One of the narratives emanating from Week 4 – not just here at Colts.com, but nationally – was that the Colts took a good Los Angeles Rams team to the wire and lost by one score, mainly, because of self-inflicted mistakes. It was about as positive as analysis gets following a defeat.
Internally, none of that chatter impacted the Colts much. This is a confident group, and like 31 other teams, they preach an on-to-the-next-one mentality no matter if the previous result was an exhilarating win or a gutting loss.
"I think we're all determined to get back out there and play well," quarterback Daniel Jones said. "I don't think there's an idea that we need to necessarily turn things around. I think it's about getting back to what we do and executing well, learning from what we didn't do as well last week and continuing to improve as a team every week."
Still, for the way those of us non-players and non-coaches think and talk about the 2025 Colts, Sunday's game against the Las Vegas Raiders carries significant weight. Following up a narrow loss to a team widely considered a Super Bowl contender with a win over the 1-3 Raiders would be a sign the Colts are resilient on a week-to-week basis, and that'd be a strong indicator that, yes, a narrow loss to the Rams was more a sign of what the Colts could accomplish this season than a sign of any sort of long-term fault.
The Raiders, despite their record, will present a handful of difficult challenges for the Colts on Sunday. Let's look at a few key ones on each side of the ball:
**When the Colts are on offense**
Since his debut season in 2019, Raiders defensive end Maxx Crosby has the sixth-most sacks (61.5), the most tackles for a loss (112) and the fifth-most quarterback hits (149) in the NFL. He is one of the league's premier defenders, a menace against both the run and pass, and a player whose presence has to be accounted for every time he's on the field.
"I don't have enough words in my vocabulary to describe it," offensive coordinator Jim Bob Cooter said. "He's a force on the field. He's one of the best players in the league, he has been for several years. He's an excellent, excellent football player. He plays just about every single down of the game, and he plays at maximum intensity every single down he's out there. He competes to and through the whistle. If we weren't playing against him, he's a pleasure to watch play football. He's just a great, great football player."
Crosby is an ironman who rarely comes off the field – he played 100 percent of Las Vegas' defensive snaps in 11 of his previous 16 games, and is one of four defensive ends to play over 1,000 snaps in a season (which he did in both 2022 and 2023) since 2020. He has a well-developed arsenal of pass rushing moves and is adept at shedding blocks to make tackles against the run; chipping and double-teaming him sometimes isn't enough.
And even if you think you have Crosby taken care of on a snap, he's an ultimate play-to-the-whistle guy.
"I think just his motor, how hard he plays play in and play out," Jones said when asked what sticks out about Crosby. "I think when you think about all the best players at that position, I think that's the first thing you see, is just how hard they play every single play. He does it as well, if not better than anybody in the league."
The Raiders' defense has done some good things this season – they're 8th in success rate allowed (32.6 percent) and are fourth in tackles for a loss or no gain (27), indicators that it can be difficult to stay in favorable down-and-distances against this group. Which leads us here: The Colts' offense has the NFL's second-highest average yards per play on first down (6.6); the Raiders' defense has the NFL's second-lowest average yards per play allowed on first down (3.5).
While it might seem easy to say which team's strength wins out here on first down will be a key factor on Sunday, that would gloss over what we just covered here – Crosby will be on the field, and even if you get to second and two, his ability to blow up a play – and a drive – needs to be accounted for by the Colts' offense.