The season starts tonight, with the Colts following along at 1:00 on Sunday. We host the Ravens and Fan Duel has the Ravens favored by 3.5. The site also likes the Ravens in the big picture and has them at the 4th shortest odds to win the Super Bowl. They don’t hate the Colts, as 13 teams have longer odds to win the SB, but there is clearly not high expectations for the Colts. How ever you want to slice it, a Colts win on Sunday would be considered an upset.
Win or lose, no one is going to drastically change their minds about how they think the Colts season will unfold. Those who see them as a conference competitor, will continue to think that way with a win. Those who do not have high hopes for the Colts will say that we caught the Ravens and their rookie coach, before they turned into the team that many will predict going to the Super Bowl. Or, they will say that anyone who they consider injury “prone”, will soon go down and seal the Colts fate as a lower tier team.
Those of use who are basing our optimism on the offense being able to produce at or near last year’s early season level, will relish if the Colts put up 30 on the Ravens. We will say that it was against a good D, even though they were not all that good last year. We might also point out that the only piece that was really lost on offense was Pittman and he was easily replaced at a better price. Even if we give up 30 ourselves, all we need is for the defense to have been able to hold them to one point less than we scored and we will still have confidence, since it was against Jackson and Henry.
Now if we look bad taking an L, there will be many “Told ya so’s”. The inability to compete with better teams will be the talk of the day and although the sentiment to axe our GM likely can’t get any greater, it undoubtedly will. The run biltz may still be effective against us and we’ll determine that it always will be. Or, the defensive could get gashed and the lack of pass rush is still the main culprit. Maybe the LBs still can’t cover? Those who are ready to pile on, would have plenty of ammo to do so.
As the optimist, I expect to be happy with Sunday’s outcome. In my opinion, I think the Ravens are only being touted so high, because most think that Jackson will be healthy and return to MVP form. I simply think that it would take more than that for the Ravens to reinsert themselves into champions conversations. I think that they are flawed on the O-line as Luke shared yesterday. I mean, they were excited about Pinter? They will have a rookie starting at Guard, but it doesn’t always go as well as it did for the Colts.
On D, they added the player that many of us wanted in Hendrickson, then drafted another Edge in the 2nd round. The Colts are certainly hoping that a infusion of a few pieces will raise our defensive level, but Ravens were 20th in the league in points allowed and I don’t think they made the kind of hay that will see anyone reminded of the Lewis-Suggs-Reed led teams. As it has also been pointed out, Steichen sort of shredded the Minter led Charger squad last year.
Lastly, we’ve always played the Ravens well. I think their lofty ranking is as much about the fact that the AFC took a step back last year, as highlighted by the Pats representing the conference. I think we will fluster and turn Jackson over a couple of times, maybe more? My only concern is if Shane has instilled the confidence and killer instinct that it takes to win each week. I believe that we are the better team, but it plays a lot better if the team also believes that they are the better squad.
So, what do you think we will be talking about a week from today?
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* [Indianapolis Colts Analysis](/indianapolis-colts-analysis)