Thursday's Practice Report
Flushing Week 1
As the Colts turned the page from Seattle to Los Angeles - which came after watching film of that 28-16 loss on Monday - they've done so understanding two things: One, that it's still early in a long season; Two, that there's a necessary sense of urgency around here after Week 1.
"Erase the loss we took Sunday, continue to prepare, buy into the process and let everything unfold on its own," wide receiver Zach Pascal said. "We know what we're up against this week. And I have no doubt in my mind that the whole team will come out ready to play."
The Rams throttled the Chicago Bears, 34-14, on Sunday Night Football to open the Matthew Stafford era.
And since the start of the 2018 season, these two things have happened:
- The Colts haven't lost in Week 2.
- The Rams have started each year 2-0.
Barring a tie, one of those streaks will end Sunday at Lucas Oil Stadium.
"You just kind of look at it one week at a time," linebacker Zaire Franklin said. "We always talk about climbing the mountain and win or lose you have to put the prior week behind you. If we would have won by 20 points, yes it would have felt better, we would all be smiling here but at the same time we have to focus back here in on LA. It's the same thing."
Explosive Plays A Focus For Colts
We touched on this early in the week, but a consistent focus for the Colts has been how to generate more explosive plays after managing just one play of 20 or more yards in Week 1 (a 24-yard completion to Parris Campbell).
"We didn't have as many explosive plays as you would want to have," coach Frank Reich said Wednesday. "We checked some things down, as we talked about the other day we had some good screens. We would like to have a few more explosive (plays). We didn't have explosive runs. We normally like getting some explosive runs so we'll try and do better this week."
But here's the challenge the Colts are up against: No team has allowed fewer plays of 20 or more yards since the start of the 2020 season than the Rams, and it's not particularly close. The fewest explosive plays allowed in the last 17 regular season games:
- 56 (Giants)
- 55 (Bucs)
- 50 (Washington)
- 49 (Packers)
- 39 (Rams)
And of those 39 explosive plays, only three were on rushes and only two went for touchdowns (the Saints have the second-lowest 20+ yard touchdowns allowed since 2020 with five; the Seahawks, by the way, are No. 3 with six).
It'll be a challenge, certainly, against a Rams' defense that's schemed to prevent chunk plays. But that's also why it's a focus for the Colts this week, after all.
