A surprising Colts team is going to get tested this week.

Indianapolis is on the road, taking on the Rams at 4:05 p.m. Sunday (WXIN-59) in the franchise’s first appearance at SoFi Stadium, the palace built for the NFL in Inglewood.

The Colts (3-0) are one of six teams that remain undefeated after the first three weeks, and the Rams (2-1) probably should be a part of that group after coughing up a 26-7 third-quarter lead on Sunday against the Eagles, a team that blocked two Los Angeles field goals to come roaring back to win.

Indianapolis has taken an early lead in an AFC South that’s not expected to be all that competitive, and the Colts have already proven they can beat up on bad teams, blowing past Miami and Tennessee in blowouts.

But to make this start count, the Colts are going to have to beat some good teams, and Los Angeles (2-1) looks like that kind of team through the first three weeks of the season.

1. The Rams are the best defense Indianapolis has faced so far. Los Angeles ranks fifth in the NFL in yards allowed (268.3 per game), second in sacks per dropback (13.04%) and top-10 in both passing yards allowed (165.3, sixth) and yards per dropback (5.39, eighth). The Indianapolis offense has been one of the league’s best, ranking second in the league in both points (34.3) and yards (418.7), but the Rams are going to provide a tough test for Daniel Jones, Jonathan Taylor and the rest of the Colts offense.

Is Daniel Jones ready for the Rams’ defense?

2. A young Los Angeles defensive line is tied for first in the NFL with 12 sacks, and even though Los Angeles ranks 18th in the NFL in blitz percentage, blitzing at a rate of 21.4%, the Rams have a knack for getting blitzes home. Rams safeties Jaylen McCollough and Kamren Curl have combined for three sacks, but it is difficult to get home against the Colts. Indianapolis faced two of the three heaviest-blitz teams in the NFL in the first two weeks, saw 37 blitzes and handled them well. Jones has taken just two sacks this season, and more importantly, he has carved up the blitz. Tennessee tried a different strategy, blitzing Jones only four times on Sunday, but it didn’t make much of a difference. Jones wasn’t sacked, took only two quarterback hits and carved up Tennessee’s defense on the way to a 41-point day in Nashville.

3. One of the knocks on Jones coming into this season was that he took too many sacks, but he’s taken just two so far, and any questions about competition might have been answered on Sunday, when Denver’s pass rush sacked Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert five times and hit him 14 times overall. Jones took a season-high six quarterback hits against the Broncos, but he was sacked just once by a Denver pass rush that is tied with Los Angeles for the league lead in sacks so far. Indianapolis likely will not have right guard Matt Goncalves; backup Dalton Tucker has starting experience, but Los Angeles will likely attack Tucker with interior rushers Kobie Turner and Braden Fiske.

4. Philadelphia came roaring back against the Rams last week by putting the ball in the air. Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts had just 4 of 8 completions for 17 yards at halftime, then ripped off 17 completions in 24 attempts for 209 yards and three touchdowns in the second half. Los Angeles is built around its pass rush, but Rams cornerbacks Emmanuel Forbes and Cobie Durant are still building reputations in the league, and Philadelphia might have provided a blueprint for Jones and Indianapolis head coach Shane Steichen. With wide receiver Alec Pierce likely out of action due to a concussion suffered against Tennessee, though, the Colts will be missing both one of the NFL’s best deep threats and a player who has looked like a key third-down weapon for Jones. Indianapolis will need second-year wide receiver Adonai Mitchell to step up in Pierce’s absence.

5. Colts right tackle Braden Smith will have his hands full. Edge rusher Byron Young leads Los Angeles with four sacks and five quarterback hits, and he’s rushed mostly off the left side of the defensive line, placing him squarely across from Smith.

6. Fellow edge rusher Jared Verse has one sack so far, but he has four quarterback hits and a knack for coming up big in key moments. If Young is rushing off the left side, Verse will go up against left tackle Bernhard Raimann, who was solid on Sunday after a few shaky moments in the first two games.

7. The Los Angeles pass rush has now faced three quarterbacks — Houston’s C.J. Stroud, Tennessee’s Cam Ward and Hurts — who have a history of holding onto the ball in the pocket, although Stroud has been better this season at 2.73 seconds. Jones, on the other hand, is tied for the seventh-fastest time to throw in the NFL this season, getting the ball out of his hands in 2.69 seconds.

Jonathan Taylor vs. Rams rush defense

8. Jonathan Taylor, the NFL’s leading rusher, is going to have to work for his yards against the Rams. Los Angeles has allowed more than 100 rushing yards twice this season, but the Rams have not allowed an opposing rushing attack to produce more than 4.2 yards per carry. Buoyed by huge runs in each of the last two weeks, Taylor is averaging 5.6 yards per carry so far.

9. The Los Angeles defense has missed only one tackle this season, according to Pro Football Reference, the best mark in the NFL. By comparison, Taylor made four Titans miss tackles on a single 46-yard touchdown run last week.

10. An Indianapolis kickoff return that ranks third in yards per return (30.3) takes on a Rams coverage unit that has allowed a microscopic 13.5 yards per return so far.

11. Nose tackle Grover Stewart got a hand on a Tennessee field goal last week; Los Angeles had two field goals blocked by Eagles defensive tackles Jalen Carter and Jordan Davis.

Rams’ top 10 offense vs. Colts’ top 10 defense

12. Sean McVay’s offense is clicking. Los Angeles ranks fifth in yards (363.7 per game), 11th in points (24.3) and ranks in the top 10 in rushing and passing, both in terms of total yardage and on a per-play basis. The Indianapolis defense ranks in the top 10 in both yards and points allowed, but the Colts haven’t faced an offense playing as well as the Rams yet.

13. Los Angeles may try to attack the Colts on the ground with its two-headed rushing attack of Kyren Williams (226 yards, 4.1 per carry) and rookie Blake Corum (99 yards, 7.1 per carry). Indianapolis ranks eighth in the NFL in rushing yards allowed, giving up just 94 yards per game, but the Colts have also minimized the running game by building big leads. The Indianapolis run defense ranks 25th in the NFL on a per-carry basis, allowing opponents to rack up 4.8 yards per carry.

14. The Indianapolis pass rush has also struggled at times. The Colts have seven sacks on the season, but the pressure has been inconsistent. The team’s top two pass rushers, defensive end Laiatu Latu and defensive tackle DeForest Buckner, are both still looking for their first sacks of the season. Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford is no longer the type of scrambler Indianapolis faced the past two weeks — Denver’s Bo Nix and Tennessee’s Cam Ward frequently escaped the pocket — but he’s been sacked just five times, in large part because he’s getting rid of the ball in 2.61 seconds, tied for the third-fastest time in the NFL.

15. Expect the Rams to shift Puka Nacua, the NFL’s leading receiver with 29 catches for 333 yards so far, into the slot as often as possible. Indianapolis will not have veteran slot cornerback Kenny Moore II due to a calf injury suffered last week, and Los Angeles will likely want to test young cornerback Mekhi Blackmon, a Moore replacement who has seen most of his snaps on the outside this season. Indianapolis could also elevate veteran Mike Hilton from the practice squad, but Hilton’s skills have diminished a bit as he’s gotten older.

16. The battle between veteran Colts cornerback Charvarius Ward and Rams wide receiver Davante Adams is the best matchup in this game. Adams has 13 catches for 213 yards and two touchdowns this season, but he struggled at times to get free against Philadelphia’s Quinyon Mitchell last week, posting only three catches, although one was a 44-yard touchdown. Ward was signed to slow down players like Adams, and the matchup seems clear heading into Sunday’s performance at SoFi.

17. Opponents have attacked the Indianapolis linebackers in the passing game through the first three weeks, completing 21 of 24 passes against Zaire Franklin, Joe Bachie, Cameron McGrone and Austin Ajiake through the first four weeks, according to Pro Football Reference. Expect Stafford and McVay to continue to target the linebackers, especially with Nakua, tight end Tyler Higbee and Williams out of the backfield.  

Joel A. Erickson covers the Colts all season. Get more coverage on IndyStarTV and with the Colts Insider newsletter.