Colts, Andrew Luck are the most pass heavy team in NFL
On Monday night the Indianapolis Colts came out against the New York Giants and dared them to stop their passing game by almost completely abandoning their running game right away.
The Giants were able to get to quarterback Andrew Luck early on with numerous blitz’s. But in the second half, the Colts were able to make the proper adjustments to shred New York’s depleted secondary and put up over 40 points.
Mike Clay of Pro Football Focus pointed out that the Colts are throwing the ball 64 percent of the time, which is absolutely nuts compared to other teams in the NFL.
Game flow shows Colts "should" be calling pass 55% of the time. Instead, they're at 64%. EASILY the pass-heaviest scheme in football.
— Mike Clay (@MikeClayNFL) November 4, 2014
Below is a table that shows you how many more pass attempts and yards Luck has than some of the other top quarterbacks in the NFL.
[table id=2 /]
As you can see, Peyton Manning and the pass heavy Denver Broncos aren’t even in the same league as Luck and the Colts when it comes to attempts. Manning only has 303 attempts to go along with 2,572 yards.
What’s really remarkable about Luck is that he’s completing 63 percent of his passes and has a quarterback rating of 100.3. Of course it helps that he has a great receiving corp that includes T.Y. Hilton, Reggie Wayne, Hakeem Nicks and rookie Donte Moncrief. Not to mention the great job running back Ahmad Bradshaw does catching the ball out of the back field to go along with two reliable tight ends like Coby Fleener and Dwayne Allen.
I would imagine that the Colts would run the ball more if Trent Richardson ever lived up to expectations. But that looks more and more like it will never happen.
At the end of the day, I can’t say I blame the Colts for passing so much, the only thing that concerns me is how much Luck is getting hit while standing in the pocket.