Yet somehow, coach Jim Caldwell righted the ship, leading Detroit to a 6-2 finish that produced hope brighter days were still to come.
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“He (Luck) played out of his mind today”, Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford said after going 31 of 39 for 340 yards with three touchdowns. Anytime you give up that many points in this league, you’re blown out. “That’s a tough way to lose”.
It was the Lions putting together the clutch drive at the end, not the other guys, and their field goal kicker, Matt Prater, who overcame the adversity of missing an extra point that could have defined his career with Detroit. Indianapolis was called for an illegal forward pass in the end zone on the kickoff pushing the final margin to four points. Hilton finished with 6 receptions for 79 yards, Moncrief was the only wide receiver with a touchdown on top of his 6 repceptions for 64 yards, and Phillip Dorsett had the most yards of anyone with 94 on 4 receptions.
In his first regular season game since November, Colts quarterback Andrew Luck completed 31 of his 47 passes for 385 yards.
Vinatieri’s 40-yard field goal with 14:17 remaining pulled Indianapolis within 28-21. LB Tahir Whitehead was picked on often, as he saw nine targets as well, but allowed seven catches for 71 yards and touchdown. The Lions put together touchdown drives of 80, 82 and 75 yards in the first half.
“When it comes to corner and safety and things of that nature, you have to look back at some past target tapes to see how some guys play”, Stafford said of preparing for the new faces in Indianapolis’ secondary.
Of course, for those who know Caldwell, his response when asked about his time in Indianapolis shouldn’t really come as much of a surprise. Yeah, but we had some personnel issues. No one is burning a timeout in the third quarter to hurt us. “We ran out of gas at the end”.
Stafford’s 19-yard dump-off pass to Theo Riddick.
“Tired of talking about slow starts, ” Luck said, essentially spitting the words out. But the Lions still have a chance to get off to a fast start.
My point is this: You can’t just assume the Colts are going to score a go ahead touchdown.
The Lions jumped out to a 21-3 second-quarter lead – the same score they led the San Diego Chargers by in last year’s opener, when they lost 33-28 – but had to hold on to win.
Eight times last season, the Colts trailed at halftime. As for the defense, Sio Moore in his 2nd year in Indy had a team high 13 tackles, and after him there is a big drop off as the next highest was Mike Adams with 8.
“We played like (expletive)”, he said.
Two more defensive backfield starters went down on Detroit’s third touchdown drive of the first half: rookie safety T.J. Green with a right knee sprain and cornerback Patrick Robinson with a concussion. Davis and Butler were both inactive Sunday, and Davis is likely to be inactive again this week. And the Lions offense appears to be capable of matching teams like the Colts in shootouts.
The Giants (1-0) won the debut of coach Ben McAdoo after 12 years and two Super Bowl titles under Tom Coughlin while spoiling the first game for Dallas’ Dak Prescott and Ezekiel Elliott. Indianapolis converted a two-point attempt to further cut the lead to 21-18.
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After all, Caldwell spent seven seasons (2002-08) as a Colts assistant under Tony Dungy, where he served as the team’s assistant head coach and quarterbacks coach.
