The Colts offense that takes the field against the Jets will include four rookies: Andrew Luck, Vick Ballard, Coby Fleener and Dwayne Allen.

A fifth, T.Y. Hilton, will work as the third receiver.

Interim coach Bruce Arians knows mistakes are going to happen with so much inexperience on the field and with Rex Ryan’s defense forcing the issue, mistakes will come.

Arians is more concerned with the pace at which things unfold.

"It’s time to grow up,” he told Indianapolis reporters. “Some of these guys have logged a lot of snaps already so the youth thing we can’t use as an excuse unless it’s your first. We view (receiver) Nathan Palmer as a young guy. He hasn’t even been here three weeks and he’s in the game plan. So these guys who just showed up, they can use the youth excuse on them. The rest of the guys, no, they have to play like vets…”

“Yeah, mistakes are OK, just make them full speed and something good will happen. Sure they’re going to make mistakes. They’re not going to play perfect. Play fast. If you’re not sure of something, just do something fast and you’ve got a chance to be successful.”

Reggie Wayne has been offsetting a lot of the youth with his excellent play.

He said he doesn’t worry about taking a young team on the road.

“I don’t, because one thing about these young guys that we do have, they are -- I won’t say cocky -- but they’re interesting. They feel like they can go and run through brick walls and that’s what you want. We understand the way to take away the home fans if we’re on the road, is to make plays early and often. Let’s quiet them down. Let’s make them boo. We know how to get that done. We have to make plays from the jump. We’ve got the guys that can make that happen, turn little passes to big gains and short runs to big runs. I think this will be a big game for us, in the Big Apple, big stage. It should be a good one.”

It would be easy for the Colts to suffer a letdown after such an emotional home win last week over the Packers on the heels of the news of Chuck Pagano’s illness. So that’s surely been a big theme for the team this week. It’s a group that’s fared better than many of us thought possible in terms of addressing a big theme like that successfully.

It’ll be awfully interesting to see if they are able to start quickly and pick up where they left off.