INDIANAPOLIS -- Quarterback Lamar Jackson casually broke the huddle and his Baltimore Ravens offense took its place in a tight, two-tight end formation.
Meanwhile, the Indianapolis Colts' defense across the line of scrimmage was in a state of chaos. Players were scrambling to get lined up, pointing, yelling. Confusion ruled.
Jackson, likely taking notice, quickly called for the snap. He executed a hard play-action fake to running back Derrick Henry, then bootlegged to his left. Jackson found receiver Zay Flowers a couple steps ahead of defender Justin Walley, hitting Flowers for a 49-yard gain that took the ball to the 2-yard line.
Somewhere, Patrick Mahomes likely smiled.
Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs host the Colts on Sunday night (8:20 p.m., ET, NBC), and it is not difficult to imagine Mahomes taking pleasure in seeing the Colts' many defensive miscues in Sunday's blowout loss to the Ravens. Indianapolis gave up its most total yards in nearly three seasons (506) and its defense looked lost.
Because, according to players, it was.
"We're not getting the line right, being late to our alignments and just [not] executing the little details of the defense," defensive tackle DeForest Buckner said. "That was our biggest challenge."
Embarrassing miscommunications that led to costly plays by Baltimore were the defining image of the Colts' 2026 debut, and it has left defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo to rectify things ahead of the team's Week 2 meeting with the crafty Mahomes.
Among the things he'll be examining: Whether veteran safety Cam Bynum should continue to handle defensive communication issues, including wearing the helmet transmitter that allows Anarumo to communicate from the sideline.
The Colts are the rare team that has attempted to use a player other than a linebacker to handle sideline communication. Whether it was a good decision remains to be seen.
"We make sure that it's certainly not just on Cam, but we've got to evaluate everything we do," Anarumo said. He added, "Cam did a phenomenal job for the first game, but I want to look at everything."
The identity of the player wearing the helmet transmitter is not something fans typically obsess over, but the role is critical. Teams may designate one player to wear a helmet transmitter, denoted by the "green dot" on the helmet, to receive one-way communication from a coach. That is how Anarumo relays defensive calls and coverages to his unit, just as offensive coaches do with quarterbacks.
In nearly all cases leaguewide, linebackers handle this responsibility because they are positioned in the middle of the defense. Rookie CJ Allen, the Colts' second-round pick, was projected to be the starting middle linebacker and was expected to wear the transmitter this season. But those plans fell through when Allen missed time with injuries in training camp and the preseason, leading coaches to determine he is not ready to be a starter. The Colts instead plan to use a rotation of linebackers, so it was not ideal to have one specific linebacker tasked with the job of sideline communication.
So, Anarumo turned to one of his trusted veterans instead. Bynum was caught off guard, to say the least.
Of note, watch safety A.J. Haulcy throw his hands up in confusion after the play. Colts asking a lot of him and Walley as young players. Gonna have to live with the ups and downs.
— Stephen Holder (@HolderStephen) September 15, 2026
Haulcy in particular is in the box or a single high safety depending on the call. A lot to learn. https://t.co/CJ96FBjWXe
"I didn't even know defensive backs did that," Bynum said.
But Bynum was up for the challenge. He now admits, however, that running the defensive huddle at the speed of a regular-season game proved challenging. Bynum is sometimes the deep safety in the Colts' system, meaning he has to travel a significant distance back to the huddle. Then, he oftentimes must return to the back end of the defense before the ball is snapped.
"At the end of the day, communication has to be on point," Bynum said. "It's obviously my first time doing it, and I just want to make sure that everybody's always on the same page, and I have to take pride in being able to communicate and relay little messages."
The Ravens made things even more challenging by using offensive tempo and snapping quickly on multiple occasions. It proved disastrous for the Colts. Anarumo said a majority of Baltimore's explosive plays were related to the Colts being misaligned or to communication issues.
"You can never lose the explosive battle like we did," he said.
But the problems could repeat themselves if the Colts aren't better prepared to deal with this issue in Week 2.
"We were a little lackadaisical, man," cornerback Charvarius Ward said. "So, we can't allow that to happen again. It's, for sure, not the standard."