Why is Thursday’s Preseason Finale Important for the Indianapolis Colts?

Source: Todd Rosenberg / Getty

Not too often you will find anyone saying that a preseason game is important. Thursday night’s preseason finale for the Indianapolis Colts is.

In the first preseason game, Anthony Richardson connected on two of his four pass attempts and did not look good. One of his two completions should have been a converted first down if he gets the ball to Kylen Granson sooner or hits him in stride instead of throwing behind him.

Indianapolis had a pair of joint practices against the Cardinals with the offense getting really good work in during the first practice, but not the second because of the weather. None of the starters made a cameo in the preseason game against Arizona.

That brings us to this week. Indianapolis just wrapped up their only joint practice with the Cincinnati Bengals and it was a little bit of a rollercoaster.

From what was shared on social media, the Colts offense was working a lot of intermediate and timing routes that led to the early struggles for Richardson.

These are the kinks that the starting offense need to work through before week one. Indianapolis faces the reigning AFC South champion and budding rival, Houston Texans. Zaire Franklin & E.J. Speed were talking about week one since the last game ended because of C.J. Stroud throwing jabs at the Colts on various podcasts.

It has been noted, discussed, and everywhere in between about the limited sample size for Anthony Richardson. Chris Ballard revealed on the Ride With JMV last week that the plan is for the starters to play the first half in the preseason finale.

It will truly be a tune up for the offense before week one because there is a seventeen day gap between Thursday’s game and September 8th.

Bengals head coach Zac Taylor made it known after the joint practice this afternoon that only a few starters will play for Cincinnati. My guess is those players will be defensive starters because they have a fairly young secondary. This is a golden opportunity for Richardson and the starting offense to get into rhythm before week one.

Hopefully the offense will have a couple scoring drives and be able to conduct a two-minute drill because Richardson still doesn’t have many of those experiences even dating back to college.

Additionally, this game is huge for Matt Gay. The second highest paid kicker in the NFL is currently one for four with misses from 54, 53, and 44. All of his misses have been wide left. He does get a little bit of a pass for the two misses in last Saturday’s game because he was missing his holder, Rigoberto Sanchez, as he and his wife Cynthia, became a family of four following the birth of their second daughter.

Since starting last season 16/18, he is 18/27. In Tuesday’s joint practice he was 5/5 with makes from 37, 42, 47, 52, and 57.

Thursday’s preseason finale between the Colts and Bengals is at 8pm eastern on Amazon Prime. Coverage on 93.5 and 107.5 The Fan will start at 5pm eastern.

The post Why is Thursday’s Preseason Finale Important for the Indianapolis Colts? appeared first on 93.5 / 107.5 The Fan .