath coverage against Mitchell, and the free safety made a play and intercepted it. At this point in the game, the play call was designed to be rather aggressive and push the ball down the field, but the Rams' defense played disciplined, and the secondary played the pass rather than run.
On defense, the Colts didn't fair much better. Matthew Stafford picked apart the Colts' soft zone defense and constantly checked into running plays to the advantage of the Rams.
During the first quarter, the Rams had multiple runs in the 12 personnel, attacking the three-techs on the defensive line. Stafford, recognizing the advantage of a wham block, protected the backside of the run and allowed his running back some space to spring up the A gaps for major gains early in the game.
This allowed the Rams to control the ball and set the tone of the game, but the biggest advantage is keeping the defense honest and forcing man coverage to one of the best route runners in the league, Puca Nakua. Stafford and Nacua torched the Colts for over 150 yards and 2 touchdowns, and kept the pressure on the Colts and capitalized on the mistakes Indianapolis made.
In the end, yes, Mitchell made massive mistakes on the holding penalty that brought back a Taylor touchdown and the touchback that should have been a touchdown, but the Colts were simply outplayed on offense.
The Rams took away the big play and forced the Colts to “dink-and-dunk” when they desperately needed the big play. But when that opportunity came, the Colts fumbled the opportunity.
This week, the Colts take on the Raiders, who are in the bottom half of both rushing and passing defense. Although the defense has not been playing well, Maxx Crosby ranks first in the league with time to sack, according to NFL Next Gen Stats, at just under 2.4 seconds.
As the Colts look to rebound from the loss in Los Angeles, the Raiders look to get another win after dropping a tough loss to the Bears.