INDIANAPOLIS — Indianapolis Colts quarterback Matt Ryan joined 13Sports Director Dave Calabro Wednesday to talk about lessons from the disappointing season opener in Houston, as well as a look ahead to the Colts' Week 2 opponent, the Jacksonville Jaguars.
"Let's talk about adversity. We didn't expect this in Week 1. We didn't expect to see dropped passes, fumbles, missed kicks," Calabro said. "How do you guys handle adversity? What did you learn about your team?"
"I learned there's no flinch. When you're going through some of those things, physical mistakes - we had a handful of them - I thought the guys responded well. We just kept with it and kept the belief that no matter what, we were going to find a way to get the job done," Ryan said. "Ultimately, we kind of fell a little bit short of winning that game, but the way we responded in the second half, particularly in the fourth quarter and overtime, has me fired up moving forward."
The Colts waived Rodrigo Blankenship on Tuesday after the kicker missed a potential game-winning field goal in overtime after kicking a pair of kickoffs out of bounds during the 20-20 tie with the Texans. The team signed veteran Chase McLaughlin and rookie Lucas Havrisik to the practice squad to compete for the kicking job heading into Sunday's game with the Jaguars.
"We'll trust whoever they decide to put out there on Sunday, "Ryan said. "There's going to be ups and downs throughout the year, so you have to maintain that trust in all three phases. Offense has to rely on defense and special teams and we've gotta make them rely on us, too. If we're going to be a good team, we all have to trust each other."
The Colts head into Jacksonville with fresh memories of last season's 26-11 defeat in the last game of the season, effectively knocking Indianapolis out of the playoffs. The Colts have lost seven straight games in Jacksonville.
While Ryan obviously wasn't with the Colts for any of the losses in the streak, he told Calabro for some of the team's veterans, the past matters, but it's a new year with a new team.
"Some guys who have been here and guys who have some of that scar tissue that we all develop as we move forward in the league, as we get older, there's things like that that happen," he said. "But at the end of the day, this is a new football team and they're a new football team down there in Jacksonville and we control the narrative as players, as coaches. So we can understand that there's going to be a lot said about it. But what we do, our actions, are going to control the outcome of this game and that's what we have to focus on."
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Riley Kid of the Week
Ryan also recognized 17-year-old Liam Ealy as the Riley Kid of the Week.
According to the Riley Children's Foundation, Ealy was diagnosed with Duchenne muscular dystrophy almost 15 years ago. That's a genetic disorder that causes deterioration of muscles in the heart, lungs and along the bones.
Ealy is active in a number of sports, including a wheelchair soccer league. He plans to study cinematography at Ball State University after graduating high school.
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(Editor's note: This story has been edited to correct the result of the Houston game in the headline.)