Colts snap counts: Week 1 vs. Seahawks

The Indianapolis Colts dealt with numerous injuries in training camp. Those injuries were at least partially responsible for slowing down the development of chemistry between Carson Wentz as his receivers. They also likely played a role in an offensive line that significantly underperformed expectations.

On the other hand, camp and preseason injuries allowed some of the players at the bottom of the roster a greater opportunity to prove themselves and not just earn a roster spot, but potentially earn a more significant role in the rotation.

On offense, the most surprising standout was that Michael Strachan was targeted almost immediately. The small school seventh-round pick took his strong training camp and preseason performance into the regular season and could continue to push his way into a more prominent offensive role — especially if the other receivers on the roster are unable to be more productive.

On defense, the most surprising standout was that Ben Banogu was used so little after earning so much preseason praise. With Kemoko Turay inactive and Tyquan Lewis just returning from his own injuries, it wouldn’t have been surprising to see Banogu get more opportunities on defense. Instead, he saw only six defensive snaps and failed to show up in the stat sheet.

OFFENSE

While at one point in training camp it appeared all but certain that Carson Wentz would miss time to start the regular season after surgery on his foot, he played every snap. He took a beating behind an offensive line that struggled but he also was comfortable scrambling and didn’t appear to be particularly limited in any way.

C Wentz QB 76 100%

Jonathan Taylor and Nyheim Hines were the only running backs to take a snap in this one. It is perhaps somewhat surprising that Marlon Mack was healthy and ready to go but didn’t get any opportunities. It will be worth monitoring if our how the Colts use Mack moving forward as both he or Jordan Wilkins could very well be traded to running back needy teams if they have no role in Indianapolis.

J Taylor RB 42 55%
N Hines RB 34 45% 5 21%

The tight end split was about as expected. If you had told me that Kylen Granson didn’t play an offensive snap, I wouldn’t have argued.

J Doyle TE 45 59%
M Alie-Cox TE 39 51% 2 8%
K Granson TE 7 9% 2 8%

With T.Y. Hilton on the sideline for a significant portion of the early season, this group has a lot of proving to do. Pittman and Campbell were expected to play prominent offensive roles and neither did. Zach Pascal is supposed to be the third or fourth option on the team and his greatest trait is supposed to be high consistency and reliability. He was both of those things on Sunday and appeared to have a better rapport with Wentz than the other wideouts.

M Pittman WR 74 97%
Z Pascal WR 69 91% 1 4%
P Campbell WR 46 61%
M Strachan WR 18 24%
A Dulin WR 6 8% 18 75%

An awful performance by the offensive line. Seahawks fans can rave all day about how much they just knew their defensive line was going to be incredible but the reality is that the Colts will face more difficult, and more talented defensive lines later in the season. In fact, facing Aaron Donald and the Rams ought to put the Seattle defensive line into perspective. This group needs to get healthy and wake up. It needs more time on the practice field together or the offense will struggle.

B Smith T 76 100% 2 8%
J Davenport T 76 100% 2 8%
M Glowinski G 76 100% 2 8%
Q Nelson G 76 100% 2 8%
R Kelly C 76 100%

DEFENSE

As mentioned earlier, the biggest surprise on the defensive line was that Ben Banogu saw only six snaps after a strong preseason. The other big surprise was that DeForest Buckner and Grover Stewart appeared to be ineffective for nearly the entire first half and this group proved incapable of slowing down Chris Carson and the Seahawks running game.

D Buckner DT 47 87% 6 25%
G Stewart NT 44 81% 6 25%
K Paye DE 41 76%
A Muhammad DE 38 70%
T Lewis DE 29 54%
T Stallworth DT 7 13% 4 17%
B Banogu DE 6 11% 7 29%

Another group with a snap count which was as expected. Sadly, it’s another group that spent much of the game seemingly underperforming. The Colts entered the season with high hopes that Darius Leonard and Bobby Okereke could form one of the league’s best starting linebacker tandems but they were not close to that against the Seahawks.

B Okereke LB 54 100% 4 17%
D Leonard LB 54 100% 4 17%
Z Franklin LB 13 24% 22 92%

Without looking at the tape, this is a strange group to evaluate. On the one hand, I don't recall Rock Ya-Sin having his name called all afternoon. Typically, that is a good thing for a cornerback. We saw TJ Carrie break up a pass and generally, it appeared that Seattle exploited schematic weaknesses, designed blitz packages, and one-on-one coverage deep against Khari Willis. Did the cornerbacks do an effective job shutting down DK Metcalf for much of the game?

R Ya-Sin CB 54 100% 5 21%
K Moore CB 52 96% 8 33%
T Carrie CB 37 69% 14 58%
I Rodgers CB 6 11% 13 54%

Willis led the team in tackles and shared in a sack but was targeted by Russell Wilson anytime Tyler Lockett got a look one-on-one. In previous seasons, Willis hasn’t appeared to be a glaring weakness in the pass coverage but he stood out in a bad way in this area on Sunday.

K Willis SS 54 100% 11 46%
J Blackmon FS 54 100% 4 17%

SPECIAL TEAMS

The most noteworthy special teams comment is that Rigoberto Sanchez was put in difficult positions most of the afternoon. He is a great placement punter but doesn’t have the strongest leg in the NFL. Punting from well within his own territory for much of the netted Seattle attractive starting field position.

Rodrigo Blankenship had a perfect preseason and hit an early field goal but Frank Reich chose to go for it on offense numerous times within his range without success. It’s always better to score touchdowns than it is to kick field goals but it’s worse to come up empty.

C Williams DT 4 7%
M Adams LB 22 92%
J Glasgow LB 18 75%
E Speed LB 18 75%
G Odum FS 18 75%
J Wilkins RB 14 58%
R Sanchez P 10 42%
S Davis FS 10 42%
L Rhodes LS 6 25%
M Pryor G 2 8%
R Blankenship K 2 8%