Indianapolis Colts

Luck: Colts not placing extra emphasis on Pats game

Published Jul. 7, 2015 2:58 p.m. ET

foxsports

The New England Patriots will visit Indianapolis Oct. 18 in one of the regular season's most anticipated matchups. For starters, it will feature the defending Super Bowl champions facing off against one of the NFL's top teams with Super Bowl aspirations of their own in the Colts.

The game will be the first meeting between the teams since last season's AFC title game, a 45-7 Patiots' win which spawned "Deflategate." It's also scheduled to mark New England quarterback Tom Brady's first game back from a four-game suspension for his role in the controversy.

With all that in mind, it stands to reason the Colts might be looking ahead to the game as one of the high points of their season. Not so, says Andrew Luck. Instead, the star quarterback says he views the game as just one of 16 on the schedule.

"The Patriots are obviously the defending Super Bowl champs and our defending conference champs so there's a high amount of respect for that team and what they do," Luck said, via BritViewNFL.com. "They're the kings of the league right now and everybody would like to de-throne them -- we'd like to de-throne them but you have to look at the season as 16 games. There are fans and media who will hype up certain games and circle them in red on the calendar but, as a player, you lose sight of what's important if you get into that mode."

Indianapolis has a lot riding on the season, with the high-profile additions of wide receiver Andre Johnson and running back Frank Gore, along with a number of kew members of the team entering the final year of their contracts, including head coach Chuck Pagano, wide receiver T.Y. Hilton and left tackle Anthony Castonzo. Luck and the Colts hope taking a big-picture view of the season will help result in the team's first Super Bowl win since the 2006 season.

(h/t NFL)

Photo credit: Brian Spurlock/USA TODAY Sports