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INDIANAPOLIS – Amidst all the chatter about the Colts winning three games in a row for the first time since 2015, the quarterback’s play isn’t receiving your normal headlines.
Yes, the play of the offensive line (or a screaming Quenton Nelson), the historic success of the tight end group, a revived run game (before the bye week) and even the concerns over a stagnate pass rush have been the major storylines.
Have we not given the proper attention to the stretch Andrew Luck is currently on?
I think so.
Luck is currently in the most efficient three-game run of his career.
Look at these numbers Luck has put up in wins over the Bills, Raiders and Jaguars (and let’s remember Buffalo and Jacksonville had top-10 defenses):
–Bills: 17-23 (73.9{5cc93c20f90a32e13f8959d57682c5e5d5b1db216370168a8280434e1df7d759}), 156 yards, 4 TDs, 0 INTs, 131.5 quarterback rating
-Raiders: 22-31 (71.0{5cc93c20f90a32e13f8959d57682c5e5d5b1db216370168a8280434e1df7d759}), 239 yards, 3 TDs, 0 INTs, 125.6 quarterback rating
-Jaguars: 21-29 (72.4{5cc93c20f90a32e13f8959d57682c5e5d5b1db216370168a8280434e1df7d759}), 285 yards, 3 TDs, 1 INT, 123.5 quarterback rating
Those are 3 of Luck’s 9 highest individual passer ratings of his career.
It’s 10 touchdowns to 1 interception, which wasn’t even Luck’s fault (a Mo Alie-Cox drop last week led to the pick).
For the first time in his career, Luck has had three consecutive games completing at least 70 percent of his passes.
What has stood out to Frank Reich during this career-stretch for Luck?
“I would say decision making and elite accuracy are the two biggest factors,” Reich says. “Then when he has to ad-lib and make a play and extend a play, he’s been elite at that as well.”
Those things can be seen on Sunday, when it really matters, by Reich and the rest of the world.
But Reich also sees Luck’s work in action Monday-Saturday.
That part of Luck’s game is something that Reich gushes about after seeing it up-close through more than half of the 2018 season.
“It really all starts with Andrew’s leadership (with) the way he prepares,” Reich says. “It’s hard for me to totally do justice to the way that he prepares. It’s not a one-man show by any stretch of the imagination, but he does such a phenomenal job the whole week of getting mastery over the game plan.
“It helps in every way. It helps me call the game because I know exactly what he’s comfortable with because he’s not shy to share his opinion. He’s a big-time part of the process. As we are installing things there is a lot of communication back-and-forth between he, Nick (Sirianni) and I. I can’t understate Nick’s contribution to this whole equation as well. Nick is doing a phenomenal job with the staff. I mean off the charts. It’s so good. His communication with Andrew is excellent. But for Andrew to be able to take that onto the field, he’s just doing that at a level that is really, really high.”
Sirianni witnesses it, too, using a term that is hardly heard when it comes to a player breaking down film.
“I love the way this guy prepares,” Sirianni says of No. 12. “He is a stud. He wants to be in there at all times preparing. He wants to have a plan in his head for every single play. ‘Hey, what about the one time they played this. What am I going to do here?’ Like he’s just a stud trying to get ready for the actual plays and a stud getting ready for the type of defense that he’s playing against.
“There are a lot of guys in the NFL with talent and Andrew has elite talent. But I think a big separator a lot of the times is the amount you love football. Do you love football and are you willing to work at it and sacrifice for it to be everything you can be in football? I just see that in him every single day. It’s great, it’s awesome. Again, I don’t know if that surprised me about him because guys that are elite are usually like that, but it’s just great to see that and great to see a guy who loves football as much as he does.”
Back playing the game he loves was a win for Luck.
Doing it at this level, this soon in his return, is truly remarkable.
