Colts vs. Bengals post-game grades: Offense

The Colts lost their first game of the season against the Bengals 34-23. In that losing effort, the offense actually looked pretty good. Here are the grades for each unit in the offense.

The Colts had their first game of the season today, and blew yet another lead. But that lead was built by the offense, who looked pretty good until the final drive. Here is how each unit graded out in the season opener.

Andrew Luck looked pretty good except for his first pass. That first pass was an awful interception in the red zone after the Colts defense got a turnover themselves. Luck was 39/53 for 319 yards and 2 TD’s otherwise. Luck shouldn’t throw the ball 53 times again. It’s not a recipe for success moving forward.

Jordan Wilkins showed some promise in his first game as a pro, which was his first start as well. He ran 14 times for 40 yards, but most of that was in the first half. He was almost completely shutdown in the second half. As was Nyheim Hines. Hines showed some promise as a receiver catching 7 balls. But as far as the running game is concerned, it needs to be a lot better late in the game.

The receivers played pretty well for the most part. Ryan Grant had a good first game as a Colt. He caught a team high 8 balls. The rest of the receivers played well too, but T.Y. Hilton did have a key drop late in the game. But the whole unit performed pretty well.

Jack Doyle caught seven balls and was the normal reliable target, that was until the last drive. He had a huge fumble that cost the Colts the game. He fumbled inside the red zone and then the Bengals returned it for a touchdown, ending any chance the team had of a comeback. That is the main reason this grade is so low. Eric Ebron played a good first game as a Colt as though.

For not having their starting left tackle and having a revolving door as the right tackle, the line held up pretty well. Luck was only sacked twice and usually had a pretty good pocket to operate in. But the run blocking wasn’t good in the second half. The second half looked like the Colts of last year. The blocking has to be better throughout the whole game.

Hopefully the offense can put together a full game next week. They’re going to need to if they want to come out on the right side of the game.