Week 8 Schedule Breakdown: Indianapolis Colts

The New Orleans Saints will face the Indianapolis Colts in week 8 of the NFL season. This will be the last of the Saints’ matchups against the AFC South. The Saints will actually play three AFC South teams back-to-back to back between weeks 6 and 8. Good news for the Saints though is that they will be coming off 10 days of rest for this last matchup. The Colts will be a very interesting matchup, especially depending on who is under center for them. No matter for the Saints though, looking past any NFL team is dangerous. This is the breakdown of the New Orleans Saints at the Indianapolis Colts for Week 8 of the 2023 NFL Regular Season.

Week 8: Saints at Colts

The Saints were not a good team last season, but the Colts might have been the worst team in the AFC. They scored just 289 points all season, tied for the conference low in the AFC with the Houston Texans and Denver Broncos. No team in the NFC scored under 307 total points during the 2022 season. Even though the Texans and Chicago Bears had worse records than the Colts, it was the Colts who had the biggest point differential in the entire NFL. They allowed 138 more points than they scored last season. Only four teams had a point differential over 100, two of them were in the AFC South.

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Teams change through the off-season though. The Colts used the fourth overall pick in the 2023 NFL Draft on what they hope is their franchise quarterback in Anthony Richardson. Richardson is a freak athlete but it is unknown when he is going to be ready to play in the NFL. Until Richardson is ready to play, the Colts signed perennial backup Gardner Minshew. The team did attempt a few upgrades on the defense as well. They signed defensive end Samson Ebukam from the San Francisco 49ers and drafted cornerback JuJu Brents in the second round of the draft. It is unlikely that these players will make a huge difference for a team with a lot of holes, but the Saints still need to be ready to play. If Richardson is on the field for the Colts in week 8, Dennis Allen needs to be ready for a Cam Newton-like matchup.

Matchups good on paper

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The Indianapolis Colts were supposed to be good last season. Everyone expected big things from Jonathan Taylor and Michael Pittman, but the entire team was just bad. This offense is not likely to intimidate the Saints defense either. Stopping the run and matching up against the Colts receivers should be easy for the Saints defense. Last season, the Colts managed to score the sixth fewest touchdowns in the air at just 17. Their rushing attack was somehow worse. They scored just eight total touchdowns on the ground, the third fewest in the entire NFL last season. Even worse news though, is that they gave up the second most sacks in the NFL. Cameron Jordan and the entire Saints defensive front could be in line for a monster game against a bad Colts offense that is not likely to improve much next season.

Offensively, the Saints should also have a huge advantage. The Colts secondary allowed the second highest completion percentage to opposing passers in the NFL in 2022. By week 8, Derek Carr and the Saints offense should be accustomed to each other which is bad news for the Colts. The Saints three-headed monster in the backfield could also feast as the Colts allowed the seventh most rushing touchdowns in the NFL last year. There are just multiple ways to beat this Indy team, and the Saints have the advantage in nearly every facet of the game if healthy.

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