Jets vs. Colts: What's the Game Plan for Indianapolis?

Expectations were sky high for the Indianapolis Colts heading into this season, with this being the year many were expecting a breakout performance in the playoffs from Andrew Luck and company.

But after just one week it feels like it might be better to pump the breaks on crowning the Colts as Super Bowl favorites. A 27-14 loss to Buffalo, which wasn’t even that close, exposed a lot of the problems on the Indianapolis roster that teams will be looking to exploit moving forward.

Now, a Monday night matchup with the New York Jets looms large and surprisingly vital for Chuck Pagano and company, who need a win to regain some confidence for the long season ahead. How do the Colts go about avoiding their second straight loss to start the season? Let’s take a look at the game plan for the AFC South outfit.

Offensive game plan

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Make the Jets pay when they blitz. It’s such a simple idea that should already be a part of the game plan for the Colts offensively, but after last week, it's hard to tell if the Indianapolis coaching staff ever considered whether succeeding against the blitz was an option.

It became pretty apparent in Week 1 that the Colts offensive line, which was expected to be a bit of a weak point for the Super Bowl contenders, wasn’t just weak. It was flat out bad. Rex Ryan blitzed time and time again and prevented Andrew Luck from creating anything offensively, costing Indianapolis any chance it had at a positive start to the season.

The impact was felt throughout the team. The running backs were unable to do anything, the receivers were forced to run shorter and shorter routes to give Luck an outlet to throw the ball to, a strategy that succeeded later in the game but not enough to mount a comeback.

Against the Jets, who won’t blitz as much but will surely blitz still, the receivers getting separation on short routes and Luck getting even a fraction of a second longer in the pocket could make all the difference in the world in the final outcome of the game.

T.Y. Hilton possibly returning would be huge, but with or without him the Colts need to find a way to handle the blitz better and make the Jets second guess themselves whenever they send extra pressure.

Defensive game plan

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Last week, despite what the final score might have suggested, the Colts weren’t terrible in every phase of defense against the Bills. They did a decent job shutting down LeSean McCoy and the rushing attack despite an inexperienced defensive line.

But for everything the defensive line did right, the secondary did wrong 10-fold. Vontae Davis was great, like always, in shutting down Sammy Watkins but the rest of the defensive backs struggled throughout, allowing Percy Harvin to have a field day.

This week the Colts will be tasked with shutting down a much better pair of receivers in Brandon Marshall and Eric Decker, one of whom Davis will presumably match up with leaving the other to the rest of the very thin secondary.

Odds are Davis gets Marshall, leaving Decker, an underappreciated talent at wide receiver, as the biggest threat to the Colts defensively. The running game for the Jets is a focal point, but there isn’t nearly as much talent as in Buffalo from the running back or quarterback and the threat should be significantly muted, making it easier to focus on stopping the pass.

However they go about it, the Colts can’t let Ryan Fitzpatrick do to them what Taylor did in Week 1 and have to find a way to slow down the talented Jets receivers if they hope to avoid a two-game losing streak to start the year.

Key Players and matchups

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WR Donte Moncrief

T.Y. Hilton is the star and was the headline-grabber after going out injured last week, but it was Donte Moncrief that stood out from the rest of the wide receivers against the Buffalo Bills. Once the Colts figured out a way to find a little success against the blitz, it was more often than not a shallow pass to Moncrief.

Recording six catches for 46 yards and a touchdown, Moncrief was the bright spot when things were dark. Whether or not Hilton returns Monday, the second year receiver needs to play well for the Colts to have a shot at a victory. He’s the third receiver in a loaded unit, but he has the potential to break a game at any time.

TE Dwayne Allen

Since joining the league with Luck in 2012 the Colts tight ends Coby Fleener and Dwayne Allen have paired high expectations with disappointing results. As the team’s second and third-round picks, the two have not yet been the weapons envisioned for Indianapolis and in their fourth year in the league a step forward needs to come sooner rather than later.

But while the duo haven’t exactly lived up to the hype just yet there have been flashes of potential, with Allen taking the spotlight in Week 1. He found the end zone and recorded three catches. Whether it be as a lineman or a receiver, Allen is another player who needs to step up if the Colts are to avoid an upset for the second consecutive week.

CB Vontae Davis

The Colts were already thin in the defensive secondary heading into the season, but this is starting to get ridiculous. Greg Toler hasn’t practiced in quite some time and missed Week 1 against the Bills. D’Joun Smith was placed on IR-return this week, per Josh Alper of Pro Football Talk, and now Darius Butler is sitting out practices with a hip injury.

Butler and Toler haven’t been ruled out, but if both miss the game or are limited, it becomes that much more important that Vontae Davis shuts down whichever receiver he is matched up with like he did to Sammy Watkins.

Davis is one of the best cornerbacks in the league and should be fine whether he gets Brandon Marshall or Eric Decker, but if he struggles at all it could be another long day for Indianapolis.

DE Kendall Langford

A surprisingly good performance from the young Colts defensive line was one of the highlights of the defeat at the hands of the Bills, and a repeat is needed in the Monday night matchup with the Jets.

The rookie pair of former-Stanford stars David Parry and Henry Anderson were both good in their debuts, but defensive end Kendall Langford is set for a big game against the Jets. Ryan Fitzpatrick shouldn’t be able to escape from the big end like Tyrod Taylor did and that little bit of extra pressure will be huge in stopping the New York offense.

Prediction

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The Colts can’t lose back-to-back games against teams with good defenses propping up mediocre offenses with quarterbacks who are, at best, stopgaps before finding a signal-caller of the future, right?

There are a lot of similarities between the Bills, who shocked the league with a thorough shellacking of the Colts in Week 1, and the Jets, but it is the differences that should tell in the Monday night matchup.

A lack of a running threat from the quarterback and, despite Chris Ivory being one of the most underrated running backs in the league, no ball-carrier quite at the same level as LeSean McCoy, the Colts will be able to focus more on shutting down Ryan Fitzpatrick and the passing game, which should keep the defensive backs from getting torched again.

More importantly, though, odds are the Jets aren’t going to blitz quite as much as Rex Ryan did last week and the Colts offensive line should look much better, giving Andrew Luck time in the pocket to find his receivers.

It will be hard fought once again, but the Colts learned their lesson in embarrassing fashion last week and will be ready to play when New York comes to town.

Colts 21 Jets 17