Final Score: Colts 20, Ravens 13

On a day when the NFL's top offense struggled, it was the Colts' defense that carried them to a huge win over the Baltimore Ravens at home, winning 20-13.

Andrew Luck looked just a bit off all day, though he did get going in the fourth quarter and topped 300 yards passing and scored two total touchdowns.  But the story of the day today was the defense.  The defense stopped the Ravens enough to provide a huge, hard fought win for the Colts.   The Colts improve to 3-2 on the year while the Ravens drop to 3-2 on the season.  The Colts have won three in a row.

Let's look at today's game notes:

• Andrew Luck struggled today.  He wasn't great and missed too many passes.  He forced a couple of shots down the field and forced one in the red zone that was picked off.  He had plenty of time, he just looked a bit off.  But in the fourth quarter Luck led a tremendous 8-play, 80-yard drive that was capped off by a big 13-yard scoring run by Luck.  He did throw his 14th scoring toss of the year and added his second rushing score of the season, but overall it was a struggle for the Colts offense and for Luck.  They got it going in the fourth quarter when it counted, however.
• I was impressed by the way both Ahmad Bradshaw and Trent Richardson ran today.  They gained some tough, hard-fought yards.
• It was great to see Dwayne Allen get involved so much in the offense.  He caught a touchdown pass and made a couple of nice grabs too.  Allen is such a great weapon for the offense and he had a good game today.
• Four turnovers won't cut it most weeks, Colts.  Huge credit to the defense.
• Give Chuck Pagano and Greg Manusky a ton of credit today.  A ton of credit.  Their defense flat out balled today.  The Colts brought blitzes and got more pressure on quarterback Joe Flacco than we've seen on any quarterback this year.  Cory Redding continued his phenomenal year, Bjoern Werner was great, and other guys got in on the action too through blitzes.  If you had told me that the Colts' offense would struggle like they did, I would have thought they would lose.  But the defense played very well overall and kept the team in the game long enough for Luck to get a couple of scores to win it.  Pagano and Manusky's defense played very well today and it all started up front with getting pressure.  Of course, it's all enabled by the secondary, too, as Manusky feels comfortable enough leaving his secondary back there to hold their own.  They did, and the pass rush helped them out tremendously.  It was a excellent game plan by Chuck Pagano and Greg Manusky.
• A bad decision by Pagano today?  Starting undrafted rookie Jonotthan Harrison at center over A.Q. Shipley.  Harrison was bad today - there's no other way to put it.  That doesn't mean that Harrison is a bad player, but expecting an undrafted rookie to play well against the Ravens was a tough thing to ask.  Harrison had a bad snap that killed a drive, another bad snap that didn't kill a drive, a play where he forgot the snap count, and some misses on blocks.  He's got potential, but the move to bench Shipley was a dumb one.
• Sergio Brown played great today filling in for the suspended LaRon Landry.  He's got a chance to audition for a job - if he continues to play like this, he should keep starting.  It was only one game, but it was an impressive one from Brown.
• Mike Adams also had a good game, providing easily the best safety performance of the year from the Colts.
• Reggie Wayne is awesome.  Just awesome.  He had four huge third down conversions today and another big day overall, catching 7 passes for 77 yards.
• T.Y. Hilton also had a nice day, catching 9 passes for 90 yards.
• Griff Whalen, who had been doing a good job through the first four games as returner, was horrible today.  Absolutely awful.
• Pat McAfee was, once again, terrific.  Not that we expected anything differently.