The Colts, coming off of a bye week, set their sights on staying undefeated today when they travel to St. Louis to take on the Rams. Dome road games are always great, because it's like another home game, just with some additional noise. Although today, from the sounds of it, many Hoosiers are making the 4 hour trek across I-70 to the game.
SPOILER: Southern Illinois is very boring to drive through. Not quite like Kansas, but very boring.
Coming into this week, the Colts are ranked 2nd Offensively, 19th Defensively, and 6th Overall, according to the Winning Stats Power Rankings (full rankings below). The Rams are 27th, 31st, and 31st respectively. #2 Offense vs. #31 defense. Yikes.
More specifics, and the table, after the jump.
Here's the full statistical preview:
| Colts | Rams | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Statistic | Offense | Rank | Defense | Rank | Offense | Rank | Defense | Rank |
| DSR | 79.6% | 1 | 68.5% | 13 | 63.2% | 27 | 77.0% | 31 |
| ANPY/A | 9.235 | 2 | 3.952 | 4 | 4.630 | 24 | 7.199 | 27 |
| Turnovers / Game | 1.20 | 9 | 1.60 | 15 | 2.17 | 25 | 1.33 | 22 |
| Yds/Drive | 42.17 | 1 | 28.98 | 15 | 25.65 | 23 | 36.62 | 31 |
| ToP/Drive | 2:58.8 | 6 | 3:04.6 | 28 | 2:36.6 | 22 | 3:08.0 | 31 |
| Yds/Play | 6.724 | 2 | 4.412 | 3 | 4.683 | 25 | 5.826 | 27 |
| First Downs/Drive | 2.17 | 5 | 1.80 | 24 | 1.51 | 22 | 2.17 | 31 |
| 3rd/4th Down | 50.0% | 2 | 46.5% | 29 | 32.9% | 26 | 49.4% | 31 |
| Avg Start Pos | 29.1 | 17 | 27.6 | 9 | 24.6 | 32 | 29.3 | 17 |
| 3 and Outs / Game | 2.40 | 2 | 3.20 | 23 | 4.83 | 27 | 2.67 | 28 |
| RZ Eff | 70.6% | 8 | 62.3% | 14 | 40.5% | 32 | 64.9% | 17 |
| Plays/Drive | 6.271 | 4 | 6.569 | 31 | 5.477 | 19 | 6.286 | 29 |
| Penalty Yds / Play | 0.671 | 7 | 0.636 | 26 | 1.059 | 28 | 0.513 | 32 |
| RB Success | 48.7% | 9 | 52.9% | 28 | 43.0% | 18 | 46.2% | 18 |
| Yds/Carry | 3.34 | 28 | 4.06 | 17 | 4.22 | 16 | 4.08 | 18 |
| Net Punts Yds/Game | 42.87 | 6 | 41.19 | 21 | 44.30 | 2 | 42.88 | 29 |
| Overall | 2 | 19 | 27 | 31 | ||||
Things to look for:
- Expect a lot of long drives by the Colts Offense. The Colts are #1 in both Drive Success Rate and Yards / Drive, while the Rams are ranked 31st defensively. The Colts Defense should be plenty rested when they return to the field.
- I'm concerned about slowing down Steven Jackson early on in the game, but 2 stops should be enough. They'll have to abandon the Run game soon after, making him obsolete.
- This looks very one-sided. The Rams have lost 16 straight games, and only 2 of their last 26 games. Look for the Colts to put them away early, with some Sorgi time thrown in at the end.
I'll throw the Power Rankings in for this week here, as I had a work conference this week, so free time was at a premium. Colts stay 6th, with the Patriots jumping them and the Ravens falling below them.
| Team | Power Rankings | Strength of Schedule | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Offense | Defense | Total | Offense | Defense | Total | |
| Saints | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 27 | 12 |
| Giants | 6 | 6 | 2 | 20 | 25 | 25 |
| Broncos | 9 | 3 | 3 | 30 | 14 | 24 |
| Patriots | 1 | 15 | 4 | 12 | 16 | 14 |
| Eagles | 16 | 1 | 5 | 27 | 31 | 28 |
| Colts | 2 | 19 | 6 | 22 | 20 | 23 |
| Steelers | 4 | 17 | 7 | 31 | 28 | 31 |
| Ravens | 5 | 18 | 8 | 29 | 10 | 20 |
| Vikings | 10 | 9 | 9 | 25 | 29 | 30 |
| Packers | 12 | 7 | 10 | 28 | 22 | 27 |
| Dolphins | 7 | 21 | 11 | 26 | 9 | 16 |
| Falcons | 8 | 23 | 12 | 17 | 12 | 10 |
| Cowboys | 11 | 22 | 13 | 21 | 19 | 17 |
| Cardinals | 19 | 4 | 14 | 9 | 17 | 18 |
| Texans | 15 | 10 | 15 | 14 | 32 | 29 |
| Bengals | 18 | 16 | 17 | 8 | 5 | 6 |
| Bears | 17 | 14 | 16 | 23 | 6 | 9 |
| Seahawks | 21 | 11 | 18 | 16 | 21 | 22 |
| Redskins | 20 | 13 | 19 | 32 | 30 | 32 |
| Jaguars | 13 | 28 | 20 | 15 | 26 | 26 |
| 49ers | 29 | 5 | 21 | 11 | 18 | 19 |
| Jets | 28 | 8 | 22 | 6 | 7 | 7 |
| Bills | 26 | 12 | 23 | 13 | 11 | 11 |
| Chargers | 14 | 32 | 24 | 19 | 1 | 3 |
| Chiefs | 23 | 24 | 25 | 7 | 13 | 8 |
| Panthers | 25 | 27 | 26 | 24 | 15 | 15 |
| Lions | 22 | 30 | 27 | 2 | 3 | 1 |
| Buccaneers | 24 | 29 | 28 | 10 | 23 | 13 |
| Titans | 30 | 26 | 29 | 18 | 2 | 5 |
| Raiders | 32 | 20 | 30 | 3 | 8 | 4 |
| Rams | 27 | 31 | 31 | 4 | 24 | 21 |
| Browns | 31 | 25 | 32 | 5 | 4 | 2 |
Go Colts!