The Indianapolis Colts host the Buffalo Bills on Sunday, Nov. 10, 2024, at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, Indiana.

How to watch: Fans can watch the game for free via a trial of DirecTV Stream or fuboTV. You can also watch via a subscription to Sling TV, which is half off the first month.

Here’s what you need to know:

What: NFL Week 10

Who: Buffalo Bills vs. Indianapolis Colts

When: Nov. 10, 2024 (11/10/24)

Where: Lucas Oil Stadium (Indianapolis, Indiana)

Time: 1 p.m. ET (Noon CT)

TV: CBS

Free live stream: DirecTV Stream, fuboTV

Here’s a preview via the Associated Press:

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Indianapolis Colts quarterback Joe Flacco took a long, honest look at last week’s game tape and came to one conclusion.

He must play better — and so must the Colts’ offense.

Midway through his first season in Indy, the 39-year-old Flacco has taken hold of the starting job and is now trying to figure out how to jump start the sluggish offense, which keeps struggling to stay on the field and sustain drives.

“It’s never easy to look in the mirror after losses,” Flacco said. “It’s just the nature of this business and that’s part of building a team, being able to actually face those challenges. We’ve had that challenge a couple times this year and we’ve done a good job (responding). We’ve just got to continue to do that and trust our preparation is going to carry us into the game and allow us to play the way we want to.”

It certainly won’t be easy Sunday against Buffalo (7-2), a runaway leader in the AFC East, or with an offensive line that could again be starting multiple rookies.

This is certainly not where the Colts (4-5) expected to be — trying to rebound from back-to-back losses after moving back into the playoff picture with four wins in five games. Or naming Flacco the starter over second-year quarterback Anthony Richardson.

But the struggles have continued regardless of who’s taking snaps. Richardson sat out last week when the Colts scored on a pick-6, settled for a field goal after another takeaway without getting a first down and driving for one field goal. The Colts finished with just 227 yards in offense.

That’s simply not good enough.

“I think we had a few third-and-mediums last week we didn’t convert, but we’ve got to get back on track on third down,” coach Shane Steichen said. “I think we were pretty efficient there early on in the season. The last two weeks haven’t been up to our standards, so we’ve got to get back on track.”

The Bills have their own offensive concerns.

While Josh Allen has been impressive, throwing 17 TD passes and only two interceptions, injuries could leave his receiving corps short-handed Sunday and the result could be giving James Cook a heavier workload on the ground against a Colts defense that has struggled all season to stop the run. Allen isn’t fretting.

“It doesn’t have to be pretty, but good teams find ways to win,” Allen said. “We have a lot of guys in the locker room who don’t care about the end result, don’t care about the style points of it. They just want to make sure that we’re finding ways to get it done.”

The Colts are trying to figure out how to get there, too.

Happy returns

The Bills welcomed back two familiar faces this week in defensive tackles Jordan Phillips and Quinton Jefferson to improve their run defense.

Phillips is in his third stint with Buffalo, while Jefferson was with the Bills in 2020.

Their familiarity with the defense should smooth the midseason transition, but coach Sean McDermott hasn’t said whether either will play Sunday. Phillips spent seven weeks on Dallas’ injured reserve list with an injured wrist. Jefferson was inactive the last five games with Cleveland.

“It’s like riding a bike, really,” said Phillips, who wasn’t listed on Buffalo’s injury report. “They have a couple of new things I haven’t went over, but I got them down today. So, it’ll be OK.”

On the run

One potential solution for Indy’s offensive woes would be getting running back Jonathan Taylor more involved.

Part of the problem has been continuity. While Taylor has battled an ankle injury throughout the season, the Colts also have been down multiple linemen this season, which will likely happen again this week with center Ryan Kelly out. Right guard Will Fries already went down with what could be a season-ending lower leg injury.

The solution?

“We’ve got to be physical up front. That’s where it starts,” Steichen said. “What can get us going? Obviously, we want to create the explosives, but even the 4- to 5-yard runs, staying efficient in the run game is going to help.”

Blitz timing

McDermott prefers to have his defense apply pressure with its front-four while picking spots when to blitz.

“To just blitz irresponsibly is in some ways irresponsible at times,” McDermott said, before noting his philosophy might go against the teachings of his late mentor Jim Johnson in Philadelphia, who helped revolutionize the blitz.

Buffalo ranks 21st in the NFL in sacks per passing play this year. The Bills have 21 sacks and are led by Greg Rousseau (4 1/2) and Von Miller (three), the NFL’s active sacks leader with 126 1/2. Miller returned last week after serving a four-game NFL suspension for violating the league’s personal conduct policy.

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MOORESVILLE, N.C. — Bobby Allison was a true racing hero, famous for his incredible NASCAR Hall of Fame career that included three Daytona 500 wins, 85 NASCAR Cup Series victories and the 1983 NASCAR Cup Series championship.

Allison died Saturday. He was 86.

Allison’s greatest exploits came behind the wheel of a stock car, but there was more to his racing ability than driving a car with a roof and fenders.

Allison competed in two Indianapolis 500s, both for team owner Roger Penske.

On April 4, 2019, I wrote a feature for NBCSports.com entitled, “When the ‘Alabama Gang’ took on the Indianapolis 500.” It was an IndyCar feature leading into that weekend’s race at Barber Motorsports Park in Leeds, Alabama, that helped connect the famed “Alabama Gang” with the IndyCar racing.

Here is an excerpt from that feature to help honor the strong-willed Allison, who, to many, was the epitome of a race driver:

***

Winner of 84 (since updated to 85 with a victory at Bowman Gray Stadium in 1971 added to his career total) NASCAR Cup races and the 1983 championship, Bobby Allison remains a legend and is a member of the NASCAR Hall of Fame. But the most successful member of the “Alabama Gang” had a miserable experience in the two Indianapolis 500s that he competed in for famed team owner Roger Penske, the first in 1973.

“Penske was getting his team put together and at the time Mark Donohue was alive and was one of Penske’s chief engineers,” Bobby Allison told NBC Sports.com. “They asked me to go to an IndyCar test and treated me like a ‘Red-headed Stepchild’ at the test. Mark was there and Peter Revson was there, and they told me, ‘Don’t you dare go fast. You have to go slow, or this car is going to kill you.’

“I went out slow. I came back in, and they laughed at me.

“This was 8:15 in the morning and they weren’t going to let me go back out until 3:30 in the afternoon. When they let me back on the track, they told me I could go as fast as I wanted, just be careful.”

Allison ran nine laps but didn’t know how fast the speeds were until he came back into the pits. One of the engineers confronted him over the nosepiece of the car and grabbed Allison by his collar and shook his fist in his face.

Allison was stunned.

The engineer was mad because a NASCAR driver had run laps equal to what Donohue and Revson had run. It was the first time he had ever sat in an Indy car.

“I pushed him backwards, took my firesuit off, got in my airplane and came back home,” Allison recalled. “[Younger brother] Donnie had a similar situation, but Donnie put up with it. Donnie’s fuse is sometimes shorter than mine. I was surprised Donnie put up with [A.J.] Foyt and his cronies.

“Roger Penske stepped in and promised to straighten it out. But Roger Penske wanted Gary Bettenhausen to run my car after any and all changes were made. That really irked me.”

Allison thought the world of Donohue and admired the driver that was the cornerstone of Penske Racing in those days.

To add to the misery of 1973, Allison and his wife, Judy, were close friends with popular driver Art Pollard. When Allison and his wife entered the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Pole Day, Pollard was killed in a crash that happened right before their eyes.

“Judy and I came through the tunnel and this crash happened and it’s Art Pollard getting killed,” Bobby Allison recalled. “Judy wanted to leave right then and there, but I had to do it because I had given my word to Roger Penske.

“All the IndyCar drivers and crewman were convinced they were automatically better than any NASCAR driver. I knew better than that. I was flabbergasted at the attitude.”

After two days of rain and a horrifying crash at the start of the race on Memorial Day Monday when Salt Walther’s car went into the tire fence and spewed hot fuel into the crowd, badly burning dozens of spectators, the race was halted for more rain and darkness. Tuesday was completely rained out so on a Wednesday morning, race officials hurriedly tried to start the race.

Allison’s engine blew up on the Parade Lap.

Bobby Allison and his wife Judy

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“I had been up there all month and never turned one lap in the Indianapolis 500,” Allison said. “Judy was sitting in the stands for the raise and was only a few hundred feet away from where Swede Savage was killed.

“She was plenty unhappy about the whole experience.”

Penske talked Allison into one more attempt at the Indy 500 in 1975. Allison was driving Penske’s AMC Matador in NASCAR, and the combination was enjoying success. But Bobby could not get along with Penske Racing chief mechanic Jim McGee. Changes were made to Allison’s car without his knowledge.

“I missed the field on the first day,” Allison said. “I qualified what would have been the top 10 but it was on the second day.

“I started 13^thand led the 23^rd lap of the race. I pitted and the fuel system failed and doused me with alcohol. I was sitting in a tub of alcohol and the crew told me to go and ran the car until it ran out of fuel. I got it stopped, lost a lap, had a caution, got the car fixed where I was comfortable. I unlapped myself under the green six laps after the halfway mark of the race.

“Then, my engine blew up two laps later.

“I said, ‘I don’t need this.’ I had worked hard to do well in NASCAR. I wanted to do good in NASCAR.”

Throughout Bobby Allison’s career, he was often at odds with authority figures, be it team owners, NASCAR officials, crew members or fellow drivers.

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Donnie Allison — Getty Images

When told of his older brother’s reflections of the resentment he felt in the Indy 500, Donnie took a more diplomatic view.

“Different personalities and different egos,” Donnie Allison said of his older brother and Penske Racing. “When Bobby drove for Penske, he owned his own team and did a lot of the engine work and engineered the car himself.

“Bobby was just like A.J. Foyt – he knew what he wanted, he knew how to get it, and he didn’t want anyone to know what he wanted.

“Bobby and I had identically built race cars. I was winning all the races in that car and Bobby wasn’t. He wanted to know what was different in my car and his car and I told him, ‘the driver.’ He asked again and I told him what it was.

“He didn’t like that. I beat him at a big race in Birmingham and I told him the same thing. He didn’t like that answer. I did an awful lot of work for Bobby. Bobby Allison Racing was built by Bobby and Donnie Allison.”

Neil Bonnett attempted to compete in the 1979 Indy 500 for team owner Warner Hodgdon, but rain ruined his chance to qualify for the race. Bonnett was driving for the Wood Brothers and was prepared to skip the World 600. But when qualifications interfered with the NASCAR race at Dover, Bonnett withdrew from the Indy 500 and never had a chance to return.

Bobby and Donnie Allison are the only two members of the “Alabama Gang” that ever competed in the Indianapolis 500 and are part of the history and legacy of that race.

“I feel very good about that,” Donnie Allison said. “I ran pretty damn good there.”

Donnie and Bobby both watch the NTT IndyCar Series races on NBCSN and NBC. Although Bobby is more of a stock-car fan, Donnie has become a big advocate of the current IndyCar Series, its stars and its races.

Bobby Allison remains one of the more tragic figures in the sport. He lost both sons, including Clifford in a NASCAR Busch Series crash at Michigan International Speedway on August 13, 1992. Bobby’s son Davey was killed in a helicopter crash at Talladega on July 13, 1993.

Bobby’s career came to an end when he suffered a very serious head injury in a crash at Pocono Raceway on June 19, 1988, just a few months after he won his third Daytona 500 in a 1-2 finish with his son, Davey.

Bobby Allison (12) leads son Davey Allison to the checkered flag of the 1988 Daytona 500.

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Bobby Allison has no recollection of that glorious moment in his life when father and son finished first and second in the Daytona 500.

“To this day, I see replays of it and it’s like I’m watching a movie,” Bobby admitted. “It’s not me and Davey on the track, it’s a movie.”

Bobby became a widower on December 18, 2015, when he lost the love of his life, long-time wife Judy.

His connection to the Indianapolis 500 was not a happy one, but Bobby does have something from that race that is a proud possession to this day.

“I’m still proud of the fact we both represented ourselves well with the speed that we ran and Donnie getting the finishes that he did, and me running as good as I did,” Bobby Allison said. “To lead that 23^rd lap of the 1975 Indianapolis 500 – they gave me a little trophy for leading that lap. They used to give the lap leaders a trophy for the laps they led.

“I have that trophy in my house.

“There are a lot of guys who are really good race drivers that don’t have a trophy for leading laps in the Indianapolis 500.”

Follow Bruce Martin on Twitter at @BruceMartin_500

The Buffalo Bills will travel to Indianapolis to take on the Colts in Week 10 at Lucas Oil Stadium.

The Bills (7-2) and Colts (4-5) have been trending in different directions as of late. The Bills have won four in a row while the Colts have lost their last two.

The Bills haven’t won in Indianapolis since 1999. This week, they are four-point favorites to win against a solid Colts team. Even though the Bills will be picked to win by many, there are always a few things that make winning difficult each week. The Bills will need to be wary of them.

Here are three causes for concern for the Bills in Week 10:

Joe Flacco can still sling it

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In his 17th year in the NFL, Joe Flacco still has a more-than-capable throwing arm. Thrust into the starting lineup for a struggling Anthony Richardson, Flacco has the numbers to back that he is a threat through the air at 39 years old.

In four games played this year, he has posted seven touchdowns with just two interceptions and a 94.5 passer rating. In games that Richardson played this year, the Colts averaged 18.8 points per game, and with Flacco, they are averaging 23.5 ppg.

The Bills passing defense, which ranks 15th in the NFL in DVOA, will be tested in Week 10.

Jonathan Taylor on the ground

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With running back Jonathan Taylor in the backfield, and now Flacco under center, the Colts offer a balanced attack on offense. Taylor is coming off of an unproductive Week 9 when he had 48 rushing yards and just 3.7 yards per carry against a stout Minnesota Vikings defense.

He’ll be looking to bounce back, and he has a history of gashing the Bills. In 2021, Taylor had 185 yards and five rushing touchdowns in a Colts blowout win over the Bills.

The Bills will have to gameplan to try to limit what he can do. Last week, the Bills gave up over five yards per carry to both Miami Dolphins’ running backs. While they have gotten gashed a few times on the ground this year, their run defense still ranks sixth in DVOA. Facing Taylor will be a good measuring stick to see what the Bills’ front seven can handle.

Colts keep it close

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Every game for the Colts this year has been a one-score game. They haven’t lost by more than eight and haven’t won by more than six. They’ve been in all nine games to this point. Despite being 4-5 and making a recent quarterback switch, they’re a better team than many think. They very well could be above .500 had Flacco been the starter all year.

At home, the Colts are 3-1 this year, including a 27-24 win with Flacco under center over a good Pittsburgh Steelers team. If Bills fans have a strong showing like they did in Seattle two weeks ago, it would be a big boost for the team.