1. What Alec Pierce did in his debut
The Colts hoped to get Alec Pierce about 40 snaps in Week 1, with the plan to be smart with their 26-year-old wideout after only about two weeks of practice prior to Sunday. He wound up playing 32 out of 54 snaps (59 percent).
Pierce was listed as limited in practice leading up to Week 1, and for a guy who's played anywhere from 80 to 100 percent of the Colts' offensive snaps in non-blowouts in his career, he remained somewhat limited in his season debut.
"We were really pushing to play Week 1 even if it wasn't going to be perfect," Pierce said. "Kind of understood that. I'm proud of the work we did with the training room staff and the sports science staff. They had a really good plan, and it wasn't that limited, but it definitely just was rotating in and out (more than) I think I normally would."
One factor here with Pierce's snap share, though: Ravens linebacker Roquan Smith banged his facemask into Pierce's hand in the first quarter, leading to Pierce going back to the Colts' locker room for X-rays. Those came back clean, but Pierce was sidelined from about the 11-minute mark of the first quarter through the 10:15 mark in the second quarter.
Pierce and the Colts aren't worried about any long-term effects from that collision, which occurred on Pierce's first catch of the game. But Pierce said his hand was a little stiff after, and it impacted him later in the game on a third-and-seven late in the third quarter. Pierce ran an intermediate in-breaking route but couldn't haul in quarterback Daniel Jones' pass, with Ravens cornerback Nate Wiggins breaking it up.
Still, Pierce was mostly impacted by his lack of practice time leading up to the season. Pierce underwent surgery on his ankle/heel in late March, missed the entire offseason program and wasn't activated from the PUP list until the Friday before the Colts' final preseason game in August.
"Wasn't my best," Pierce said. "I definitely felt like I needed to knock a little rust off there. That'll come with working with Daniel and getting more that timing down and stuff. That's the biggest thing that was a bummer with the injury, I wanted to be back during August and get some of those reps."
2. The combination of backed-up field position and a lack of explosiveness made things difficult.
The Colts started six drives at or inside their own 20-yard line, including two inside their own 10-yard line, and managed just one score on those six possessions: a 58-yard Spencer Shrader field goal.
On those six possessions, the Colts averaged just 3.1 yards per play and didn't complete a pass that gained more than 11 yards. Credit the Ravens' defense for preventing the Colts from getting explosive plays through the air all game, but it showed up in a big way on those six drives.
To put it another way: It's hard to sustain long, methodical marches of 80+ yards, especially against a defense as talented as Baltimore's.
"I think those explosives are huge in a drive to get some momentum and take some pressure off the every-down execution," Jones said. "We weren't able to create enough of those today. Credit to them on defense. They're a good group, but we've got to find a way to make a few more."
3. Expect some improvement from Daniel Jones on play-action passes moving forward.
In dissecting Jones' first game since Week 14 of the 2025 season, a thread to pick at here: He completed two of five play-action passes for 15 yards on seven dropbacks with a sack and a scramble. Those numbers are major outliers compared to what Jones did on play-action in 2025: He completed 71 percent of his passes and threw for 1,252 yards, about 40 percent of total passing yards.
Jones last year never completed fewer than three play-action passes and never had fewer than 31 yards off play-action, save for the Week 14 game in which he sustained a season-ending Achilles' injury. Jones had three games in which he completed at least 10 play action-passes, and seven games with over 110 passing yards off play-action.
The Colts last year ran play-action on 34 percent of Jones' dropbacks in Weeks 1-13, which was the second-highest rate in the NFL behind only the Los Angeles Rams. On Sunday against the Ravens, only 20.6 percent of Jones' dropbacks came after a play fake – which, coincidentally, is almost identical to the Rams, who ran play action on 20.7 percent of Matthew Stafford's dropbacks in a 27-7 season-opening loss in Australia.
Sometimes, good offenses get out of whack for a week against a good defense. Jones' least-productive game on play action in 2025 came in Week 9 against the Pittsburgh Steelers (4/10 for 31 yards with an interception); a week later, he completed 10 of 12 play-action passes for 137 yards in the Colts' 31-25 win over the Atlanta Falcons.
4. The Colts generated pressure but not enough explosive plays when blitzing Lamar Jackson.
Defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo sent blitzes on 14 of Lamar Jackson's 30 dropbacks, keeping with a strategy of defending Jackson popularized around the NFL over the last few years (Jackson was blitzed at the highest rate in the NFL during the 2025 season).
But only one of those pressures created a big play, which came on a five-man blitz in the second quarter. Defensive end Laiatu Latu came screaming off the edge unblocked, as tight end Durham Smythe couldn't cross the formation fast enough to get to him. Jackson stopped his rollout, was hit by Latu and then by defensive end Arden Key – who threw left tackle Ronnie Stanley out of the way on his charge into the pocket – with Key dislodging the ball for a strip-sack recovered by defensive tackle DeForest Buckner.
Otherwise, against the blitz Jackson completed eight of 11 passes for 147 yards – good for a passer rating of 145.1 – and scrambled twice, with one of those being his remarkable escape from Buckner and Key on a third-and-16 in the first quarter.
The Colts generated pressure on seven of their 14 blitzes, but Jackson still managed to throw a game-flipping touchdown against one pressure. With 7:04 left in the second quarter, the Colts lined up with a standard four-man front but sent linebacker Jaylon Carlies on a blitz from depth. Carlies raced in unblocked toward Jackson, but he picked out wide receiver Zay Flowers – who was lined up in the backfield - on an angle route. Flowers caught the ball at the Colts' 47-yard line and darted around defenders across the goal line for a touchdown.
5. A look at some snap counts.
- The Colts' linebacker rotation saw three players take snaps: Akeem Davis-Gaither (94 percent), Jaylon Carlies (62 percent) and Bryce Boettcher (34 percent). Rookie CJ Allen did not play. "We'll get him going," Steichen said. "He was banged up in camp. We're getting him back into that football shape, and then we'll see where it goes from there."
- Rookie defensive end Caden Curry played three snaps on defense but was all over special teams, with 20 snaps across kick and punt units. Curry was one of five players to play every snap in both kick and punt coverage, along with linebacker Tahj Chambers, safety Jonathan Owens, defensive tackle Adetomiwa Adebawore and wide receiver Laquon Treadwell.
- Tight end Tyler Warren led all Colts pass-catchers with 50 snaps; Josh Downs led all wide receivers with 48 snaps.
- Defensive line snap shares: Laiatu Latu (84 percent), DeForest Buckner (75 percent), Arden Key (71 percent), Grover Stewart (63 percent), Jerry Tillery (53 percent), Jaylahn Tuimoloau (34 percent), Adetomiwa Adebawore (26 percent), Micheal Clemons (21 percent), Tim Smith (19 percent), Caden Curry (4 percent).
