INDIANAPOLIS -- Colts quarterback Anthony Richardson dropped back and surveyed the field. By the time he sidestepped the pass rush and recovered from a slip at the top of his dropback, Richardson practically needed to squint to see receiver Alec Pierce streaking nearly 50 yards down the field.
Undeterred, Richardson heaved the football toward the heavens in Pierce's direction.
Stunningly, the ball got there despite the distance, even though Richardson threw off his back foot to avoid the pass rush. Pierce caught it just before crossing the goal line for a 60-yard touchdown, the longest play of his career.
"AP just did his job, and I just had to deliver the ball to him," Richardson said of Pierce. "I think I did a decent job getting the ball there and he made a play."
Talk about an understatement.
"That was probably the best throw I've ever seen," Colts coach Shane Steichen said. "Closest one was probably [Patrick] Mahomes when I was [with] the Chargers in 2020, to Tyreek Hill. But it was impressive. He ... just freaking launched that thing and hit Alec in stride. It was impressive as all get-out."
The Colts identified generating more explosive plays as an offensive priority in 2024. And it doesn't get much more explosive than the Colts' first touchdown of the new season, with the Richardson-to-Pierce connection getting Indianapolis on the board in its Week 1 loss to the Houston Texans.
There was much more to come, too. Richardson and the Colts connected on completions of 57 yards and 54 yards later in the game to Pierce and Ashton Dulin, respectively.
It's exactly what the Colts were seeking this season, looking to avoid the long, grind-it-out sort of drives that were frequent last season while Richardson spent 13 games on the sideline with injuries.
"He's got a huge arm that allows us to push the ball down the field, and then we've got the speed on the outside to go get it," Steichen said. "I think when you're explosive like that in the pass game, instead of having those 12-, 13-, 14-play drives, you get an opportunity to hit some big ones."
Said Pierce: "A lot can go wrong [on long drives]. You can get turnovers, penalties -- all that stuff."
That being said, Sunday's game featured one of the stranger offensive performances you'll see, with the Colts enjoying great success on aggressive throws and quick scores. But they also saw Richardson struggle to connect on more routine passes throughout the day.
The young quarterback, making his fifth pro start, finished with 212 passing yards, completing 9 of 19 attempts with one interception. But if you take away Richardson's three explosive completions, that leaves him 6-for-16 for only 41 yards on his other attempts.
The Colts, of course, aren't going to apologize for the big plays, and they certainly count. The feeling within the organization is that the routine plays will come. The big plays, on the other hand, are much harder to come by, but they've already demonstrated they can hit them.
"He's going to miss some throws, just like all these quarterbacks in the league," Steichen said. "But we'll get that cleaned up."
To put the Colts' aggressiveness with Richardson under center in perspective, consider that he averaged 16.6 air yards per attempt on Sunday. The league average last season was 7.5. No other quarterback in Week 1 registered a number higher than 11 air yards per attempt.
And Richardson's number would've been even higher had he connected on two deep shots to rookie wide receiver Adonai Mitchell. Richardson overthrew him twice, including once on a route where Mitchell drew an illegal contact penalty because he'd beaten his defender. That penalty disrupted what could have been a connection of more than 40 air yards.
"Coach Shane is going to dial it up like he always does, and it's up to the 11 on the field to go out there and execute," Mitchell said. "The best is yet to come."
The difference in the disposition of the Colts' offense is perhaps most noticeable for Pierce. He's spent the past two seasons waiting to consistently deliver on the deep threat that he provides, but failing to do so because of the team's quarterback challenges.
Pierce ranked seventh in the league in routes run in 2023 (575), but he was 93rd leaguewide in targets (67) and 135th in receptions (32). Now, with a strong-armed and aggressive quarterback like Richardson, Pierce is having the biggest impact of his career. He had a career-high 125 receiving yards on three catches.
Richardson has supercharged the Colts' deep-passing game, even while he is still trying to fine-tune some other areas. That has the Colts thinking big.
"I sit here and think, 'Dog, this dude is four months older than me, the youngest quarterback in the NFL right now, and he's making the plays that he's making and it's only game 1,'" Mitchell said. "It's like, man, we're in pretty good shape here."