It's not a good thing when the first thing you do in looking ahead to a game isn't digging into the tape or the matchups or the stats, but the projected path for the remnants of a hurricane.
The impact of Hurricane Isaias on the Colts' Week 5 game against the Pittsburgh Steelers, of course, pales in comparison to the impact it's projected to have on the lives and livelihoods of those living in proximity to the Gulf Coast.
But hundreds of miles from the ocean, the latest weather projections have the remnants of Hurricane Isaias sitting over northeast Kentucky at 1 p.m. on Sunday – close enough for rain bands, which could be heavy at times, to lash Acrisure Stadium throughout Sunday's Colts-Steelers game.
Head coach Shane Steichen said the Colts spent the week preparing for wet weather, including wet ball drills to emphasize ball security in less-than-ideal conditions.
Rain, sometimes more than snow, can add an element of unpredictability to a game. For example: The Chicago Bears hung 59 points on the Carolina Panthers in Week 1, then mustered only three points amid pouring rain in Week 2 against the Minnesota Vikings.
Sometimes, though, the rain doesn't matter. In 2021, the Colts beat the San Francisco 49ers, 30-18, amid a bomb cyclone in the Bay Area, with quarterback Carson Wentz throwing for two touchdowns in the rain. One of those was a 28-yard game-sealing score caught by Michael Pittman Jr., who won't play against his former team on Sunday due to a foot injury he aggravated in practice this week.
If anything, rain forces different emphases for players, running back Jonathan Taylor explained.
"You always have to just take into consideration field conditions – things that you would normally do maybe," Taylor said. "Doesn't even matter if you wear certain studs or certain things like that. Sometimes it's all about body position. If your body is – your legs are too far out your frame, no matter what you have on, most likely you may slip. So, being conscious of your body position to an extent. Obviously, if you have to go and make the play, you have to do whatever you can to make it work, but when you're conscious about some of those things, it kind of can eliminate some of those bad plays where you may slip, and now that leads to other things. So, it's just about being conscious of the environment."
In a sense, then, Sunday's game against the 2-2 Steelers may be the ultimate "find a way" game.
The Colts' last two wins over the Houston Texans and Washington Commanders haven't been aesthetically pleasing. Despite committing five turnovers and generating only one takeaway, the Colts beat both opponents, with outstanding effort from players like DeForest Buckner and an impressive aversion to penalties standing out as major difference-makers.
But a turnover margin of minus-four is, Steichen acknowledged, no way to win consistently in the NFL. The Steelers, meanwhile, enter Week 5 with eight takeaways, the second-highest total in the NFL.
"The last two weeks haven't been what we wanted to be, and it's really an anomaly that we found a way to win the last two games losing the turnover battle," Steichen said. "So ball security has got to be at a premium against these guys."
The Colts have, in franchise history, had a hard time winning where the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers converge to form the mighty Ohio River. Over 19 games (including the playoffs), the Colts have just two wins in the city of Pittsburgh – one fewer win, now, than they have on the continent of Europe. Whether it's the Steel Curtain or Jerome Bettis or Ben Roethlisberger or T.J. Watt on the field, or Chuck Noll or Bill Cowher or Mike Tomlin patrolling the sidelines, Pittsburgh's been a challenging place for this Colts franchise to play.
But the Colts' 20th game in Pittsburgh will be the first without Noll, Cowher or Tomlin as the opposing head coach; Mike McCarthy is there now, and the Steelers are battling to contend in what appears to be future Hall of Famer Aaron Rodgers' final season.
The Steelers also traded star cornerback Joey Porter Jr. to the Dallas Cowboys a week ago.
All that – a new coach, an early-season trade and the remains of a hurricane – will add plenty of unpredictability to Sunday's game. Whoever handles it better will emerge with a 3-2 record.
