Indianapolis Colts vs. Dallas Cowboys: Full Report Card Grades for Indianapolis
The Indianapolis Colts would like to forget about this week's loss to the Dallas Cowboys, as they were dominated in almost every way in the 42-7 defeat.
The Cowboys set the tone early with over an eight-minute drive that led to a nine-yard touchdown on their first drive of the game. After a failed fake punt from the Colts on their first drive, the Cowboys scored again on the very first play of their second drive, with Tony Romo hitting Dez Bryant for the 19-yard touchdown.
Things kept going downhill for the Colts before halftime, with the Cowboys adding on two more touchdowns in the first half. Andrew Luck tried to lead a two-minute drill down the field before halftime to put some points on the board, but ended up throwing an interception before heading into the locker room.
On just the second play of the second half, Luck threw another interception. Fortunately, the Cowboys weren't able to get any points out of it, but they did end up getting another touchdown after a six-minute drive in the third quarter with Romo hitting Jason Witten for a 25-yard touchdown.
Even Brandon Weeden got in on the action after replacing Romo, throwing a 43-yard bomb to Terrence Williams in the fourth quarter to put Dallas up 42-0. The Colts were able to avoid a shutout with a touchdown pass from Matt Hasselbeck to Zurlon Tipton with around five minutes remaining, but that was the only scoring drive the Colts had all game.
Overall, it was perhaps the worst performance of the year for the Colts, and this week's grades will reflect that. If you're a devoted Colts homer, you probably won't like what I have to say. Don't say I didn't warn you.
Quarterback
1 of 10
He didn't have a lot of opportunities to make plays early on, but it was not a pretty game from Luck on Sunday.
Luck couldn't get much going in the first half, partly because of the play-calling from Pep Hamilton and drops from his receivers. However, Luck made a very bad decision late in the first half, going for a deep pass in the end zone that led to a J.J. Wilcox interception. Luck went 12-of-18 with just 99 yards and an interception through the first two quarters.
The second half got off to just as bad a start, with Luck throwing his second interception of the day on the opening drive. By the end of the third quarter, his day was done, finishing with just 109 yards and two interceptions on 15-of-22 passing.
Hasselbeck came in and replaced Luck in the third quarter, and his numbers weren't terrible, going 15-of-21 through the air with 126 yards and a touchdown. Had it not been for some bad drops and the play of the offensive line, Luck might have had a decent game, but it still was not a good performance from the quarterbacks this week.
Grade: C
Running Back
2 of 10
The Colts were forced to start airing it out early because of a large first-half deficit, but even when they did try to run the ball, the results weren't very pretty. Dan Herron, Trent Richardson and Tipton carried the ball a combined 10 times.
The result? Just one yard on the ground as a team.
All three running backs made plays in the passing game, combining for 68 yards and a touchdown on nine receptions. But their combined performances on the ground were seriously concerning. Herron was expected to make plays like he has been the past few weeks, but he picked up all of three yards on seven carries.
Indianapolis will need a balanced offensive attack if it's going to make a run in the playoffs, but the Colts didn't get anything close to that on Sunday.
Grade: D-
Wide Receiver and Tight End
3 of 10
Luck's weapons had a rough day with multiple dropped passes and little in the way of production. Hakeem Nicks was actually the lone bright spot in the first half, catching four passes for 30 yards. He finished with 72 yards on nine receptions, by far his most productive game of the season.
Reggie Wayne finished with three receptions for 23 yards, but he still doesn't look like the same player he once was. The Cowboys weren't afraid to get physical with him, laying him out on some big hits. Donte Moncrief, who needed to step up with T.Y. Hilton out, caught just two passes for five yards.
Down 21-0 early, the Colts needed a spark from their weapons in the passing game, but two drops from Dwayne Allen led to a 3rd-and-10 and an eventual punt. Allen had another drop in the second quarter while wide open down the field, making for an extremely rough day for him in the passing game, as he left shortly after that third drop.
Coby Fleener was targeted seven times, but struggled catching balls in traffic. He finished with four receptions on 36 yards, but he left some plays on the field, even if he didn't struggle as much as his fellow tight end in Allen.
This is a game everyone would like to forget, including the receivers. Hilton's absence was felt, and that made things a lot harder for the rest of the guys.
Grade: D+
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Offensive Line
4 of 10
The offensive line has struggled in the second half of the season, and while Luck wasn't sacked in the first half of Sunday's game, this may have been one of the uglier performances from this unit.
With Gosder Cherilus out, many were hoping that Xavier Nixon would be an upgrade at right tackle. Instead, Nixon was constantly beaten by his assignment, resulting in consistent pressure on Luck, causing him to rush some throws.
Once Hasselbeck went in, the pressure didn't come as often, but the veteran quarterback was still sacked twice. The offensive line also deserves some blame for the ineffective ground game, which picked up just one yard on 10 carries.
There were plenty of injuries on the offensive line heading into Sunday, but the right side of the line seemed to constantly allow defenders to get by them, and that made things much harder for this offense.
Grade: D
Defensive Line
5 of 10
Perhaps one of the only bright spots from Sunday's game came on the defense line. Going against arguably the best offensive line in terms of blocking for the run game, the Colts did a good job containing both DeMarco Murray and Joseph Randle, holding them to just 56 combined yards on 20 carries in the first half.
The ground game continued to be rather ineffective for the Cowboys, carrying the ball 40 times for just 127 yards. Players like Josh Chapman and Arthur Jones were able to plug up rushing lanes and get to running backs before they could break away for the most part, and that was a positive considering just how productive the Cowboys have been on the ground this year.
Unfortunately, stopping the run isn't the only thing the defensive line needed to do against Dallas. The line also needed to try to collapse the pocket to put pressure on Romo, but that almost never happened. Jones did get a sack on Romo, but other than that, the Cowboys had a clean pocket for almost the entire 60 minutes.
The defensive line might have played better than any other unit, but it can only do so much.
Grade: B-
Linebacker
6 of 10
Jerrell Freeman had a crucial play on the first drive of the game, getting a tackle for a loss on DeMarco Murray on third down. However, Freeman was called for taunting after the play, giving the Cowboys a first down rather than forcing them to punt. The Cowboys then went down the field to score an early touchdown, making Freeman's mistake even more painful.
D'Qwell Jackson was able to make a few plays against the run, picking up two tackles for loss and a fumble recovery, but both he and Freeman struggled as usual in pass coverage. Jason Witten was a huge mismatch against them, finishing with 90 yards and a touchdown on seven receptions.
Once again, Erik Walden was mostly nonexistent on Sunday. He showed flashes of improvement early on this season, but he's gone back to being a mostly invisible player on the defense. Bjoern Werner made a couple of nice plays, including a couple of tackles in the backfield and a pass deflection, but he continues to struggle rushing opposing quarterbacks.
Poor pass coverage and minimal pressure on Romo hurt the grade for the linebackers, but that early mental mistake from Freeman hurt perhaps even more. Freeman hasn't made a lot of highlight plays this year, and when he finally did, he messed it up by taunting.
Grade: C-
Secondary
7 of 10
Vontae Davis being active for Sunday's game was supposed to help out the secondary so that it could contain the Cowboys' passing game. Instead, the Cowboys made the Colts secondary look weak, bullying them throughout the game.
Romo had one of the best games of his career, completing 18 of his 20 passes for 218 yards and four touchdowns, giving him a 151.7 passer rating. Even Weeden was able to toy with the secondary, completing his one pass attempt for a 43-yard score.
Greg Toler was the main reason for the secondary's struggles. For some reason, the Colts had Toler guarding Dez Bryant for most of the game, and as you can see from the picture above, he struggled stepping up to the task. Bryant finished with 73 yards and a touchdown on just five receptions.
But Bryant wasn't the only receiver the secondary had trouble covering. Even Terrance Williams had a solid game, putting up 52 yards and two touchdowns on his two catches.
Davis clearly didn't look like himself, likely due to his injury. The No. 1 corner gave up some catches that he usually doesn't, making some wonder why they didn't just rest him in a game that meant little for playoff implications.
The fact that the the Cowboys had just two incompletions shows just how much the Colts struggled, and while it's not all on the secondary, that unit made very few plays to make things harder on the Cowboys offense. This secondary has played well for the most part this year, but there's no denying that this was its worst game.
Grade: F
Special Teams
8 of 10
This was one of those rare games where the special teams didn't receive an A+ grade. Dewey McDonald is partly to blame for that, dropping a wide-open pass on the fake punt that would have resulted in a first down on the Colts' first drive of the game.
Pat McAfee had a good pass on the fake, but his punting was still solid save for one bad attempt that went out of bounds and a touchback. He punted the ball five times, averaging 46.4 yards per attempt with none landing inside the 20-yard line, but one going for 61 yards.
Adam Vinatieri essentially had the day off, kicking just one extra point. The special teams wasn't bad by any means, but they definitely could have played better.
Grade: A-
Coaching
9 of 10
Pep Hamilton had some terrible play-calling to start the game, running the ball three straight times only to lose a yard and force a fourth down. The coaching staff then decided to try to run a fake punt pass, but a drop from Dewey McDonald gave the Cowboys great field position, letting them score their second touchdown of the day on just one play.
The play-calling from Hamilton didn't get any better as the game went on. Questionable run calls and constant screen passes kept the Colts from doing much offensively, and that made it hard for them to score points, or even pick up first downs for that matter. It almost felt like the Colts weren't playing to win on offense, and that was frustrating to watch.
Chuck Pagano has some tough questions he'll need to answer after this week's performance. His team wasn't ready to play, and it showed. During the week, Pagano made it clear that the Colts weren't going to rest their starters and coast to the playoffs, but with the way the team played, it looked like it were already looking ahead to the postseason.
Based on everything we've seen this season, it seems like everyone on the coaching staff should be back next season, but it bothers me that there's not any pressure on any of them. The hot seat is nonexistent, but don't the coaches at least deserve some blame for the struggles of this team as of late?
Grade: D
Final Grades
10 of 10
| Position | Final Grades |
| QB | C |
| RB | D- |
| WR/TE | D+ |
| OL | D |
| DL | B- |
| LB | C- |
| Secondary | F |
| Special Teams | A- |
| Coaching | D |
| Cumulative Grade | D+ |
This game was what many feared would happen. The Colts have played few legitimate opponents this year, but when they have, they've struggled. Close games the past couple of weeks against the Cleveland Browns and Houston Texans exposed many of the team's flaws, and those flaws continued to get exposed on Sunday against the Cowboys.
At this point, it doesn't look like the Colts have the talent to be a legitimate Super Bowl contender in the AFC. Luck is a great quarterback, but an inconsistent offensive line and a coaching staff that continues to try to keep Richardson relevant have hurt the offense. On the other side of the ball, the defense has yet to prove it can contain a legitimate quarterback like Romo, and that will be a problem once the playoffs begin.
There's still another week before the Colts have to get ready for the postseason, but they're going to have to play mistake-free football when the playoffs begin if they're going to win more than one game.
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