5 things to watch in Week 3

A large cloud of doubt is surrounding the Indianapolis Colts as they head into their home opener against the Kansas City Chiefs in Week 3.

After getting shut out against the Jacksonville Jaguars, most analysts tend to believe that KC will end up routing the Colts on Sunday. Indianapolis has a 1-1 record against Kansas City during the Frank Reich era. The loss came in the playoffs of the 2018-19 season. It wasn’t known then, but that game ended up being the final time we would see Andrew Luck play football.

The win came in the following season—after Luck’s retirement—when a Jacoby Brissett-led team surprisingly upset the Chiefs in Arrowhead. KC would later go on and win the Super Bowl.

While the frustrations are at an all-time high during the Reich and Chris Ballard era, their teams have shown up and played great teams tough when outsiders thought they had no chance. Think of when the Colts beat up on the Buffalo Bills last season.

Could that happen at Lucas Oil Stadium? Only time will tell. Here are five things to keep an eye on during the matchup:

1
Will the real offensive line please stand up?

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If Indianapolis is going to improve their offense this early in the season then it comes down to their offensive line. I don’t need to rehash the similar talking point I mentioned prior to the Jags game, but this unit is getting paid too much money to have the struggles they had in Jacksonville.

One of the reasons why people like me thought Matt Ryan would make an impact on this team was because he was leaving a poor offensive line in Atlanta and joining a perceived top unit in the NFL.

But that hasn’t been the case in the first two weeks, leading to pass protection issues for the quarterback.

It will not get any easier for the line when they face the Chiefs. Their first daunting task will be to figure out how to deal with Chris Jones. Danny Pinter has dealt with his struggles at the right guard spot and I expect that KC will look to line Jones up against him often. Ryan Kelly should be looking to help out his teammate often with double teams.

Then that does lead to the tackles Braden Smith, Matt Pryor, and Bernhard Raimann having to not get beat as often as they have this season. Kansas City has a few different edge rushers in their rotation that they will need to handle. Frank Clark, Carlos Dunlap, and the rookie, George Karlaftis have to be grinning after seeing…