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Last week, we said right here inside The BK Lounge that if the Buffalo Bills weren’t good enough to overlook the Jacksonville Jaguars, neither were the Indianapolis Colts.

And in a game that the Colts were lucky to get out of in the 4th quarter, that ended up being true. It also probably helped that if you’re going to give the ball back to Jacksonville with eight minutes left in the game, that you give it to a rookie quarterback.

Trevor Lawrence is going to have tremendously long career. He’ll probably do some big things in the league too. But not right now; Maybe not next year either.

None-the-less, Frank Reich’s team did a lot of good and great things on Sunday. This is a 5-5 football team heading into what may be the toughest stretch of the campaign.

If they’re really serious about making a deep playoff run this year, they have to act like it in the next two weeks.

What the Colts really need though is the pass rush to continue stepping up; Specifically the young guns.

A step in the right direction was taken yesterday with Kwity Paye picking up his first career sack. That was needed like a priest making a football joke at the end of his homily at mass on Sunday.

Another positive versus the Jaguars was seeing Dayo Odeyingbo really be a game wrecker. Odeyingbo’s role in the kill shot turnover that iced the game with Kemoko Turay was exactly what fans and media alike needed to see to truly notice that Chris Ballard taking this kid in the second round was a smart idea.

I’m not questioning Odeyingbo’s physique and skill. That will never happen.

But when you spend your first two draft picks on a pair defensive ends, you must see results quick; Especially when the Colts had other needs that those draft selections could have also helped.

Ballard should be breathing a sigh of relief after that game. Not just because you barely held on against Urban Meyer’s Jaguars, but also that your big draft picks showed up. Paye made Lawrence’s life miserable, and Odeyingbo did exactly what Ballard described as his reasoning for bringing him to Indy.

What’s the next step?

Consistently getting this from both edge rushers on a week-by-week basis. It doesn’t have to result in countless sacks either. For a good majority of the season, Kevin Bowen and I could have forced more pressure on quarterbacks than what the Colts were showing.

Especially now though, you can’t afford to play poorly in that avenue. Not with Josh Allen’s speed and Tom Brady’s intuitiveness.

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