The game against the Bengals was not pretty, and yet another opening week loss surely hurts. Still, I’ll be taking a look all throughout the season at the best and worst Colts’ player of the game.
Colts’ Stud of the Game: Andrew Luck, quarterback.
Man it feels good to have Luck back. When healthy he is the Colts best player by a mile and it showed on Sunday.
Despite some early signs of obvious rust after not playing in a season game for nearly two years, Luck played a solid all around game. Andrew finished with 319 yards on 39/53 passing, a 73% completion rate, along with a couple touchdowns and a costly interception.
The interception was the only blemish in his game, as he wasted a perfect early red-zone opportunity.
Other than that, Luck was one of the main reasons the Colts had a chance to win. It is certainly a nice feeling to have our franchise player back again on the field.
Colts’ Dud of the Game: Denico Autry, defensive end.
It was tough picking a dud for this game, because even though the Colts lost it seemed like every player contributed good things for the team. In the end, the Colt that played the worst on Sunday in my opinion was Denico Autry.
Autry was signed as a free agent from the Raiders this past offseason and was making his Colts regular season debut, so there is still time for him to flip the script. As of now, he was MIA against Cincinnati, racking up just one tackle despite playing a high volume of snaps.
For the Colts defense to be able to turn it around, Autry will need to be able to provide consistent solid football. Despite containing the Bengals offense in the first half, the Colts defense allowed 3 consecutive scoring drives (TD, TD, FG) that resulted in the Bengals taking a 27-23 lead after being down 23-10.
I single out Autry because he was the worst of the defensive line, but the unit as a whole needs to play better throughout the whole game.