The Indianapolis Colts are still living in the aftermath of a truly disappointing start to the new NFL season, suffering a blowout loss to the Baltimore Ravens. As one legendary head coach once put it, though, "We're on to Cincinnati." Except, in the Colts' case, they're on to Kansas City.
The Colts will assuredly need more than one week of film study and practice to improve on what broke down on Sunday against the Ravens. While it was nowhere near an offensive success, the bigger problems came on the defensive side of the ball at almost every position.
On offense, Daniel Jones struggled, and his two primary wide receiver targets, Alec Pierce and Josh Downs, combined for just 98 yards and six receptions. It was far and away from how the Colts started last season. One mainstay, however, was Jonathan Taylor, which came as no surprise. Of all the Colts' current troubles, he is not one.
Jonathan Taylor was the one bright spot for the Indianapolis Colts in Week 1
A handful of running backs flew right out of the cannon in their team's first game of the season.
Kenneth Walker exploded for 173 yards in his first appearance with the Chiefs, Jahmyr Gibbs recorded 156 yards for the Detroit Lions in a 21-point comeback win, the Chicago Bears' newly signed DeAndre Swift went for 124 yards and three touchdowns in a blowout, and, of course, Derrick Henry stomped all over the Colts' defense with 144 yards and three of his own touchdowns.
Seven running backs went over 100 yards on the ground in Week 1, and Taylor came up just two yards shy, but that didn't take away from how great he looked. With 98 rushing yards, Taylor also had 23 yards on three receptions, pushing his overall offensive numbers over 100 yards and including two touchdowns.
The most impressive number on Taylor's stat sheet was his 5.2 yards-per-carry average. Much like the Colts' defensive backfield and secondary couldn't contain Henry, the Ravens faced a similar situation: while they kept Taylor under 100 yards, they allowed him to gain over half a first-down yard per carry.
If the Colts had been more competitive on defense and found a way to slow down Henry and Lamar Jackson, Taylor's offensive contributions could have led to a Colts win instead of a massive blowout. Taylor's play could have made a bigger difference for the Colts' offense. Of the Colts' 251 total yards, he accounted for 48.2 percent of their total offense.
After Week 1, it's fair to say that Indianapolis has no early problems with their star running back. Taylor showed up and showed out, immediately making good on the new two-year, $44 million contract extension he signed with the Colts in early August.
The best part of Taylor's opening game was that he didn't even reach 100 yards on the ground and still looked great. Colts fans will see plenty of 100-yard-plus games from Taylor this season, and the Colts will need them.
So while the coaching staff spends this week preparing for Kansas City and figuring out what went wrong against Baltimore, at least they know they have nothing to worry about with their rushing attack.
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