Report: Matt Hasselbeck to Start vs Texans
By Evan Reller
According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, Matt Hasselbeck will start again at quarterback for the Colts as they face the Houston Texans on Thursday night football. Andrew Luck has been nursing a partial shoulder subluxation and it appears that he won’t be able to go on a short week.
Colts QB Matt Hasselbeck is starting tonight, per source. No Andrew Luck again.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) October 8, 2015
Matt Hasselbeck flew to Houston planning to start for #Colts, source says. Andrew Luck will throw pregame, but Hasselbeck expected to start
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) October 8, 2015
Hasselbeck, who is listed as questionable, was ill early in the week to the point that he was missing practice with a stomach virus. He did practice on Wednesday.
Matt Hasselbeck isn't healthy, either. Thanks to a virus, he ended up in the hospital after last week's game, getting an IV. He's still sick
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) October 8, 2015
The Colts will be putting a 40-year old quarterback on the field just four days after he attempted 47 passes (and dropped back 50 times). This isn’t the Colts fault, but rather that of the NFL for scheduling these Thursday games that are usually terrible.
ESPN analysts and Schefter went after the NFL for these games as they are simply not putting a good product on television when neither team has adequate time to prepare or get healthy. Both teams have a plethora of injuries, and most of them sound like issues that wouldn’t be a problem if this were a Sunday afternoon game.
The Colts are hoping to steal another game with Hasselbeck at quarterback, but he’ll be facing J.J. Watt on the road this time around (and with one player the Texans already have a better pass rush than the Jaguars).
While there is still a slim chance that Luck could play, Schefter and Rapoport are rarely wrong about who is and isn’t playing.
The Colts will need Luck near 100 percent if they are going to have any hope of beating the Patriots in Week 6, and resting him for another game could end up being a smart move.