Siegfried: With success comes higher expectations for Colts
By PAUL SIEGFRIED
ISL Correspondent
There is always a heightened sense of anticipation at the start of every NFL season. Almost every team and their fans think they are better than the year before and are anxious to go out and prove it.
For the Indianapolis Colts, unexpected success last season has only fueled that feeling as they prepare for Sunday’s opening game against the Oakland Raiders at Lucas Oil Stadium. (1 p.m., CBS-TV)
Along with anticipation, the Colts must deal with raised expectations. With a rookie quarterback and interim head coach, they fashioned a nine-win improvement, going 11-5 and earning a playoff berth in a season that had been expected to be one of rebuilding.
Indianapolis is a heavy favorite against the Raiders, as Oakland is in the rebuilding mode following a 4-12 campaign last season. That will be something else the Colts will have to deal with this year — being a favorite in most of the their game and that they will be expected to win. It’s an added pressure that largely falls on second-year quarterback Andrew Luck.
Luck had one of the best rookie seasons in NFL history, and will not only be expected to avoid a sophomore slump, but improve upon his rookie numbers of 4,374 yards passing and 23 TDs.
Not all eyes will be on Luck on Sunday. They will also be on coach Chuck Pagano, who heads into his first full season as head coach following last season when he missed nearly the whole year battling cancer. Interim coach and offensive coordinator Bruce Arians won coach of the year honors, and moved to become head coach of the Arizona Cardinals. The Colts brought in Pep Hamilton as the new offensive coordinator, the position he held at Stanford when his Luck was there.
The Luck-Pagano-Hamilton relationship will be under scrutiny early on. Luck already has shown he has a connection with All-Pro wideout Reggie Wayne. Wide receiver T.Y. Hilton is also coming off a stellar rookie campaign and didn’t show any signs of a slump during the preseason.
Wide receiver Darrius Heyward-Bey, who was signed as a free agent after languishing for three years in Oakland, gets his second chance in Indianapolis. Although tight ends Dwayne Allen and Coby Fleener have battled injuries in the preseason, once they are added into the equation, Luck will have more than enough targets to ensure another productive campaign.
Vick Ballard will open the game at running back, but is expected to share duties with newcomer Ahmad Bradshaw, who missed all of the preseason with an injury after signing as a free agent in the offseason. Ballard is the known quantity, running for 814 yards a year ago. The oft-injured Bradshaw had 1,015 yards last season, but knee and foot injuries have dogged him through his career.
The biggest question mark for the Colts heading into the season is the offensive line. The area was addressed both in free agency with tackle Gosder Cherilus and guard Donald Thomas, and through the draft with Hugh Thornton and Khaled Holmes. The line play will be a key to the team’s success, and it can’t let Luck get sacked 41 times again.
The Indianapolis defense was one of the biggest bright spots of the preseason, as the second-year in the transition to a base 3-4 has been surprisingly smooth. The Colts found their front three run-stuffers with Aubrayo Franklin in the middle and Cory Redding and Ricky Jean-Francois on the ends. Pro-Bowler Robert Mathis made the switch from end to outside linebacker, and getting Pat Angerer back from injury inside has made a huge difference in the linebacking corps.
Next to the offensive line, the biggest area of concern after last season was the secondary. General manager Ryan Grigson went out and signed veteran All-Pro free safety LaRon Landry and cornerback Greg Toler to team with returnees Antoine Bethea at strong safety and Vontae Davis at cornerback. Landry missed a good part of the preseason with an injury, but Toler stood out during exhibition games, showing that the Colts could be primed to be among the league leaders in forced turnovers.
The Raiders and coach Dennis Allen enter 2013 with much less optimism than the Colts. Last year’s four-win season sparked a complete overhaul of the roster. Seven starters from the defense were let go, and nearly as many are gone from the offense, most notably quarterback Carson Palmer, who bolted as soon as he could to Arizona.
Oakland went out and signed Matt Flynn to be their new starting quarterback, but during the preseason he was beaten out for the job by Terrelle Pryor. Pryor showed improved accuracy during exhibition season and gives the Raiders an added element of the read-option, which will force the Colts to be disciplined in their assignments. The top receiving targets for Pryor are Denarius Moore and Rod Streater, neither of whom is exactly Tim Brown.
The Raiders don’t have many weapons, but Indianapolis will need to keep tabs on running back Darren McFadden, who has the speed to get to the corner and the burst to go the distance at any time.
Luck and the Colts offense could be poised for a big day against the Oakland defense, which features a number of new faces, many of which the Raiders picked up as reclamation projects.
Two names that are familiar are in the secondary where the Raiders signed future Hall of Famer Charles Woodson. Woodson began his career in Oakland, but spent his recent years in Green Bay. The other player is cornerback Tracy Porter, the former Indiana University standout and one-time Saint whose interception of Peyton Manning in Super Bowl XLIV sealed the game for New Orleans.
