Colts Looking Ahead With Confidence

It doesn’t take much time to move on in the NFL.

The Indianapolis Colts’ locker-room routine starts with a post-game speech from head coach Frank Reich. For a third consecutive Sunday, the message to triumphant players was upbeat and positive after a 19-11 road win over the Chicago Bears at Soldier Field.

After a quick shower, quarterback Philip Rivers put on his “nunc coepi” cap and was the first player to address the media in a Zoom video conference call.

But at some point, Rivers checked out how his next opponent played. The 17th-year pro knows the Cleveland Browns were impressive in a 49-38 road win over the Dallas Cowboys. And he’s aware of much more than that.

Although the rule is to celebrate a win for 24 hours, then shift the focus to the next game, Rivers is ahead of the game.

“Yeah, they scored 49 points,” Rivers said of the Browns. “I saw that in Dallas, and Dallas had about 25,000 (fans) there. So Cleveland's off to, I don't know the exact how many years, but best start in probably over 20-something years.”

The Browns, who like the Colts are 3-1, are off to their best start since 2001. The Colts haven’t been 3-1 since 2013. Both have won three in a row entering Sunday’s game at Cleveland.

“So they got it going pretty good right now,” Rivers said. “They're scoring a lot of points, going to have to zero in on that defense. Obviously, a new staff there as well. We played Cleveland last year, but since then, that was a Greg Williams' defense. I think Joe Woods is there now, so it will be a different defense. But it will be a heck of a challenge at Cleveland. Two 3-1 teams here before we come home for one before the bye.”

From the moment players arrive in this league, they are expected to have a singular focus each week. Looking ahead so quickly after a game seems like a deviation from the routine. Rivers likes to equate the grind to a 16-round boxing match, one round for each regular-season game. It’s an analogy that Reich has liked enough to share with the media.

Thanks in large part to a smothering No. 1-ranked defense, which didn’t allow a touchdown until inside the final two minutes on Sunday, the Colts flew home with an air of confidence. Rivers and the offense did its part against a solid Bears defense with a 13-yard touchdown pass to tight end Mo Alie-Cox in the first quarter, then four Rodrigo Blankenship field goals.

The Colts’ 19 points were a season-low, but enough to get the job done. Rivers knows from checking out the Browns game that the Colts will probably need to score more next game. The Browns have scored 118 points in their three wins. It’s the first time since 1968 that they’ve scored 30 points in three consecutive games. They had 31 points by halftime at Dallas.

“Just keep that 1-0 mentality, enjoy this one,” Rivers said. “The locker room is excited about the win. It's a little different here. We're split into two different locker rooms, the defensive locker room and the offensive locker room, due to the amount of numbers we can have. So a little different feel. But I think what this locker room does is they expect to win. We expect to win ... not in an arrogant way, but I think we expect to win.

“So I think it's a good deal, guys are focused, guys are excited about a win. You only get 16, so they're hard. They're hard to come by. You never take them for granted. But we'll enjoy it for about 24 hours and then zero in on Cleveland.”

For a franchise that has been to the playoffs only once in five years, the 3-1 start is encouraging, especially after bouncing back from a disappointing 27-20 opening loss at Jacksonville, where the Colts were eight-point road favorites.

How quickly NFL paths can change. The Jaguars haven’t won again, losing three consecutive games.

Rivers has had only one interception in the winning streak — and it wasn’t his fault, the pass hit Alie-Cox in the hands and deflected to a defender in Week 2. Because Rivers had 20 interceptions last season with the L.A. Chargers, there were concerns after he threw two bad interceptions at Jacksonville.

The 38-year-old passer has been an efficient game manager in the three wins, relying on a steady rushing game that has been more workmanlike than off-the-charts productive. He’s thrown a lot of short-range passes to his running backs — 31 of his 88 completions, to be exact.

What’s been most surprising is the emergence of Alie-Cox, a third-year reserve thrust into a prominent role with Pro Bowl tight end Jack Doyle missing a start due to ankle/knee injuries. Alie-Cox leads the Colts with 194 receiving yards and two TDs. That’s on 11 receptions, which translates to a 17.6-yard average.

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With all due respect to the offense, the reason for so much optimism starts with a defense that has allowed 11 or fewer points in the three wins. The offseason acquisition of All-Pro defensive tackle DeForest Buckner has paid immediate dividends. He’s been throwing blockers around, drawing double teams, and creating winnable one-on-ones for his defensive linemen. A secondary that has been lacking in the past is improved with veteran Xavier Rhodes playing well in the winning streak.

The fact that the Colts lost All-Pro linebacker and leading tackler Darius Leonard to a groin injury for the second half on Sunday, yet still finished off the Bears impressively was an undeniable statement. It’s not that anyone is suggesting the Bears were as good as their previous 3-0 record, but this was a solid Colts road victory in which everything didn’t go to plan. Were it not for a late TD pass inside of two minutes, the Colts were looking at another double-digit win.

Reich and linebacker Anthony Walker were asked when they sensed this defense could be special.

“You probably will call me crazy, but I felt that Week 1,” Walker said. “Obviously we didn't go out there and put it on display, but again we felt like we were a couple of plays, a couple of communication breakdowns by myself, from myself, that I felt that if that doesn't happen, we go out there and we dominate that football game as well. So again it starts up front, it starts with the linebackers, we have to get the defense set and everything like that and then we feel that if we're all playing on, all 11 playing on the same page we'll be fine.”

Reich said he saw the potential earlier than that.

“Yeah, I don't want to sound crazy, but I did see this coming,” the coach said. “I've been so fired up about our defense from day one. The way we looked in camp. I look at our personnel. I look at our coaches and I look at our schemes on defense. I think they fit our players. I felt good about our defense from day one. I felt like it was going to be really good.”

Another reality is the Colts’ toughest opponents are still ahead. They have to host the Baltimore Ravens and Green Bay Packers in addition to a road game against the Pittsburgh Steelers. Quarterbacks Lamar Jackson, Aaron Rodgers, and Ben Roethlisberger are far better than who the Colts have faced.

An argument could be made that the Browns pose a similar challenge because quarterback Baker Mayfield has dangerous weapons, starting with wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr., who caught two TD passes and ran for another score against the Cowboys.

As the saying goes, Sunday was only one game. Today is a new week. A 3-1 start is just that, a start.

Regardless of the Browns result, the early schedule is favorable with a home game against the Cincinnati Bengals (1-2-1), a bye week, and a road game against the Detroit Lions (1-3).

If the Colts are a legit playoff team, and this defense is as strong as it has shown so far, they should be able to sustain some momentum. Then we’ll see how they fare against the tougher tests down the road.

“It's early, I mean, they're playing great,” Reich said of the defense. “It's four games into it, and the defense is playing really, really good football right now, but we got to keep the pressure on. Obviously, we play an explosive offense next week, so that will be a good test for us.”

For now, it’s a good Monday when we can be encouraged about the possibilities in a long season.

In keeping with how quickly Rivers moves on, and not getting too ahead of ourselves in thinking about the NFL big picture, nobody needs to look past the next opponent.

(Phillip B. Wilson has covered the Indianapolis Colts for more than two decades and authored the 2013 book 100 Things Colts Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die. He’s on Twitter @pwilson24, on Facebook at @allcoltswithphilb and @100thingscoltsfans, and his email is phillipbwilson24@yahoo.com.)

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