Keys for the New England Patriots to beat the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday | Sporting News

The New England Patriots will take on the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday at Gillette Stadium for a Week 13 AFC battle.

Neither team has been overly impressive this year with both unable to secure a winning record through the first 12 weeks of their 2024 campaigns. In fact, both squads have had issues on both offense and defense at points this year.

If Jerod Mayo’s team wants to earn their fourth victory of the year, especially against a franchise that hasn’t been much better than his, this is what they’ll have to do.

Avoid pre-snap penalties

New England doesn’t need to help out other teams by moving backward consistently, yet they did just that last week, receiving five offensive penalties on either false starts or offensive offsides.

Offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt made his feelings clear about those mistakes earlier this week.

“There’s no question, that’s horse crap in my opinion,” Van Pelt said. “We went down there with the intent, and one of our main objectives of the game was the operation. That was a huge one, and that’s pre-snap. We talked about not going backward on first down or second down, and we went backward. We were digging ourselves out of holes, especially in the first quarter. That’s just an area of just locking in… That was disappointing. The most disappointed as I’ve been. It was more like a dang preseason game.”

Contain Colts CB Anthony Richardson

Richardson is a phenomenal athlete who can affect the game with his huge arms and legs, and the Patriots haven’t really played a mobile quarterback this year.

In his 12 starts of his first two seasons, Richardson has thrown eight touchdowns, but he’s also ran for seven himself. He’s built like former Patriots quarterback Cam Newton, and he has some of that running ability, especially in close.

New England’s defensive front will need to step up and keep him from converting short-yardage attempts.

Protect Drake Maye

The offensive line has been a huge issue all season. Not only are they struggling with the pre-snap penalties, but they’re also just getting flat-out beat.

Demontrey Jacobs was abused last week by Miami Dolphins rookie pass-rusher Chop Robinson, and it led to his benching. Starting left guard Michael Jordan had struggled so much against stunts that he was released earlier this week.

It will be intriguing to see what changes New England makes for Sunday, but they have to protect their franchise quarterback.

Win the turnover battle

Speaking of that franchise quarterback, he’s been too loose with the ball. Whether it’s the five fumbles (four lost) or seven interceptions that he’s thrown, he’s putting his defenses in bad positions too often. He may feel like he has to do everything, but sometimes it’s better to throw the ball away or take a sack.

The defense also hasn’t held up their end of the bargain when it comes to takeaways. They’ve only recorded nine takeaways this year and have just two in their last six games.

DeMarcus Covington’s unit needs to give their offense more changes to score, or they can score themselves, as Christian Gonzalez did last week on the fumble-return touchdown. 

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