Monday After Awards: Colts at Bills

Good news, the Colts actually got to play their pre-season game this weekend!

Granted, it was a pre-season game where we didn't see Andrew Luck play, but it still signified the return of Colts football!

I'll admit right here, I did not see all of the game, so there may be some awards that are missing here. Living outside the Colts broadcast area is rough, guys.

But let's jump in, shall we?

MVP -€” Stephen Morris

I hate the pre-season purely for this reason. Who do you pick for an MVP? I'll go with Morris, but this easily could have been T.Y. McGill, Pat McAfee, or someone else. Morris didn't play great, in my estimation, but was very efficient.

Morris finished 5 of 9, with 109 yards and a touchdown. He also added 19 yards on ground. And yes, he was the team's leading rusher as well.

Oh and that touchdown pass to Chester Rodgers was pretty nice.

It's worth noting that Morris' performance seems to be creating a question mark as to who will back-up Luck

The More Things Change Award -€” Small Ball

We saw the Colts run a heavy dose of screen plays. At least...more than normal. And at least they worked, for the most part, too. And while it could be because we didn't see Luck, the Colts didn't take as many shots down the field as I would have liked to see.

Part of that could also be that the offensive line didn't instill a whole lot of confidence in giving either Morris or Scott Tolzein time to throw.

The More They Stay the Same Award -€” Run Game

Yikes. Frank Gore didn't see action, but the Colts running game was a disaster. As I mentioned, Morris was the team's top rusher with three carries for 19 yards. After that, it was Trey Williams with seven yards on five carries.

In fact, if you take out Morris' stats, the Colts in total ran the ball 20 times for 11 yards. Yes, that is an actual stat. Not good.

"Random" Award -€” Pat McAfee

This one made me glad that I didn't post this yesterday. This morning, Pat McAfee was sent a letter for a random drug test. As McAfee noted on Twitter, this comes after bombing a punt 67 yards in the game on Saturday. This isn't the first time McAfee has been randomly tested, and sure won't be the last.

While it happens to all players, I do appreciate McAfee posting about it when it relates to his play on the field.

Watch Your Tweet Award -€” Jim Irsay

You all know what I'm referring to here.

I still don't know where I stand on this one. Part of me says Irsay's tweet (likely about Rex Ryan) was out of line. Because, really, who cares how you play the pre-season. If Ryan wants to blitz on every down and play his starters all game, then he can. It's his team. There is no rule stating that teams need to play back-ups and not go all out.

On the other hand, I get it. No one wants their players to get hurt in the pre-season, and Irsay seems to think that Ryan's tactics would lead to that. I've seen a lot of squabbling on the Internet about this, some whom agree with Irsay on this issues.

Regardless, I do think that Irsay needs to watch what he tweets.

LVP -€” The Starters

Normally, even if it is just for a series, we see the Colts starters in the pre-season. Not so much on Saturday. Luck and Gore were the notable absences. The offense didn't look like a great unit, but again that is in large part due to missing two of their top players.

We should see Luck, and probably Gore, this week though. So we can look forward to that.