INDIANAPOLIS – Here’s our latest ‘hits and misses’ piece on 1075TheFan.com highlighting the good and bad from the previous game.
Although the Colts offensive effort from Thursday night will make your eyes bleed, several individuals were outstanding in getting the win on the road.
What was the good and bad from the Colts (2-2-1) somehow, someway, beating the Broncos 12-9?
Hits
-Rookie Shines In Primetime: When the Colts drafted Alec Pierce in April, it was thought they were getting a guy who could handle the more pressure-filled moments. We saw that on Thursday night. Pierce hauled in 8 catches on 9 targets. There’s just a calmness about how Pierce carries himself. You see his impressive family background playing athletics at a high-level and an innate feel to constantly find the football, even when the ball is not in his immediate catch radius. Pierce has really bounced back from a critical Week 1 drop.
-Finally, Some Defensive Playmaking: The Colts have been waiting for their stars to show up at a more frequent level this season. That was there on Thursday night with DeForest Buckner (8 tackles, 2 sacks), Stephon Gilmore (1 interception and the game-winning pass deflection), Kenny Moore (a key red-zone pass deflection) delivering for the Indy defense. You pay these guys the amount of money you do for nights like Thursday.
-Chase McLaughlin From Distance: In last week’s loss to the Titans, the inability to kick/connect on long field goals was once again on display. McLaughlin was a perfect 4-of-4 on Thursday night, knocking home kicks from 48, 51 and 52 yards. It was a clutch performance from a guy who didn’t have a job a few weeks ago. The kicking game has already cost the Colts one win this season, but McLaughlin made sure that wouldn’t happen again on Thursday.
Misses
-Awful Quarterback Turnovers: Matt Ryan has now tossed 7 interceptions and fumbled the ball 11 times this season. Simply, those are horrific numbers or a 15-year vet. What is more alarming is how those interceptions came to be on Thursday. They were not due to some pocket rapidly collapsing or a ball off a receiver’s hands. Nope, they were poor decisions, thrown into heavy traffic at parts of the games where the ball did not need to be forced at all.Â
-Broken Offensive Line: It is wild to see an NFL team decide to change 3 starting positions on the offensive line in one week, let alone do it without any practice time. But that’s what the Colts did on Thursday night. The results were terrible. Matt Ryan was sacked 6 times and the unit was flagged for 6 different penalties. As the Colts return from their mini bye, it is anyone’s guess as to how they line up. The highest paid offensive line in football is in shambles 5 weeks into the season.
