The opening drive for Anthony Richardson and the Indianapolis Colts couldn’t have gone much better.
One the Colts opening drive of the game, led by Richardson, the Colts marched 80 yards down the field–and did so very efficiently–for the touchdown.
Richardson finished the drive, completing 7-of-8 passes for 65 yards, and his one incompletion appeared to be a pass that Drew Ogletree probably should have caught in the end zone.
In the passing game on this drive, Shane Steichen used a heavy-dose of play-action to keep the defense off-balanced. And while the overall numbers on this drive for Richardson look great, equally as important was the process component of it.
Off an RPO, Richardson kept the ball and found Michael Pittman on a slant, picking up the first down. On another play, Richardson didn’t see any opportunities on his initial reads, so dumped the ball off to Jonathan Taylor for an eight yard gain.
On a blitz from the Bengals, Richardson went to Pierce–his outlet option–who picked up the first down. Then on the touchdown pass to AD Mitchell, Richardson hung in the pocket as a blitzer closed in, delivering the pass to Mitchell who was crossing the middle on a bit of longer developing route.
It is worth noting that most of the Bengals starters are not playing, but again, for a young quarterback like Richardson, there were a lot of very good moments from a pure execution perspective, which is what you want to see. If that element is consistently done correctly, the results will continue to follow.