5 Biggest Takeaways from Indianapolis Colts' Week 1 Loss

Whenever a team loses in Week 1, especially in rather lopsided fashion, the reaction can get a little extreme.

For the Indianapolis Colts, that was certainly the case after a 27-14 loss to the Buffalo Bills on Sunday. The Colts have been propped up as Super Bowl contenders all offseason, so opening the game with a 24-0 deficit was shocking to many and affirmingly satisfying for those who didn't trust Indianapolis.

Whether it's continuing to blow smoke about the "growing rift" between head coach Chuck Pagano and general manager Ryan Grigson or proclaiming that the offseason was a total waste, the takes have been scorching among Indianapolis media to start the week.

But it's only Week 1, and overreaction isn't helping anybody. So let's take a look at the Colts' depressing loss and figure out what we can actually learn from it.

The Colts Still Need Andrew Luck at His Best

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The biggest reminder from Sunday's performance was that the Colts are still a team that revolves around Andrew Luck. This shouldn't be a surprise by any means, but the loss to the Bills put an exclamation point on the subject. 

Luck was slightly off on Sunday, spraying balls around the field as his accuracy varied. It's not a totally uncommon thing from Luck, who has had two or three games like that every season. If he's to become one of the league's elite quarterback, someone who approaches the level of someone like Aaron Rodgers, he'll have to cut down on those days, but for now, it's not particularly concerning.

But against a team like Buffalo, it is simply too much for the Colts to overcome. Between the talent of the Bills front seven and the crazy blitzes Rex Ryan had cooked up, the Colts' only chance of offensive success was for Luck to find the holes and exploit them. He found them a few times, but had just a few too many throws fall short.

This was especially true early on, when he missed T.Y. Hilton deep twice on underthrown balls, plays that could have made the Bills back off on their blitz-heavy game plan.

The Colts are not built to grind a game out on the ground against a defense like that, nor is their defense the type that can win without significant offensive help. The Colts are built around Luck, and if he has an off day, it affects everybody.

The Bills Defense Is Really, Really Good

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Even if Luck had been on his game, the Colts were going to find moving the ball in Buffalo difficult.

The Bills had one of the league's top two defenses last season, finishing second in Football Outsiders' DVOA metric, including a No. 1 overall ranking against the pass.

If Sunday's game was any indication, Rex Ryan is going to have a lot of fun this year, and Buffalo might just finish the season as the league's top unit. With a plethora of talent rushing the passer, lightning-quick linebackers and a secondary that employs physical coverage for just long enough, the Bills had everything rolling for them.

Last year, the Bills allowed just two quarterbacks to have a positive TD-INT ratio at home: Tom Brady and Philip Rivers. Those two quarterbacks were also the only ones to lead their teams to more than 17 points in Buffalo.

Remember, Aaron Rodgers completed just 40 percent of his passes, threw for just 185 yards and threw two interceptions without a touchdown in a 13-21 loss last December.

The Bills are an extremely talented team. The Colts offense will be fine in the long run.

There Are Bright Spots on the Defensive Line

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Despite the faulty narrative that the Bills ran over Indianapolis on Sunday, the Colts defensive line actually looked pretty stout.

The team allowed the Bills to gain more than a third of their total rushing yards on two plays: a 31-yard scramble by Tyrod Taylor and a 26-yard touchdown run by Karlos Williams at the end of the second half. Both of those plays occurred because of missed tackles by linebackers and defensive backs rather than poor defensive line play.

Kendall Langford had two tackles for a loss and continues to look like a perfect fit. He hasn't quite shown the pass rush that Cory Redding had at his peak, but he has seamlessly taken over the 5-tech role in run defense. David Parry manned the middle of the defense at nose tackle and had two quarterback pressures, according to Pro Football Focus.

But the real star of the day was Henry Anderson, who had nine tackles. Five of those stops were defensive stops (failures for the offense), the most in the league on Sunday, according to Pro Football Focus.

A popular narrative has been that the Colts didn't attempt to upgrade the defensive line at all this offseason, instead spending all their resources on offensive skill players. That, of course, ignores the $17.2 million contract given to Langford and the two picks spent on Anderson and Parry. The defensive line has an entirely new starting lineup, and the early returns were encouraging on Sunday.

The Colts Really Need T.Y. Hilton to Be Healthy

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T.Y. Hilton is Andrew Luck's favorite target, and for good reason. He's easily the best receiver on the Colts roster, the only one that consistently gets open and doesn't rely on contested catches to produce.

That's a big key for Andrew Luck, who would much rather throw to open receivers than throw into small windows where receivers have to make big plays. He and Hilton have a fantastic chemistry because of this, and it's resulted in countless big plays over the last three years.

But Hilton suffered a knee bruise on Sunday that kept him out of the final quarter, and it could keep him out longer.

According to Mike Wells of ESPN.com, Hilton is day-to-day, but could miss some time. His status for the Monday night game against the New York Jets next week is unknown.

If Hilton isn't healthy, the Colts' strong receiving corps takes a big hit. Andre Johnson looked his age on Sunday, with a big drop on a two-point conversion and some sluggish route running. Donte Moncrief was productive, but also still needs some refinement, with a costly step out of bounds that stalled a drive early and a few contested balls late that he failed to come up with.

Then there was the rookie, Phillip Dorsett, who fumbled two punts. Dorsett could contribute offensively quite a bit in Hilton's role, but Sunday was a rough debut.

The team might be able to survive a game or two without Hilton, but its Super Bowl hopes would take a severe hit without the fourth-year receiver.

Where Is the Discipline?

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For the most part, I didn't think the Colts coaches had a poor game. The loss didn't really have anything to do with the game plan, and Chuck Pagano was adequately aggressive, for the most part.

But if someone were to disparage the coaching staff for something, it would have to be the team's lack of discipline and sharp play.

The Colts made small mistakes all game, and those mistakes snowballed into a 24-0 deficit in the second half.

Those mistakes included, but were not limited to:

• 13 missed tackles, per Pro Football Focus
• Drive-killing penalties, especially in the first half
• Poor execution from wide receivers, including drops (Andre Johnson), poor footing on the sideline (Donte Moncrief) and inability to win contested balls (everybody)
• A missed field goal

The Colts simply weren't sharp, in all three phases. That's up to the players, on one hand, but it's also a coaching issue. It's a coaches job to have a team prepared and ready to play at the highest level on game day. The Colts didn't seem unprepared from a game-plan perspective, but execution and discipline was completely missing.

This wouldn't be an issue if it was a one-time thing. But the Colts have had a disturbing trend under Pagano, which is to start slow. It is especially notable during big, prime-time games, like the Colts' losses to New England, Pittsburgh, Denver and Dallas last season.

If the Colts are to make a deep postseason run, Pagano has to have the team ready to play at kickoff, not halftime.