Colts vs. Cowboys: Offensive post-game grades
By Ryan Stano
The Colts played a great game today, winning 23-0. While the defense held Dallas to no points, the offense played pretty well too. Here is how each unit played.
In the first half, the Colts only had the ball for three possessions. But they did enough damage with those possessions. They scored 10 points and had a 10-0 lead heading into halftime. They added 13 more to win 23-0. Here is how each individual offensive unit graded out today.
Andrew Luck was okay today. He only had 192 yards passing on 17 completions. He also did not throw a touchdown today. While Luck has been great for most of this season, the Colts didn’t need him to be that good today. The running game had it going on.
Speaking of that running game, Marlon Mack was magnificent. The only reason this grade isn’t an A+ is because of a late fumble he had. But he ran for a career high 139 yards on 27 carries and 2 touchdowns. Mack was fantastic all day long. Nyheim Hines was solid as well, having 4 catches. Great day for this entire unit.
The offensive line was absolutely fantastic today. They were opening up all kinds of holes in the running game, and did not allow a sack. They were overpowering and too good to stop today. If the line plays like this every week, this team is extremely hard to beat.
Eric Ebron was not great today. He dropped a 20 yard pass that could not have been thrown any better. He only had 1 catch for 8 yards, and it was the only catch for this unit. But what makes this grade so high is the blocking. Mo Alie-Cox and Ryan Hewitt did a great job blocking in the run game.
There weren’t a ton of opportunities to catch passes today, but when there was T.Y. Hilton delivered. He had 5 catches for 85 yards after being a game-time decision. Ryan Grant had two critical 3rd down catches as well. Not the best day, but they came up big when they needed to.
The offense didn’t have it’s best game, but they did what they needed to. Doing just enough is all you need sometimes to win football games. As long as they keep doing that, they can keep winning.