When Andrew Luck staked the Colts to a 35-34 lead over the Lions with 37 seconds remaining in Sunday’s season-opener, the thoughts were tortured, dark and all-too-familiar.
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Ultimately, the Lions had a 21-3 lead before quarterback Andrew Luck and the offense did anything noteworthy. It was a major statement for the Lions, and a major disappointment for the Colts. “We talked all week about their backs and their receivers, (Golden) Tate and (Anquan) Boldin, those guys”. There’s no telling how much better they’ll be this fall, but one week into the season they’re off to a good start. The hopes of forcing a 3-and-out and keeping Stafford and company off the field soon disappeared.
PATRIOTIC START: The Colts will hand out 60,000 American flags and will honor the 9/11 anniversary by paying tribute to first responders. The Colts moved 75 yards on eight plays in just 1:32, cutting the deficit to 21-10. “We didn’t play good enough”.
The Lions started their final possession at the 25-yard line with 36 seconds on the clock and all three of their time-outs in their pocket. It would have been nice to bleed a lot more time off the clock.’ But we had some personnel issues. He threw touchdown passes to two running backs (Theo Riddick and Ameer Abdullah) and a tight end (Eric Ebron). One bright spot for the Lions was defensive lineman Kerry Hyder. And remember, the Colts could have picked up a 1st down without scoring the TD. They had to punt it away.
Laken Tomlinson struggled again at left guard, but center Travis Swanson took a big step from last season, and Taylor Decker played well in his National Football League debut at left tackle.
Adam Vinatieri put Indianapolis on the board with a 50-yard field goal. Then 28-28. And 34-28 because of the missed extra point by Prater. The Colts still had a chance to lead, but this time it would presumably be for good.
They spent every last one of them during a game-winning drive and thus needed only 33 seconds of game time to position kicker Matt Prater for a game-winning 43-yard field goal in the Lions’ 39-35 victory over the Colts. Up 35-24, Pat McAfee booted the ball deep to Detroit and the Lions had the ball at their own 20 with 37 seconds left. This could have been a big reason for the Lions putting together a quality late drive in the fourth quarter to give them the late lead, as well as the final drive where they would kick the game winning field goal. Redemption time for Prater. Given the Lions’ history, it was hard not to wonder if past year was repeating itself, especially when the Colts rolled to a touchdown with relative ease on their first possession of the second half, converting a two-point conversion in the process.
After throwing for only 23 passing yards in the first quarter, Luck finished the night with 385 passing yards and four touchdowns. Frank Gore had 59 yards on 14 carries and had 4 receptions for 19 yards. This would also be a top performance for a quarterback so far this season. The next step is getting an opening-day win on the road.
The Lions had no such problem.
Only this time, Stafford got the ball last and made the plays that sent Luck home with a painful loss.
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Don’t get too excited about Riddick’s rushing totals yet, since he tallied a combined 209 rushing yards over the last three seasons. Drafting defense has not been great for Grigson either. But when the Colts called the timeout was highly questionable. “We still got a long way to go”. Johnathon Newsome was released after an arrest after spending two years in Indy. Honestly, a player like Luck needs just an average line to be successful.
