LUCK’S INPUT: Luck is expected to travel to Atlanta, but the Colts are uncertain if he will be on the sideline during the game.
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Prior to their Week 8 game, the Indianapolis Colts had only generated seven turnovers in seven games. The Colts got good team effort in containing Atlanta’s running attack all afternoon. People get all excited about “offensive identity”, but tell me, what’s New England’s offensive identity? They said, ‘the heck with this, they are going to kill us if we don’t pressure him.’ Mission accomplished.
The aforementioned defense couldn’t get off the field for much of the game, yielding three long touchdown drives of at least 10 plays and 80 yards.
Hasselbeck led his Colts offense into Falcons territory, where another remarkable veteran, kicker Adam Vinatieri knocked home a 43-yard field goal to complete the comeback. He just has a Sanders-esque physical presence about him. But every time we are going on the field for a game-winner, it’s like we are in warm-ups and we are just chit-chatting about ‘You will hit it here. “We moved the ball really effectively”.
The Colts find themselves in first after a win over Denver in Week 9 despite a losing record, while the Falcons have lost three of their last four games and are a full three games back of the undefeated Panthers for first in the NFC South. Nevertheless, the Falcons are still favored to win the game between the two. The early returns are good on this draft from a defensive standpoint to be sure. Atlanta hasn’t had that type of penetration up front in over four years. They will happily give up yards, but they demand an offense stay patient and take all the short throws underneath.
According to the National Football League, Hasselbeck joins Brett Favre and Warren Moon as the only quarterbacks since the 1970 merger to win threee consecutive starts at the age of 40. But picks were a problem in the Stage 2 Falcons’ lone victory, at Tennessee, which is why the score was only 10-7.
RUSH DEFENSE: A. The unit continued to be stout against the run, holding Frank Gore and Ahmad Bradshaw in check.
Joining the Colts at 5-5 were the Houston Texans, who used a pretty efficient performance from T.J. Yates to beat the NY Jets, 24-17. Hasselbeck wouldn’t miss Bradshaw a second time.
Joe Reitz had the rare opportunity to be a running back for a play, but he turned into a quarterback. His value can not be overstated. Of course, the same could be said on the Titans’ end, too; if not for Mettenberger’s interceptions, in the first half and on the final drive, you’d probably be reading about a winless Stage 2 Falcons club. Honestly, if Atlanta had taken advantage of those two early Colts’ turnovers, this thing could have been 28-0 early, but the Colts defense stepped up and didn’t allow a single point. His second one may be costly for the Falcons, as he threw a pass straight to Colts inside linebacker D’Qwell Jackson for an interception. Jerrell Freeman was very active. Stefon Diggs and Mike Wallace have combined for 891 receiving yards and three touchdowns while Kyle Rudolph has 29 receptions.
“Matt, the old seasoned vet, is doing a fantastic job just winning games for us”, Vinatieri said.
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Rather than have Vontae Davis shadow Julio Jones, the Colts mixed their coverages quite a bit, but nothing particularly worked.
