Indianapolis Colts vs Denver Broncos Thursday Night Football Betting Preview
On Thursday night, the Indianapolis Colts and Denver Broncos will meet to kick off Week 5 in Denver. Both teams have struggled early this season with new quarterbacks at the helm and will look to this contest as an opportunity to get back on the right track.
In order to do that, though, these teams will need to get out of their own way, which they have not done particularly well so far this year.
Indianapolis Colts
The Indianapolis Colts enter this matchup coming off of a loss at home against the Tennessee Titans. Indianapolis fell behind by multiple scores early in that game, and their late comeback attempt fell short, thanks to multiple Matt Ryan turnovers.
This week, the Colts will aim to get back into the win column to get back to .500, as they enter this game at 1-2-1 on the 2022 season.
So far this year, Matt Ryan has failed to deliver consistently for the Colts, as he has thrown five touchdowns and five interceptions through four games. Ryan is the latest in a long line of new quarterbacks that has not worked out according to plan for the Colts.
For the Colts to turn their season around, Ryan needs to be more productive while limiting his turnovers so he does not to put his team's defense in sudden change situations.
Denver Broncos
The Denver Broncos are also coming off of a loss in Week 4, as they fell to the Las Vegas Raiders on the road a week ago. Russell Wilson and the Denver offense still struggled to get going in that contest, with Wilson only reaching four touchdown passes for the season thus far.
Making matters worse for the Broncos, promising running back Javonte Williams has been lost for the season after he sustained a knee injury last week.
Fortunately for the Broncos, they return home for this game, where their defense has been spectacular so far this season. In two home games this year, Denver has allowed just 19 combined points, giving up nine points to the Texans and 10 points to the 49ers.
The defense of the Broncos will be vital again in this game, as there is no guarantee that the Broncos figure things out offensively this week.
Keys To The Game
The biggest key to this game for the Colts is going to be their defense, as this game could very well be a defensive struggle. Denver's defense has been positively stingy at home so far this year, which means that the Colts' defense will have very little margin for error.
While they are facing a Denver offense that has struggled so far this year, a poor performance defensively could take the Colts out of this contest early.
For Denver, the biggest key to this matchup is their running game, which faces some serious question marks with Javonte Williams out. Melvin Gordon is not meant to be a number one back, and the other options they used against the Raiders did not perform all that well.
The Broncos will have to figure out how to move the ball on the ground on a short week, which could be an issue.
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