After Further Review: Colts vs Jaguars

As Andrew Luck watched from the sidelines on Sunday, the Colts were able to grind their way to a win versus the Jaguars in overtime. Matt Hasselbeck was called upon to start and the 40-year-old did not disappoint as he played superb in Luck’s absence (more on that in a second). With the win on Sunday the Colts were able to stretch their AFC South division winning streak to 15, tying the league record in such category. Along with the record-tying win the Colts were able to get back to .500 and are now the leaders in the AFC South. Here are some takeaways I have from the game.

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Takeaway number 1: Matt Hasselbeck has still got gas in the tank

It’s clear that this isn’t Seattle’s Matt Hasselbeck, he’s 40 and has lost a step or two, and it was apparent at some points on Sunday. As the game went on it was easy to tell that Hasselbeck hasn’t played all that much since Luck’s arrival, but besides a few bumps in the road I thought he played well.

He had an ending stat line of 282 yards and a touchdown, with a completion percentage of 64 percent, and finally and most importantly, no interceptions. We saw a difference in the way the Colts passed the ball compared to if Andrew Luck had played. Rather than looking for plays down the field Hasselbeck opted for a short pass apporoach, one we would maybe see from a quarterback like Alex Smith of the Chiefs.

We should come to expect this from Hasselbeck, as for most of his career he hasn’t been an “air it out” quarterback. It has less to do with Hasselbeck’s age, it’s just not his style of play, which doesn’t necessarily fit in with the rest of the Colts offense. However Hasselbeck was able to complete a lot of passes and put together a great drive in overtime that lead to Adam Vinatieri‘s game-winning field goal.

So kudos to you Mr. Hasselbeck, it will be interesting to see on this short week whether or not Luck will be able to play, but I wouldn’t be worried if Hasselbeck got the start on Thursday against Houston either.

Takeaway number 2: The skill players need to start showing up

Besides Hasselbeck’s stellar play, he wasn’t given a ton of help from the skill players on the Colts. Coming into the game, I thought the Colts would really make Frank Gore a focal point in the offense with Luck’s absence. Gore however had a sub-par first half and a mediocre second half that included another fumble in the red zone. He was able to put a big run together in overtime to put Vinatieri in prime position, but besides that he didn’t play terribly well.

Andre Johnson provided another goose-egg today as he was held without a catch and was only targeted two times. At this point, I’ve almost lost hope in Johnson as he’s had a tough time getting in sync with both Luck and Hasselbeck.

Again, it took the Colts offense a while to find their groove, for most of the first half they were fairly stagnant. They were able to put some drives together in the second half, but as I said last week, they cannot rely on only performing in the second half. It’s a game of four quarters, they have just gotten by the past two weeks because their opponents were, well, the Titans and the Jags.

Takeaway number 3: The Colts are lucky the Jaguars are still, the Jaguars

Now, I don’t want to take anything away from the win, it was a tough, hard fought win with Luck out and that was impressive to a degree. On the other hand, the Jaguars had plenty of chances to win the game both in regulation and in overtime. Kicker Jason Myers missed three game-winning attempts(one of them not counting because the Colts called a timeout) and the play-calling for Jacksonville was suspect down the stretch. After a 36-yard run by T.J. Yeldon, the Jaguars decided not to run it again with Yeldon, but instead run it with Toby Gerhart, which resulted in a two-yard loss. Yeldon had been running well all day and it was puzzling to see Jacksonville not go back to him after the big play.

Although Blake Bortles played well throughout the entire game he was just simply unable to hit the Colts where it hurt. After a 29-yard pass interference call on Vontae Davis, the Jags were on the cusp of field goal range with time winding down in regulation. On the next play Bortles was unable to handle a low snap and that resulted in a 16-yard loss, essentially killing the drive.

We’ve seen this a lot over the years with the Jaguars, as they seem to have some talent, but they’ve never been able to fully develop that talent(Maurice Jones-Drew, Justin Blackmon, Mike Sims-Walker, Byron Leftwich to name a few). The Colts were lucky that, yet again Jacksonville was unable to put it altogether.

Enjoy the win the Colts fans, see you in Houston on Thursday.

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