Five Takeaways: Indianapolis Colts Vs. Baltimore Ravens

After a two-week break playing against AFC South competition. the Indianapolis Colts had to take on a real NFL team this week. The Colts managed to beat the Ravens but the score was much less of a blowout (20-13) than in previous weeks. However, when watching the game it felt like the Colts were on their way to a blowout but had struggled to put the game away due to untimely turnovers and some questionable calls/no-calls.

Andrew Luck MVP?:

After two weeks of Andrew Luck tearing up the Jaguars’ and Titans’ secondary, people started to talk about him as a legitimate MVP candidate. While Luck could end up winning the award at the end of the season, he is going to have to play better than he did last week.  For three quarters, Luck struggled to put up points, throw outside the hash mark and was making some questionable decision that left yards on the field.  In the third quarter, Luck threw an awful pick in the Ravens red zone when a touchdown would have probably put the game away. After that pick we saw Luck play nearly flawless in the fourth quarter like he has done so many times before.  Luck threw for 128 yards completing 7 of his 8 passes and added a rushing touchdown. If Luck wants to win the MVP award he is going to need to play a lot closer to his fourth quarter performance throughout the season to compete with the other candidates.

Pass rush has arrived:

If you read these recaps and my season prediction you would know that I don’t think the Colts have much of a pass rush. You would also know that getting a few sacks isn’t enough but the pass rushers also need to try to create constant pressure. Even getting the quarterback to move off of his spot and reset can be a huge boost for a defense. In this game, the Colts managed to sack Joe Flacco four times but it was the consistent pressure that made him uncomfortable. The Colts utilized blitzes and stunts to help create this pressure. Bjoern Werner also had his best game as a Colt and it showed up in the box score. Werner got two sacks and while one was the result of Cory Redding creating pressure, his other sack he straight up beat rookie UDFA James Hurst. Cory Redding continued to prove that he is the Colts best pass rusher as he continued to get pressure all game which led to negative plays for the Ravens and even ended up getting a sack on his former team. Even though Werner and Redding stood out the most, this was truly a team effort and something that I hope can continue as the season progresses.

No Fly Zone balls out:

Last season the Colts secondary gave themselves their own nickname and the result was the “No Fly Zone”. However, other teams didn’t end up finding it to be that hard to pass on that Colts unit. So far this year that seems to be changing and the Colts secondary had another positive game. I already mentioned how much Manusky and Pagano blitzed Flacco but they wouldn’t be able to do that if it wasn’t for the way the secondary played. Vontae Davis continued to show that he was deserving of the contract the Colts gave him as he shut down the receiver he was covering for most of the game and even recorded his second pick of the year. Greg Toler and Darius Butler also had excellent coverage for most of this game. The defense held the Ravens top three receivers to only 102 yards. The biggest surprise of this game was Sergio Brown who was filling in for the suspended LaRon Landry. Brown played better in this game than Landry has in almost a season and a half with the Colts. The biggest difference that I noticed was the way that Brown approached the game. Instead of running around wild and taking poor angles like Landry is accustomed to doing, Brown played with control and showed a good understanding about how to play the position. He took good angles to the ball, was able to wrap up tackles and didn’t look completely lost in coverage. If Brown continues to play at this level for the next three weeks I see no reason that he should lose his job to Landry.

Where is Shipley?:

Coming into this season, one of the Colts’ biggest concerns was the interior offensive line and who would play center. It seemed like Khaled Holmes would get the start but then he suffered an injury in the first preseason game. This led to A.Q. Shipley getting the start in the Colts season opener. Most people didn’t expect much from Shipley but after four weeks of the season, Pro Football Focus (PFF) had him rated as their No. 3 center. PFF (subscription required) grades are not perfect but you would think that the Colts would have to be happy about the upgrade they had found at center. Instead the Colts benched Shipley this week in favor of rookie UDFA Jonathan Harrison. Harrison didn’t have a bad day blocking, especially for his first ever game but he did struggle with the snap a few times. Chuck Pagano has yet to answer why the switch was made but some suspect that they wanted to get the potential center of the future some snaps. If that is the case my only question would be, why not play him against weaker competition in the last two weeks rather than against one of the better front sevens in football?

Playoffs?!?!

It may be too early to talk about the playoffs but that won’t stop me. After this weeks win the Colts moved into a tie for first place in the AFC South with the Houston Texans. After Thursday night’s game against the Texans, I expect the Colts to be the only team on top of the AFC South until at least next year. This would suggest that the Colts are going to be playing in at least one playoff game and this Sunday was a good test for those games. The Ravens should win their division or be one of the two-wildcard teams and this week the Colts outplayed them. In fact, at a few points in this game the Colts had a chance to turn it into a blowout. Before the game a lot of analysts had said that this game would be a litmus test for the Colts and I believe they passed. The Colts showed that they are good enough to beat playoff teams and can even go through stretches of dominance against those teams.