
What in the World Has Happened to Andrew Luck and the Indianapolis Colts?
Andrew Luck is one of the best quarterbacks in the world, but there aren't words to describe how bad he's been in 2015, especially after Monday night's 20-7 Week 2 loss to the New York Jets at Lucas Oil Stadium.
All summer long, football minds across the globe touted the strength and depth of Luck's revamped supporting cast: A receiving corps that rolls five deep, two great pass-catching tight ends and stud tailback Frank Gore there to coat the 2014 Colts' Achilles' heel in steel. With the arguable exception of the offensive line, Luck would have, by far, the best team around him he'd ever had.
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Against the Jets, Luck wasn't just bad, he was lost. He didn't just look like not-Andrew Luck, he looked like he had never been, and could never be, a Pro Bowl quarterback. It seemed like everything he tried backfired—every good play was quickly undone by mistakes—and he was undermined at every turn by his coaches.
So far in 2015, Luck's completed just 54.7 percent of his 86 passes and gained a minuscule average of 5.7 yards per attempt. He's thrown three touchdown passes, but against five interceptions and a lost fumble, his career touchdown-to-turnover ratio of about 2:1 has been dealt a blow.

Andre Johnson has been ineffective, T.Y. Hilton neutralized, Frank Gore rendered moot. The Colts defense has been all over the place during Luck's young career, but the one sure-fire strength, the secondary, was shredded by journeyman Ryan Fitzpatrick and the Jets' motley band of skill-position retreads.
Luck was the bluest-ever blue-chip quarterback prospect, a can't-miss No. 1 overall stud who's made the Pro Bowl in each of the last three seasons, coming off a year in which he led the NFL in touchdown passes. It's ridiculous to crumple all that up and put him out with the trash because of two poor performances against two supremely talented defenses.
Yet, as the notorious banner in Lucas Oil Stadium reads, the Colts were a 2014 AFC finalist. They fell one game short of the Super Bowl last season and have designs on the Lombardi Trophy this season. Not only is this not championship football, this isn't even winning football.
If Luck and the Colts can't figure out what's wrong and fix it right now, they're in real danger of missing the playoffs this season—and head coach Chuck Pagano is in serious danger of losing his job.
It's impossible to pinpoint a spot in the game against the Jets when Luck fell apart, because he never had it together. The first drive ended when Luck, rushed by a Jets blitz, threw high and behind Johnson; Johnson tipped the ball and gifted safety Calvin Pryor his first career interception.
Jets quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick quickly found receiver Eric Decker for a six-yard touchdown pass, and the low-scoring rout was on. Luck led the Colts into scoring territory on the following drive, but kicker Adam Vinatieri doinked a 29-yard chip shot off the right upright. Per Darryl Slater of NJ Advance Media, that's the first time Vinatieri's missed a shortie like that in a very, very long time:
The Jets and Colts then traded punts until deep in the second quarter, neither quarterback able to find a rhythm. Finally, the Colts caught a rare break: Fitzpatrick threw into double coverage one too many times, and corner Vontae Davis tipped the ball into Mike Adams' waiting arms:
It was nearly all downhill from there.
The Colts did nothing with the gift; they went three-and-out on the following possession. The Jets responded by tacking a field goal on to their lead. Four plays later, Luck was fleeing the relentless Jets pass rush when linebacker David Harris stripped him of the football. The Jets recovered.
On the last play of the first half, the Colts caught their second break: Jets kicker Nick Folk doinked one off the right upright, matching Vinatieri's goof and keeping the Colts in the game. There must have been a collective sigh of relief in the Colts locker room: After all that, it was still just 10-0.
Luck and the Colts came back out on a mission: They launched an 18-play, nearly 10-minute campaign toward the enemy end zone. It would have been an impressive, intimidating, momentum-stealing drive if Gore hadn't fumbled the ball at the goal line. Yes, the Jets recovered.
This is when what seemed like a second straight bad day at the office for Luck and the Colts turned inexplicable, possibly supernatural. Nothing was going to go right, was it? Luck had been cursed by some sort of malevolent force, hadn't he? The Colts were going to lose, weren't they?
Confirmation came on the very next drive, when an under-pressure Luck panicked and flung an ill-advised pass in the direction of All-Pro cornerback Darrelle Revis. The interception felt like a dagger to the heart, a nail in the coffin—but for all that had gone awry, the Colts still only trailed 10-0.
They responded with their first, last and only bid to win the game. Luck capped an eight-play drive with a nice touchdown pass to Donte Moncrief. But Fitzpatrick responded with a touchdown drive of his own, and Luck followed that with yet another interception.
Two games, 21 points scored, eight turnovers committed. The Colts were supposed to have one of the best offenses in the game, if not the best. Instead they are the worst, by far the league's lowest-scoring team after two crazy weeks of NFL offense.
Credit is due, of course, to the Bills and Jets. The Colts might have opened the season against two defenses that could finish the season in the league's top five. But this wasn't just about great players like Revis and Muhammad Wilkerson making plays. This was about Luck and his supposedly top-level teammates completely failing to show up.
The offensive line couldn't begin to block the Jets' pass rush. Even when Indianapolis had the right protections dialed up, players like Lance Louis and Jack Mewhort were overwhelmed by New York's size and talent.
Despite the Jets needing most of four quarters to top 10 points, the Colts abandoned the run. Gore and Josh Robinson combined for just 69 yards on 20 carries. Receivers struggled to get open. When they did, Luck struggled to deliver the ball accurately. When he did, they didn't always catch it.
| Game | Cmp % | TD | INT | Yds/Att | Rate |
| 2014 CCG | 36.4 | 0 | 2 | 3.8 | 23.0 |
| 2015 W1 | 53.1 | 2 | 2 | 5.0 | 63.6 |
| 2015 W2 | 56.8 | 1 | 3 | 6.8 | 52.8 |
This isn't a physical problem for Luck; the ball seems to come out of his hand like it always has. He looks, worryingly, like a confused rookie—like he's seeing everything for the first time. He's struggling with knowing where the blitz is coming from, with finding the holes in the defense, even with delivering the ball accurately when he does make the right read. At his age (26), with his talent and track record, this shouldn't be happening.
Luck, broadly speaking, is going to be fine. But there's a possibility he doesn't figure it out in time to get the Colts back to the playoffs in 2015—and if not, the men in charge of getting him ready to play should, and probably will, pay the price.

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