Andrew York: When Indy has the ball, I think they’ll have the most success through the air, as mentioned earlier. Jonathan Taylor vs the Commanders run defense will be a strength on strength matchup, but I expect the Commanders run defense to win that matchup and I expect Taylor to have a pretty quiet game. At the same time, Washington lost LB Leo Chenal to a season-ending injury last week and LB Frankie Luvu is likely a game-time decision. If Luvu can’t settle, the run defense might suffer, let’s see. I expect Indy to do a better job of passing and eliminating the weak secondary outside of Amik Robertson (and Safety Nick Cross who is injured and not traveling to London). In particular, I’d be concerned about WR Josh Downs being matched up against CB Mike Sainristil in the slot, I wouldn’t be surprised if Downs had a big day.
When Washington has the ball, I think they’ll try to keep an attack that’s pretty balanced in terms of the run and the pass. The strength of the Colts secondary seems to be limited to CBs Sauce Gardner and Charvarius Ward, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see Washington scheme up passes in the middle of the field. That really fits the Ben Johnson style of offense that OC David Blough seems to be trying to emulate. I think Washington will have a slightly harder time running the ball, but will stay committed to the run and still find some success on the ground. Overall, I expect Washington to be able to move the ball, but primarily through the air.
Also, it’s worth noting that Commanders fans are very familiar with Daniel Jones from his time with the Giants. For reasons I can’t explain, Daniel Jones seems to have a chip on his shoulder against Washington and always plays his best games against us. He has a 5-3-1 record against Washington that is better than it looks on paper, as he often plays on a Giants team that crumbles around him. I don’t really care about this game. I always follow Vegas odds when making score predictions. The Colts are currently in Vegas as 3.5-point favorites, so I predict a score along the lines of 27-24 in favor of the Colts, with some crazy Daniel Jones plays to keep the Colts in the game and get the last-minute win in the end.