Colts show improvement, but questions still remain
By PAUL SIEGFRIED
ISL Correspondent
The Indianapolis Colts finally earned a Twitter-delivered seal of approval from owner Jim Irsay following a 20-12 win over the New York Giants Sunday in New York.
But just because Irsay was pleased with the win and fans might feel good about the performance, the Colts still have some questions to be answered in the next couple of weeks before the regular season begins Sept. 8 against the Raiders in Indianapolis.
Irsay was critical of the team in a preseason-opening 44-20 loss to Buffalo, tweeting “Many starters played briefly or were nursing little injuries, but it was a crap performance,my apologies/My commanders got n earful from me!”
Irsay took a lot of heat from fans and media following his critical assessment. He was certainly more upbeat after the win over the Giants.
“That’s more like it..there r sum that shrug off losing,even at checkers;they’ll never wear the HORSESHOE or touch the Diamond’s of Champions” he tweeted Sunday night.
There were plenty of highlights and overall the team had a better outing.
In nearly a full half of play, Colts quarterback Andrew Luck threw a pair of touchdown passes, completing 9-of-13 passes for 107 yards. The Indianapolis defense also kept the Giants out of the end zone and came up with six sacks and an interception.
Early on, however, the team struggled in all aspects. The rebuilt offensive line had trouble pass protecting and run blocking to open the game, and the defensive line failed to put pressure on Giants quarterback Eli Manning and was pushed off the ball as New York runners chewed up some big gains.
Even the Colts special teams had its troubles, with returner Cassius Vaughn coughing up the ball.
Despite the early difficulty, the Colts came up with big plays when they needed them, and even had a bit of good fortune.
The Giants drove inside the Colts 10 on their opening drive, but on a 4th-and-1 at the 7, Giants RB Andre Brown was stuffed by Erik Walden and Antoine Bethea with some help from Kelvin Sheppard for no gain.
The Colts’ first score came on what could be the preseason’s wildest play. An under-thrown pass by Luck should have been picked off by the Giants’ Aaron Ross. But Ross bobbled the ball and it was snatched out of the air by the Colts Reggie Wayne for a touchdown.
Luck later made a pinpoint pass to T.Y. Hilton for his second TD toss of the game as the Colts built a 17-9 halftime lead.
Even Luck said the Colts are not where they need to be for the regular season.
“It wasn’t perfect,” he said. “There is still a whole bunch of room for improvement but it was good to get in a rhythm, it was good to put points on the board. What a great job by our defense, holding them to three points on some short fields.”
A year ago, everything fell into place for the Colts, as Luck, Wayne and Hilton made enough big plays to carry the team to an 11-5 record and a playoff berth. Those three will still make their share of plays again this year, but if other areas don’t come around and key injured players don’t get healthy, even another season of miracles might not get the Colts back to 11 wins again.
The Colts offensive line is still tying to find some consistency. Center Samson Satele too often was pushed onto his back often by the Giants, and the line as a whole couldn’t open up holes inside for Ballard, and couldn’t set the edge for anything outside. Two injured rookie linemen have hurt in terms of depth and development.
The power running game that Hamilton promised hasn’t materialized, either. They picked up 88 yards against the Giants, but it took them 33 carries, a 2.7 average.
Luck had also hoped to have bookend tight ends to throw to, but that has also not been available. Dwayne Allen has been hurt, and former college teammate Coby Fleener has had an awful training camp. Fleener dropped a sure first down against the Giants, then wasn’t even looking on another route when backup QB Matt Hasselbeck threw one his way.
Third tight end Justice Cunningham, a rookie who was the final pick of the 2013 NFL Draft, has turned heads during camp and may have earned a spot as a hybrid fullback/tight end.
Wayne looked in regular-season form, and Hilton is expected to have a breakout season, pushing Darrius Heyward-Bey for the No. 2 wideout position.
The Colts running back situation is still in flux. Ballard is No. 1 for now, and former Giant Ahmad Bradshaw has not yet seen action. Bradshaw has just come off the PUP list and did not play against his former team. He is expected to play in the team’s third preseason game Saturday against the Browns at Lucas Oil Stadium.
The third running back spot is becoming a bit clearer. Donald Brown has started to separate himself from Delone Carter in that battle.
On the defensive side, the middle of the Colts line struggled against the Giants, getting pushed back at the point of attack as the Giants went away from Pro Bowl outside linebacker Robert Mathis.
The rotation of the front three down linemen still seems wide open. Drake Nevis came on later in Sunday’s game and flashed at times, and could climb the depth chart.
The linebacker position seems solid. Along with Mathis, the Colts have two newcomers in Walden and Sheppard, who had decent efforts against the Giants.
First-round draft pick Bjoern Werner also saw his first action of the preseason at linebacker. He got caught out of position on a few plays, and was swallowed up at the point of attack on running plays a couple times. He was mostly used in nickel situations against the Giants, and dropped in coverage on several plays.
The much-maligned secondary came up with a turnover on Sunday as cornerback Greg Toler stepped in front of an Eli Manning pass for an interception.
The Colts will host the Browns Saturday in what will amount to the final dress rehearsal for the regular season. Starters are expected to sit out the final preseason contest at Cincinnati on August 29. Teams will need to cut down rosters to 75 players on Aug. 27 and the final 53-man rosters need to be set by Aug. 31.
