They heard the headlines all week long.
After tying the Houston Texans in Week 1 and dropping to the Jacksonville Jaguars in Week 2, everything was called into question with the Indianapolis Colts.
Why couldn’t this Colts defense, who added former Pro Bowlers in multiple spots, handle the lowly Texans and Jaguars? Was the trade for Matt Ryan a mistake? What was wrong with the highly-paid offensive line? Were Chris Ballard and Frank Reich on the hot seat?
The questions, harsh as they have been, were warranted after the slow 0-1-1 start. And on top of everything, the mighty Kansas City Chiefs were coming to town looking to stay undefeated.
So, in typical Colts fashion, they played their best ball against the best teams, grabbing a 20-17 victory over one of the Super Bowl favorites in Lucas Oil Stadium.
“Great team win,” Reich said after the game. “What we were talking about in (the locker room) a minute ago was just the ultimate team win in all three phases. We’ve said kind of coming into this year, that’s the kind of team we feel like we have, that we can be good in all three phases. That’s what it takes to beat a team like the Kansas City Chiefs, and that’s what we got today.”
All three phases had a major impact in the win over the Chiefs. It was a total team effort for the Colts to finally get their first win of the season.
Special teams got things started for the Colts. After a three-and-out to start the game by the Colts offense, Matt Haack punted the ball deep in Chiefs territory where it was muffed by returner Skyy Moore. The Colts recovered the muffed punt, setting up the first touchdown of the day from Ryan to rookie Jelani Woods. Special teams did not stop there. Kick and punt coverage was solid all day for the Colts, not allowing a Chiefs’ return man to get free. When the Chiefs tried to catch the Colts off guard with a fake field goal in the fourth quarter, Indy was not fooled and did not allow the conversion.
While special teams got things started, the defense carried the Colts on Sunday. With Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce leading the way, the Chiefs offense can quickly turn a football game into a track meet. The Colts’ defensive unit made things tough for the former MVP all day long.
“I feel like we did a great job of just creating pressure with the four guys up front the majority of the game, causing (Mahomes) to get out of the pocket.” DeForest Buckner said. “The guys on the back end did a great job of plastering, forcing him to throw some really big throws and ended up incompleting some big drives. For the most part, the entire defense as a whole, did good today.”
While the Colts only sacked Mahomes once on the day, they created more pressure than they have the entire season.
Yannick Ngakoue captured the lone sack, his first as a Colt, and forced Mahomes off his spot with numerous pressures. Kwity Paye and Buckner contributed as well, making Mahomes scramble around as he tried to make plays. The fact that the Colts were able to manufacture the pressure by only rushing their front four for the majority of the game allowed the rest of the defense to focus on coverage down the field.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone rush Mahomes that well,” Reich said. “Even though it might have only been one sack, but we had him on the run. We had him in the well. He didn’t escape and make a bunch of big plays. Real credit to our D-line and our defense and what we did there.”
The Colts held the Chiefs to 17 points, including just three in the second half, their fewest since last November. Led by Grover Stewart in the middle, the defense continued to stuff the run as the Chiefs only had 58 yards on 23 carries (2.5 ypc.) Mahomes was 20-of-35 for 262 yards, one touchdown, and one interception. But the group that would ultimately need to come through to win the game was the offense. The unit that has faced the most scrutiny early in the season would be relied upon to put the game away and give the Colts their first win of the year.