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Thursday, March 28, 2024

Colts still winless in preseason

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In Colts typical preseason fashion they fell to 0-2 Friday night at Lucas Oil Stadium to the Washington Redskins in its preseason home opener. Limited first half possessions, bad field position, big runs and poor tackling gave Washington an early edge. From the beginning they controlled the game and never looked backed. The 16-3 final wasn’t at all indicative to the Redskin’s domination.Ā 

“Big runs are things that made a huge difference just in terms of flipping the field position. They had an opportunity to really control the ball on us. Particularly in the first half, giving us a limited number of possessions,” said Colts head coach Jim Caldwell. “Obviously I’m not real pleased with some of the things that went on out there. We could have tackled a lot better.”

The Colts defense was hard to watch at times. Nearly everything Washington did worked in the first half. The Colts tackling was unbelievably poor. Redskin’s quarterback John Beck was 14 for 17 passing for 140 yards with a passer rating of 101. The Skin’s running backs combined for 160 yards rushing on 21 carries in the first half and a total of 215 yards on 35 carries for the night.

“They did some things well forcing two fumbles, had an interception, 4 sacks and three red zone stands. “There were a couple bright spots here and there, but certainly not enough,” said Caldwell.

“Everything is fine. This is preseason,” added All Pro defensive end Dwight Freeney. “This is what its here for. You love to win games, but you look to correct issues.”

Offensively the Colts were very erratic, struggling with poor field position and penalties that stalled drives. The run game was invisible, with the exception of rookie running back Delone Carter. The timing of the passing game was considerably off but understandably so with the absence of quarterback Peyton Manning and most of the starting receiving core.

“We have to be more proficient running the ball. Inconsistent play is the best way to sum it up, Caldwell said. “We were very inconsistent and that was the problem.”

Caldwell added that offensively, a combination of things were off.

“It’s a combination of things. There are things we gotta get straightened out. You just can’t blame it all on one person or one position, that’s just not how it all happens. We did some things well and we did a lot of things not so well.”

The first half was all Washington. The Skins scored on there first possession of the game with a six play, 80 yard drive that was highlighted by a 58 yard run blast and capped with one yard TD by Tim Hightower. They had 16 first downs and three more scoring drives in the first half all ending with field goals taking a 16-0 lead going in at halftime.

The second half was more competitive. The Colts came out energized and played much better on both sides of the ball. On they’re opening drive of the third quarter they put together a 12 play, 43 yard scoring drive elapsing 6:30 minutes, ending with Adam Vinatieri connecting from 55 yards for Indy’s only score of the night. The defense stepped its game up and held Washington to 1-6 on third downs and scoreless in the second half.

Starting quarterback Curtis Painter was 5 of 10 for 40 yards and Dan Orlovsky ended the game 7 of 17 with 67 yards. Rookie running back Delone Carter led the Colts in rushing with 4 carries for 25 yards. Indianapolis native Darren Evans added 14 yards on four carries. Tight end Dallas Clark led Indy in receiving with three catches for 20 yards.

Safety David Caldwell led the defense with 7 combined tackles and Rookie Adrian Moten had one interception and two pass break ups. Starting safety Antoine Bethea was the only Colt injured leaving the game early in the first quarter with a hamstring injury.

Punter Pat McAfee highlighted the kicking game averaging 57.3 yards a punt.

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Follow me on twitter @damanidickerson

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