The Colts will look to earn their first win of 2024 on Sunday at Lambeau Field in a game that could be defined by both players in the Green Bay Packers' backfield.

Packers quarterback Jordan Love is questionable to play, but did not practice this week, after sustaining a knee injury late in Green Bay's Week 1 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles in Brazil. Malik Willis, the 2022 third-round draft pick of the Tennessee Titans, will start his fourth career game, and first with the Packers, if Love cannot play on Sunday against the Colts.

Over 12 games (three starts), Willis – who the Packers traded for in August – is 35/67 (52.2 percent) for 350 yards (5.2 yards/attempt) with no touchdowns, three interceptions and a passer rating of 48.7; he's also rushed 32 times for 144 yards (4.5 yards/attempt) with a touchdown.

Don't let those stats fool you, though. No matter who's playing quarterback, the Colts have plenty of respect for the Packers' offense – and that respect begins with LaFleur, who's successfully navigated a thorny quarterback transition to a 56-28 record as Green Bay's head coach.

"He's had a lot of success," head coach Shane Steichen said earlier this week. "Obviously, going from (Aaron) Rodgers, who's a hell of a player and then Love had a ton of success last year at the end of the year – and obviously Week 1. I think he does a really good job of adapting to his players. So, whoever's out there, whether Love plays or Malik plays, we've just got to be ready for either one."

Even if Love were fully healthy, though, the Colts' charge for Week 2 was still going to be stopping the guy lining up in the backfield next to or behind Green Bay's quarterback.

"We're expecting a heavy run game," defensive tackle DeForest Buckner said, "especially with what we put on film last week."

Veteran running back Josh Jacobs, who signed with the Packers as a free agent in March, carried 16 times for 84 yards in Green Bay's Week 1 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles. His average of 5.3 yards per carry was the same as Houston Texans running back Joe Mixon churned out on 30 carries against the Colts in Week 1, with his success on the ground one of the defining storylines of the Colts' season-opening defeat.

"Obviously, they had some success on Sunday moving the ball on the ground," linebacker Zaire Franklin said. "Some of it was by design, some of it was Mixon being a good player. So, we've just got to be better on Sunday against Green Bay."

Defensive coordinator Gus Bradley said the Colts' focus in Week 1 was to limit explosive plays through the air and put pressure on quarterback C.J. Stroud, which for the most part worked: Stroud completed only two passes that traveled at least 20 yards beyond the line of scrimmage. That left the Colts' defense to defend the run with several light boxes (six defenders, instead of a standard seven or loaded eight), and Houston was able to take advantage of those in a way Bradley said was "disappointing," especially late in the game.

The Texans rushed 14 times for 72 yards (5.1 yards/attempt) in the fourth quarter.

"It switched to where if you would had told me before the game, they're going to have 35 carries in the game running the ball – they did a good job. I would not have thought that," Bradley said. "I would not have thought that. Now, the time of possession was, what 40 minutes to 20 minutes? So, when you have that many plays, 80 plays, to run the ball that many times, it could happen. But I think for us, at halftime, they had 70 yards rushing. They gave me the stats and I was fine with that part of it – with the style that we were playing and how aggressive we were trying to get pressure on the quarterback. But it was the end part that was disappointing where we didn't get some stops when we needed it."

The Colts, though, are confident in their defensive front's ability to rebound – this is a veteran group that ranked 10th in rushing yards per play allowed in 2023 and fifth in 2022. But they also acknowledge that rebound has to happen in Week 2 against a Packers team with an experienced, talented rusher in Jacobs and an offense that's built on running the ball.

"We know that we can defend the run when we do things properly," Bradley said. "We missed some tackles in the last quarter that need to be made. So, we've got to do a better job of tackling, better job of edge setting.

"... They're a committed run team. They want to run the ball and have play-action off of it, but we've got to be at our best in terms of run game, and we've got to get this corrected and we will."

The larger point here is with Willis potentially making his first start in Green Bay, and his first start since 2022, the Packers very well could lean on their run game to ease their 25-year-old quarterback into the game. It's a small sample size, but on third downs with at least six yards to the sticks, Willis in his career is 7/14 for 68 yards with six sacks and three rushing attempts for seven yards. He's accounted for only one first down on those 23 plays.

Willis, though, is mostly an unknown not just in if he'll play, but how he'll play within LaFleur's offense.

"It's tough, right?" Bradley said. "Like you don't know exactly, are they going to utilize him – some of the skillset that he had from college? Are they going to have him be the quarterback and then say, 'Hey, this is our system. Let's go operate it, but we may throw a few wrinkles or two in there.' So, I think we're looking at him now, just the style of play, the athleticism that he has and the styles of throw that he makes and what he's good at. Then we're getting back to really the scheme that Green Bay is running."

We'll see on Sunday. But the defense's job will be easier – and Love or Willis' job harder – if the Colts can stop the run.