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Luck Leads Colts to Stunning Victory over Lions

With no time on the clock, the Colts scored the winning touchdown to beat the Lions in Detriot, 35-33. It capped off a spectacular final four minutes for quarterback Andrew Luck, who was unbelievable.

By Josh Wilson
US PRESSWIRE

Andrew Luck for MVP?

With the way the rookie quarterback has lifted the Colts to so many improbable wins this year, eight overall with four games still left to play, Luck certainly should be in the discussion.

Now let me just say that I know there is no chance that he gets the award. There are many other deserving players (such as Peyton Manning) with much better stats. But has anyone done more with less than Luck?

Today, the offensive line stunk. It just got worse when the Colts lost two starting offensive lineman (Joe Reitz and Winston Justice) to concussions. Luck was pressured by Detroit’s great front four all day, and it rattled him. He overthrew several passes and underthrew several others. He was picked off three times, increasing his turnover total to twenty on the season (16 interceptions, 4 fumbles lost). All but three of those have come on the road.

And yet somehow, when the game appears over, Luck works his magic. With 4:02 left, the Colts were down 33-21 and their offense had done NOTHING at all for pretty much the entire second half. Luck had been terrible. All of the sudden, however, he became Peyton-esque. He led a 77 yard scoring drive, capped off by his most incredible play as a Colt. He rolled left, threw the ball 40+ yards in the air right before he was going down, and the ball went just over the arms of the Lions’ defender and into the hands of LaVon Brazill for the touchdown. Amazingly, the Colts were only down 5 with 2:39 left.

The defense made a great stop and got the ball back with 1:07 left. Luck had played bad for much of the game, yet here he was with a chance to win it. A 9 yard rush. A 26 yard completion to Reggie Wayne. A 16 yard rush and out of bounds. A 10 yard completion to Dwayne Allen, and out of bounds. And then, on fourth down from the 14 yard line with only four seconds left, Luck rolled right, dumped it off to a wide open Donnie Avery who had space, and he did the rest. Final score: Colts 35, Lions 33. Unbelievable.

You thought the Green Bay game was incredible? Not nearly as much as this one. You thought that game winning touchdown in overtime at Tennessee was exciting? Nothing like this. Andrew Luck has five game winning drives this year, but this was still incredible. There are no words to accurately describe how unreal this was.

After years of Peyton Manning leading game winning drives and fourth quarter comebacks in Indy, you would think that we would be used to this by now. Not at all. In the last four minutes today, Luck started to create his own legend. He is the best two minute drill quarterback in the NFL. And that showed today.

Andrew Luck won’t win the MVP. But he’s been unspeakably valuable to the Colts this year, a team that wasn’t supposed to do this. They have eight wins, and that with four games left still to play. They will in all likelihood make the playoffs. Their rookie quarterback is a big reason why. And today, he pulled off a comeback no one thought possible. Never rule out Andrew Luck, I guess.

Hey Chris what’s-your-name – there’s a reason we have moved on from Peyton. It’s because we have Luck.

Some more notes from today’s game:

  • As much as we want to talk about the positives, the Colts’ were terrible against Calvin Johnson (Megatron). Almost nobody in the NFL can cover Megatron, but for some reason the Colts thought both Cassius Vaughn and Vonate Davis could. Their game-plan was to keep Johnson from making a big play – which worked until he caught a 46 yard touchdown. The Colts rushed only three on 3rd and 12, got no pressure, Johnson burned Davis and with no safety help it was an easy score. That was the one glaring weakness by the defense today.

  • Rookie RB Vick Ballard scored his first career rushing touchdown today (second overall). Rookie WR LaVon Brazill caught his first career touchdown. Rookie TE Coby Fleener caught his first career touchdown. Veteran linebacker Robert Mathis got his first interception of his career. A day of firsts.

  • Pat McAfee punted very well today.

  • The Colts rush defense, save for one long rush by Detroit, actually played very well.

  • Mathis and Dwight Freeney actually played pretty well today. The rest of the pass rush did not.

  • T.Y. Hilton had another 100 yard receiving day. He continues to be awesome.

  • The Colts got a lot of yards after the catch today after being among the worst in the league at that entering the day. Not sure of the numbers yet, but it was much, much better than any other game this year from first glance.

  • Reggie Wayne finished the game with only four catches for 51, and he entered the fourth quarter with only two catches for 14 yards. Need to get Reggie more involved. Offense struggled mightily without him.

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