Golden Tate was the only Lions player to tally more catches than the two running backs Sunday, and he checked in with seven.
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ABOUT THE LIONS (2015: 7-9): Detroit will expand running back Ameer Abdullah’s role in an effort to boost the rushing attack but don’t expect to move too far away from the passing game.
Only second-year guard Laken Tomlinson struggled against the Colts. The coverage units for both teams performed pretty well as neither team was able to get much going in regards to return yards.
Detroit had a hard season of its own, and now QB Matthew Stafford and the Lions look to recover from the retirement of Calvin Megatron Johnson as they look to contend in the NFC in 2016.
The Colts got a touchdown late in the second quarter to head to halftime down 21-10.
The Lions first play on their final drive was a pass over the middle for a 19-yard gain.
“We are more than capable”. Instead of going for the PAT, Chuck Pagano kept his offense on the field where Luck found Dwayne Allen to make the score 21-17, it was a one possession game in Indianapolis when the score was once 21-3. One bright spot for the Lions was defensive lineman Kerry Hyder.
Despite a Week 1 loss, the Indianapolis Colts’ offense was in fine form. Except, they gained a 1st down and then punted shortly after.
The Colts haven’t opened at home since 2013, and they have trips to Denver and London in the first four weeks.
Andrew Luck and company came out firing in the second half and after a missed extra point by Matt Prater, the table appeared to be set for the Colts to rally back and steal the game. The Colts still had a chance to lead, but this time it would presumably be for good. Though there were some stops in the second half, the Lions had a 71-yard touchdown drive to take a 28-18 lead and a 75-yarder to take a 34-28 lead.
With the fourth quarter clocking ticking late on Sunday and the Colts down six, it was Luck conducting a 94-yard drive, with a ideal 6-of-6 series, giving the Colts a 35-34 lead with 37 seconds remaining. Outside linebacker Robert Mathis, placekicker Adam Vinatieri, and punter Pat McAfee all played for Caldwell in Indianapolis. The offense did their part, as Luck connected with Jack Doyle late in the fourth quarter, but the banged up secondary for the Colts was unable to hunker down and allowed the Lions to storm down the field with a little over 30 second left to allow Prater to redeem himself with a game-winning 43-yard field goal. Redemption time for Prater. Six of those plays were runs for just 14 yards.
In his first regular season game since November, Colts quarterback Andrew Luck completed 31 of his 47 passes for 385 yards. The Colts top 3 receivers who some may consider to be one of the best in the league also had a nice day. It was enjoyable. We had a lot of success, but I’ve been gone for quite some time now.
“We have systems and strategies in place that we kind of look at and numbers that we are looking at all the time and guys in the (coaches’) box that are looking at it … and trying to stay within it so we have enough time to score”, Caldwell said. Many of his free agent signings have not panned out. With a paid subscription to the service, you can access all out-of-market games for the 2016 season. Drafting defense has not been great for Grigson either. Their reasoning for keeping the Colts so high? “We still got a long way to go”.
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The Colts need to address this problem soon because their schedule does not get any easier.
