The Indianapolis Colts offense has struggled to find consistency, but where they’ve excelled through three games is in generating explosive plays.
According to Football Insights, the Colts have generated an explosive play on 13.2 percent of their offensive plays. This is the second-highest rate in football, only trailing the Green Bay Packers at 14.1 percent.
An explosive play is defined as a rush of 10-plus yards or a pass of 20 or more yards.
These big plays are where the bulk of the Colts’ production on offense has come from up to this point. Anthony Richardson has been very willing to push the ball downfield, ranking fifth in pass attempts of 20-plus yards, and as a result of that, fourth in yards on those throws.
In the run game, behind a stout offensive line, Jonathan Taylor has eight rushes of 10 or more yards, which is tied for the third-most. He also has six carries of at least 15 yards, which is the most in football, per PFF.
While all of this is great, the issue for the Colts’ offense, particularly in the passing game, is the inconsistency on non-downfield throws. Whether it be from inaccurate throws, dropped passes, a failure in contested catch situations, Richardson has completed just 49.3 percent of his overall pass attempts.
This makes it difficult to move the ball with any sort of consistency, resulting in short drives for the offense and, in general, a lack of scoring opportunities.
It’s been a very boom or bust start to the season for the Colts’ offense. The good news, is that explosive plays can certainly lead to points and the ability to hit on those plays can alter how a defense defends this Colts offense.
However, on the flip side, it’s the ability to get ahead of the sticks on early downs and taking advantage of the short to intermediate routes that allows an offense to sustain drives. And that is something that has eluded the Colts so far.