It Was All Luck For The Colts In Preseason Win

When the dust settles on the pre-season game between the Colts and Rams rookie QB Andrew Luck, NFL insiders will all agree that Luck did not disappoint. In his first NFL career start, Luck completed a long touchdown pass on his first throw.

Seeking to silence his critics about whether or not he can step up to fill Peyton's shoes, he led to the Colts to their very first win since Peyton's departure, ceiling the 38-3 win over St. Louis.

Indianapolis's coaches wanted this year's No. 1 overall draft pick to take 20 to 25 snaps. He got 24. They wanted to keep him upright, and though Luck hit the ground twice, he was not sacked. They wanted him to show his command of the offense, and in less than a half of play, Luck seemed to take a page right out of Manning's playbook.

Luck wound up of 10 of 16 for 188 yards with two TD passes. Three of the incompletions were drops, two were throwaways, and only one pass, a deep out to rookie T.Y. Hilton, came close to being picked off. But Hilton hauled it in, barely getting both feet in bounds, and in typical Manning fashion, Luck rushed the Colts to the line of scrimmage and snapped the ball before the Rams could challenge.

But it was Luck's quick start that dazzled Colts fans. With the rookie quarterback under pressure on his first NFL play, Luck calmly dumped the ball off to Donald Brown, who darted up the field with blockers in front, then cut from right to left and outran the defense to the end zone. Luck pumped his fist in the air and jogged to the sideline with a broad smile across his face.

On Luck's third series, he converted a third-and-3 with the 12-yard completion to Hilton. Four plays later, Austin Collie beat zone coverage and Luck found him in the front corner of the end zone for a 23-yard score to give Indy a 14-0 lead.

Not enough? After the Rams got a 37-yard field goal, cutting the lead to 14-3, Luck answered with a methodical 13-play, 80-yard drive, disregarding the three drops. Delone Carter ended the drive with a 1-yard run to make it 21-3.

While the Colts looked good in Chuck Pagano's head coaching debut, the Rams struggled mightily in Jeff Fisher's debut as St. Louis coach.  Sam Bradford, the No. 1 overall pick in 2010 and the Offensive Rookie of the Year, was 7 of 9 for 57 yards and recovered his own fumble. Backup Kellen Clemens was 4 of 6 for 18 yards, but led St. Louis on its only scoring drive.

And, of course, the defense couldn't get anything done against Luck -- or anyone else.

Indy's win ended a streak of seven straight losses in pre-season openers and was its most lopsided since a 35-0 victory over Washington in 1966.