The Indianapolis Colts may have taken the victory Sunday against the Cleveland Browns but they took away reflections of a lackluster performance that showed where several improvements must be made.
QB Andrew Luck was hit and knocked around constantly while there were six dropped passes by Colts receivers, most by a Colts team since Week 14 of the 2006 season. The Colts were able to pull out the win at the end of the day so let’s start with the worst moment of the game and finish with the best.
The worst moment of the game could’ve been spread amongst several different plays. The Browns scored two defensive touchdowns and had four takeaways. The absolute worst moment of the game, for me, was the sack-fumble on Luck that was recovered by Craig Robertson for a Browns touchdown. That play went from bad to worse fast.
Center Jonotthan Harrison was absolutely dominated at the line of scrimmage on the play. Luck was hit initially by one defender and then as he tried to throw the ball away he was hit by another defender and that’s what caused the fumble.
Luck is often applauded for making something out of nothing but this is an example of Luck needing to learn when it’s alright to take a sack and live to see the next play.
The best moment of the game was the entirety of the game winning drive for the Colts within the final minutes of the 4th quarter. Indianapolis had the ball with less than four minutes to go and needed 90 yards to win the game. Luck completed a 27 yard pass on third down to Donte Moncrief to get the drive started.
The Colts got 35 yards when Browns CB Buster Skrine was called for pass interference on the next play. Daniel “Boom” Herron made the biggest play of the drive on fourth-down and inches to go. He looked to be stopped behind the line of scrimmage and he was able to do a spin move to get out of trouble and get the first down. Luck was able to find T.Y. Hilton for his second touchdown of the game with 32 seconds left to put the Colts ahead by one point.
Those are my best and worst moments of the game. There were more negative moments to take away than positive but the Colts were able to do enough to win the game. Indianapolis will be looking for more of the good moments when they have a chance to clinch the division title with a victory over the Houston Texans, who come to Indianapolis next week.