Oh, my… what happened? How in the heck? Who beat WHO?
Few football games in recent memory have received as much pre-game hype as the matchup at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis when Peyton Manning returned to Indy to take on his old team, the Colts. The Denver Broncos arrived in Indy as one of only two undefeated teams in the NFL. Few thought it likely that the Colts could beat them. But they didn’t count on the Luck factor.
Andrew Luck has consistently shown himself to be one of the most solid, steady and dependable young quarterbacks in the NFL. He is not as flashy as some of his contemporaries, but he may well turn out to be the one who endures in the long run.
Peyton Manning did throw for 386 yards which, was kind of an average day for Peyton but it was just not his night to win. Some writers were calling the matchup between Manning and Luck as ‘Skill vs. Luck’, but, sometimes it is just better to have Luck on your side. Especially if his name is Andrew.
Andrew Luck may well turn out to be the best… and most durable of this new crop of new quarterbacks causing such a sensation in professional football. He is certainly one of the most intelligent. Watching the Colts in a first quarter drive in the Red Zone, students of quarterbacking and old quarterbacks as well. Picked up on what Andrew was doing. “He’s doing Peyton” one ex-quarterback TV commentator observed.
And he was. It was like Luck was asking himself on every down, ‘what would Peyton Manning do?’ and then run that play and it worked. The defense had prepped for what Luck was likely to do but, wait, that’s what our guy does!’
Luck had 158 fewer yards passing than Manning and still won the game. The Colts survived the Broncos scoring 16 points in the fourth quarter as Peyton frantically tried to catch up but an inadvertent fumble near the Colts goal line in the final minutes of the game set up the 42 yard Adam Vinatieri field goal which won the game for Indianapolis.
Unfortunately the game proved to be unlucky for both teams as several key players went down to injury. In the second quarter Denver cornerback Champ Bailey had to leave the game with a foot injury and pro bowl receiver Reggie Wayne went down for the Colts in the fourth quarter with a sprained right knee.
