Luck, despite a stirring rally to force overtime against the Carolina Panthers on Monday night, owned the NFL’s highest interception rate even before tossing three picks at Bank of America Stadium.
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Graham Gano kicked a 52-yard field goal in overtime to lift the host Carolina Panthers to a 29-26 victory over the Indianapolis Colts.
Luck completed 23-of-47 passes for 232 yards for the Colts (3-5), who lost their third game in a row.
“All your goals are still obtainable, but it doesn’t make this loss any easier to swallow”, Luck said.
If everyone’s got a meek, vague answer then no one’s got an answer at all. Not because I was too lazy to scour the locker room for nuggets of wisdom.
“When you look at your quarterback and he’s not tripping, we’re not tripping, either”.
“Nothing”, tight end Greg Olsen said. Informed of the voting results at the time, a defensive coordinator wanted to know what the five holdouts were smoking (for the record, they wanted to see more consistency from Luck).
It seems fitting that a riverboat would show up on such a soggy day, and indeed we saw the return of “Riverboat Ron” in the first quarter.
“Absolutely not”, Newton said afterwards.
CBS Charlotte affiliate WBTV reports that at one point, the section immediately below the rappellers appeared to be cleared out by police or security.
Olsen said the Panthers are a team built on handling adversity. The Panthers were up 23-6 and in total control of the game with 10:44 to play. The defense is as good as it gets in the NFL.
Where this defense may be at its best is in the back, led by now-elite cover man Josh Norman, who moved around on defense and did a fabulous job shutting down whomever he covered.
Across the rest of the league, former Stanford players put up limited numbers on offense, but several defensive players had solid performances, including Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman ’10 and Dolphins safety Michael Thomas ’12.
Carolina’s injured pass rush looked exhausted for a third straight drive, and with Andrew Luck playing the role of the comeback kid, a Colts comeback was on the table. But in the fourth quarter, he caught a 27-yard touchdown from Cam Newton. As Newton backed up against the Colts’ rush he hit Ginn in stride at the Indianapolis 15, a pass of 41 yards.
What stood out in this one was the Panthers’ second efforts when running the ball, especially during the first half. As electrifying as it is to watch Newton dash down the field, there are concerns over his inability to avoid contact, as ESPN color commentator Jon Gruden was quick to point out on the broadcast. Cam Newton got two yards on a quarterback run from the shotgun on the first one, and Jonathan Stewart banged into the end zone on fourth-and-1 from the 3 on the second. Neither guy played well, but again: the rain was insane.
That Green Bay game is this Sunday at Bank of America Stadium at 1:00.
Even after the rain there were still a few mistakes. Ted Ginn, still trending on Twitter as of 1:22 a.m. ET, would probably like to have another shot at reeling in this ball.
Credit Newton for propping up his top wide receiver after the game.
“You can’t sulk and complain about different things that we can’t control”, Newton said. “Nine out of 10, hell 10 out of 10 times I’m throwing it back to him”. Our guys, they work hard, they do a lot of good things.
As is their custom, Carolina had to hang on to win.
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If protestors were really clever they’d have hung up a “2014 AFC South Champions” banner.
