The Indianapolis Colts are on the road for their second game of week two, Sunday at 1:00 p.m. EST, against the Green Bay Packers.

Last week, our Colts lost to a Houston Texans team that dominated the game on both sides of the ball. This week, the Packers will look to do the same, as they are without their starting quarterback Jordan Love (knee). In his place is former Tennessee Titan Malik Willis. Willis was traded to the Packers 20 days ago in exchange for a seventh-round pick. And if your alarm bells were ringing because you realized that 20 days is not enough time to feel confident on offense on a new team in the NFL, then your alarm bells are working just fine. There is not enough time.

So the Packers will no doubt try to limit the risk Willis’ passes pose. Fortunately for the Packers, they signed running back Josh Jacobs in the offseason, and this week the reeling Colts defense should expect a heavy dose of the 2022 NFL rushing champion.

The most dangerous aspect of Willis’ game will come through his legs. Not only his ability to run, but also to buy time, run around and have his receivers run the running drill and get loose way down the field – it looks a lot like backyard football and Willis has the skills to make defenses very difficult against that style of play. The Colts’ defensive line will have to do a good job of holding the rush lanes and keeping Willis in check. If they can force him to step up, the hope is that DeForest Buckner will be healthy enough to crowd the pocket and force Willis into sacks and bad decisions.

For the second straight week, the Colts’ defensive hopes will hinge on the ability of the front seven to stop the run and pressure the passer. Even though the Colts will be without CB1 Juju Brents for the remainder of the season and star safety Julian Blackmon for the first time this season, the defensive backfield probably won’t be a problem on paper this week, if only because of the opposing quarterback’s circumstances.

Offensively, the Colts hope to establish more consistent ball movement. While 60-yard bombs are a lot (and I mean, incredibly fun), it’s difficult to build an offense around them, even when the quarterback is so unique. So establishing drives in between all the explosive plays will be of utmost importance.

We should all be hoping that Anthony Richardson and his receivers are starting to get on the same page, while the offense hopefully gets into a rhythm. If he and Ad Mitchell are on the same page, this matchup could be very exciting, as Mitchell seemed completely untrackable in Week 1. While the offensive line was largely fine, the running game never got going (for a number of reasons, and this isn’t the article for that explanation), but like the passing game, we should start to see signs of improvement this week. Then again, this is only Anthony Richardson’s second road game in the NFL, and it’s at Lambeau Field. We’re hoping for progress, but we should also understand that progress isn’t linear, and a step back this week, while disappointing, wouldn’t be surprising.

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