Indianapolis Colts Lose to Cleveland Browns in Home Opener, 27-19 : Quick Reaction
By Editorial Staff
The Indianapolis Colts dropped their 2011 home opener to the Cleveland Browns this afternoon, 27-19. Browns RB Peyton Hillis ran for 94 yards and two touchdowns, while QB Colt McCoy went 22-32 with a touchdown.
For the Colts, Joseph Addai ran the ball 14 times for 64 yards, and Delone when 46 yards on 11 carries. Quarterback Kerry Collins went 19-38 with a TD, and interception, and a fumble.
Collins was sacked twice, while McCoy went down once.
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That’s a quick overview of the action on the field. Read my take on this game after the jump.
This was pretty much more of the same from the “new” Colts, but the ineptitude is showing up in slightly different ways as we move along in the season. Today, the red-zone offense was a big problem, as evidenced by Adam Vinatieri’s four field goals, to go along with just the one late touchdown that Cleveland didn’t care much about anyway. Collins also fumbled away the ball again, the special teams did little to control the field-position battle, and the defense had to spend too much time on the field again.
On the positive side, the running game is actually looking halfway decent AND the Colts managed to hold Hillis to under 100 yards. Small victories, right? Antoine Bethea and Pat Angerer also had nice games and, hey, Jerry Hughes even got in on a tackle! Who says he’s a bust.
That said, there was lots of talk on the various local post-game shows about the baby steps that are being made, but I don’t buy it. After two weeks, I’m willing to bite the bitter pill and say that this will be a long, frustrating season, at least until Peyton Manning returns and works the rust out of his game. So, yeah, it’s going to be a long, frustrating season. The Pittsburgh Steelers come in to town next week, and they’re a great candidate to knock the 5h!t out of Collins.
Even with the poor play and disappointing result, though, I was sad to see the blue and white flood toward the parking lot that erupted after Cleveland scored for the first time. We’re not fairweather fans around here, right? I mean, we’ll still support the Colts during the lean years that are bound to come after #18 is gone for good, won’t we? Won’t we?