Vontae Davis, Anthony Castonzo leave game with injuries during Colts' win over Falcons

The Indianapolis Colts defeated the Atlanta Falcons 24-21 today behind an Adam Vinatieri game-winning field goal and a nice defensive performance, but they also suffered a few notable injuries that are worth keeping an eye on.

Head coach Chuck Pagano said after the game that cornerback Vontae Davis left the game with a hamstring injury and that left tackle Anthony Castonzo left the game with a knee sprain.  Pagano didn't have updates on either of their statuses, though, as he said that they will be evaluated more and that the Colts will know more tomorrow.

Davis and Castonzo are two of the Colts' best and most talented players, so they obviously can't afford to lose either one of them for any length of time.  With Davis out today, that led to more playing time for rookie cornerback D'Joun Smith in his NFL debut, and even Josh Thomas saw some snaps.  With Castonzo out, the Colts moved right tackle Joe Reitz to left tackle and left guard Jack Mewhort to right tackle.  The Colts had Reitz working as their second-team left tackle in training camp and it was pretty clear what they were trying to do: they felt that the only guy who could reliably play at left tackle if Castonzo went down was Reitz.  It wasn't a great game for Reitz, but he's still a good player and let's hope that Castonzo can get back in the lineup next week so that Reitz can move back to right tackle.

Furthermore, Pagano noted that the Colts had other players who suffered nicks and bruises, and while Pagano didn't mention him by name, running back Frank Gore has to fit in that category.  The running back was injured early in the game on a play where he fumbled, and CBS reported that he had a quad contusion and was questionable to return.  Just a play or two after that report, however, Gore returned to the game, but Ahmad Bradshaw saw his workload increase with Gore clearly not 100%.  Later in the game, Gore limped off the field and was clearly still working through the injury, but Pagano didn't mention him among the injured players (and no one asked him about the running back), so hopefully that means that Pagano isn't too worried and that Gore's injury isn't that bad.