Colts Start The Season On Sour Note, With “clunker” Home Loss To Baltimore

It’s one game, but if the Indianapolis Colts lay a few more consecutive “clunkers” like that, and the already hot seats of both longtime general manager Chris Ballard and head coach Shane Steichen will only get hotter in-season.

The Colts got off to an early start on Sunday afternoon with an offensive touchdown (with a missed PAT) on their opening offensive drive, but after that, it was all Baltimore beating and bruising up the Colts—to the tune of Indianapolis surrendering 500+ total offensive yards defensively.

The final score may have read 41-23, but this one was already over at halftime with the Ravens up 31-13.

In particular, the Ravens top offensive playmaker duo of Derrick Henry and Zay Flowers had huge afternoons against the Colts. Henry looked like he in the middle of his playing career prime as an All-Pro running back for the Tennessee Titans again, crushing the Colts to the tune of 144 total rushing yards and 3 rushing touchdowns, while debuting slot Justin Walley was no match for Flowers, who went off with 5 receptions for 150 total receiving yards and a touchdown reception. Let’s just be glad that Henry isn’t in the AFC South anymore!

Colts team owner and CEO Carlie Irsay-Gordon has already stated this early offseason that there’s never been a greater sense of urgency regarding this team and her top football lieutenants, but their Week 1 ‘laugher’ of a showing against the Ravens didn’t do much to instill confidence that this regime remains the right recipe for success for the franchise going forward.

It’s early, and the Colts still have the next few weeks to “round into better form,” albeit against a very tough early season schedule by virtue of playing both the Kansas City Chiefs and Houston Texans next up in back-to-back weeks. I agree that with NFL teams playing starters very little in preseason games these days, it takes at least a few weeks to know who your team really is from a talent, execution, and identity standpoint, but Indianapolis doesn’t have the luxury of a soft initial schedule to ease into finding that best version of themselves.

The offense and field position battle also didn’t do the Colts any favors, as a Daniel Jones interception and Jonathan Taylor fumble lost swayed the scales in favor of Baltimore. The Colts were constantly behind the 8-ball regarding beginning their offensive drives, only adding to their ineptitude.

If they aren’t careful, they could very well dig themselves into an initial hole and begin the 2026 campaign at 0-3, and given the results on Sunday, they may not be good enough to dig themselves out of as far as future AFC playoff contention is concerned. They need to put themselves in position to be successful later on this season, when their schedule thankfully lightens up a bit.

That opener showing at Lucas Oil Stadium in front of their own home fans left A LOT to be desired.

I wouldn’t say that NFL opening day carries the same significance as within the MLB among diehard fans, but at the same time, they’ve got to come out more prepared than that. That was flat out embarrassing.

As veteran former Pro Bowl defensive tackle DeForest Buckner eloquently stated post-game, “Plain and simple. We got our ass whooped.”

Which fine, every NFL team can lay an egg here and there, especially when you’re shaking off initial offseason rust, but there’s real concern right now, that this could be less of an aberration and more of the Colts’ new norm.