After Further Review: Colts at Bills

After an offseason that showed optimism for this upcoming season, the Colts dropped their first game to the Buffalo Bills yesterday. It was a game that focused more on the Colts weaknesses rather than their strengths, as they couldn’t seem to find a rhythm on offense or defense. The Colts clearly showed that they were unprepared for a Bills team that was ready for them.

There is definitely a lot of things Coach Chuck Pagano needs to drive home before Monday night versus the Jets. Before we move to next week however, here are some takeaways from yesterdays contest.

Takeaway number 1: The Colts offensive line is just what we expected.

Going into the season, one of the clear weaknesses for the Colts was the offensive line. Last year, they battled with a forever rotating cast of linemen due to injury. This season, the Colts come in with some familiar names, and that does not necessarily mean that they have a “talented” offensive line.

More from Horseshoe Heroes

• Colts explored hiring former quarterback and current ESPN analyst Dan Orlovsky
• When is the NFL Combine 2023? NFL Combine schedule, events, how to stream
• Latest NFL mock draft has Colts trading up to No. 1 for star QB
• Eagles offensive free agents that could follow Shane Steichen to Colts
• Here’s why Colts linebacker Shaq Leonard is going to love Shane Steichen

Yesterday was proof of that fact, that the Colts o-line is not overly talented. In yesterdays games we saw Andrew Luck get sacked twice, but he was hit by Buffalo defenders five times. Compare that to the Colts’ zero sacks and zero QB hits on Tyrod Taylor. Now a case could be made that the Buffalo defensive line is better than the Colts’, but I don’t think that totally is the case. Buffalo was missing Marcell Dareus, who is probably their best defensive lineman.

The Colts offensive line was also responsible for four penalties that equated to 34 yards of lost offense. All of these penalties were real drive killers early in the game, and this in turn did not allow the Colts offense to get into a rhythm.

The Colts also let Mario Williams run free towards Luck a few times in the game. That is not good defensive line play, that is just horrid offensive line play. The Colts offensive line needs to figure things out, and quick. If Luck keeps getting hurried on throws, we’ll see more games from him like we saw yesterday.

Takeaway number 2: Injuries to Gore and Hilton should be taken seriously 

It’s never good to see player’s go down with injuries, and yesterday two of the Colts’ top offensive options went down due to injury. Frank Gore left the game in the second half due to calf cramps, but he did return to the game. Now obviously, calf cramps are would not be considered a serious injury by any means, and the fact that Gore returned is a good sign.

We have seen in Gore’s days in San Francisco that he has a tendency to get dinged up, which in turn can affect his production. He did run well in the early going yesterday, but the Bills defense adjusted and was able to find an answer for him. Gore should be a focal point in the offense this season, and the Colts should keep him fully healthy to hopefully avoid a serious injury.

The more serious issue is the injury to T.Y. Hilton, he left the game yesterday with an apparent knee injury. X-Rays came back negative after the game, but Colts owner Jim Irsay called the injury a “bad bruise”. He also says that Hilton could miss a few weeks due to the injury.

With Hilton out, the offense may be more limited as we saw Hilton become Andrew Luck’s go-to guy early in the game yesterday. With the Colts already 0-1 this season, it is imperative that they don’t have another offensive performance like yesterday, with Hilton out it may be hard.

Takeaway number 3: Andrew Luck is human

Whether we’d like to admit or not, Luck played a sub-par game on Sunday. He passed for 243 yards, two touchdowns, and two interceptions. The stats are really something to behold being that Luck was hurried throughout the game by the Bills front seven.

Only so much can be put on the offensive line, yes Luck was hurried, but even on the plays where he wasn’t, he left a lot of throws high. There were a lot of throws in yesterday’s game where the receivers had no shot at them because they weren’t very good throws to begin with.

Luck has had a problem with turning the ball over his whole career, the first pick was an under-thrown ball, and you could make the case that Hilton could have made a better effort for it, but that’s besides the point. The second came off heavy pressure from the Bills, which led to a quick, poor decision.

A lot is riding on Luck in terms of how far he carry this team this season. With a sub-par offensive line, Luck is forced to make a lot of plays most quarterbacks don’t have to make. He had an off game, every QB does, so this really isn’t something to be surprised by. Now we know that Andrew Luck is not some sort of government made machine.

Takeaway number 4: The Colts rush defense showed some promise

There was a lot of bad on the Colts defense yesterday, the secondary didn’t show up to play. I don’t think anyone on the Colts defense took Taylor seriously going into the game and that aided in Taylor tearing the Colts up. The rush defense was the main concern for the Colts on defense, especially going up against Shady McCoy. The stats aren’t in the Colts’ favor, as they gave up 147 total rush yards, with a 4.1 yards per carry average.

I say the rush defense showed some promise, you could tell they game-planned for McCoy as they only gave up 41 yards on 17 carries to McCoy. That’s 2.4 YPC, which is pretty good, it was just the other Bills backs that tore them up. The rush defense showed promise in defending McCoy, now they just have to translate that to the other teams’ running backs.

Let’s just hope next weeks installment of this piece will have a little more positives than this week.