Colts dealing with several injuries after Thursday night’s game

The Indianapolis Colts played on a short week as they hosted the Pittsburgh Steelers on Thanksgiving night, and they emerged from the game much more beat up than they entered it.

During the course of the game, center Ryan Kelly went out with a shoulder injury, right guard Denzelle Good went out with a shoulder injury, cornerback Vontae Davis went out with a groin injury, wide receiver T.Y. Hilton went out with a lower back contusion, and outside linebacker Robert Mathis went out with an elbow injury.

The severity of those injuries remains to be seen, but according to the Indianapolis Star’s Stephen Holder, Hilton was walking “really gingerly” in the locker room after the game, while Good was in a sling. Good actually left the game on the second drive, returned on the following drive, and then later went out again. Hilton’s injury came on a pass near the goal line late in the second quarter when he got crushed (yet somehow hung on to the pass), but when he hit the ground he injured his back.

These injuries are in addition to the injuries that the Colts entered the game with, as they were playing without quarterback Andrew Luck and safety Clayton Geathers as both missed the game due to a concussion. So by the end of the game on Thursday the Colts were without their best player (Andrew Luck), their best target in the passing game (T.Y. Hilton), their best defensive player (Vontae Davis), their best offensive lineman (Ryan Kelly), their franchise’s all-time leader in sacks (Robert Mathis), a starting offensive lineman (Denzelle Good), and a key safety/linebacker hybrid player (Clayton Geathers). That’s a ton of injuries to be dealing with.

The good news for the Colts is that they now have plenty of time off to recover from those injuries, as they won’t play again until a Monday Night Football matchup with the New York Jets in week 13. That gives them ten days in-between games, which should hopefully be enough time for several of these injured guys to get healthy. But either way, there are plenty of injury situations to be paying attention to as the Colts exited Thursday night’s game much more banged up than they entered it.