PITTSBURGH — There’s luck, there’s Andrew Luck and there’s the Indianapolis Colts.
Put the three together, and the combination seems destined to win many, many games for many, many years.
That has to have the front offices and coaching staffs of 31 other teams bemoaning the Colts' luck — and Luck. Indianapolis plays all those years with Peyton Manning at quarterback, then Manning gets hurt one time and the Colts wind up with the first pick in the NFL Draft.
What they earned with that pick was on display Sunday night in the Pittsburgh Steelers' 26-24 victory at Heinz Field, against a defense expected to provide a much stiffer test than the Rams gave him in the first preseason game.
It started that way, too, as Luck — the player taken to replace Manning — completed just two of his first eight throws. The eighth was a poorly thrown deep out to Reggie Wayne that Ike Taylor intercepted and returned 49 yards for a touchdown to put Pittsburgh up 14-0.
The critics were ready.
His response: To complete 14 of his final 17 passes and lead the Colts to 17 points and the halftime lead. One of the incompletions was a spike to stop the clock, the other a drop-turned-interception. That means Luck had one true incompletion in those 17 throws.
This was a poised and polished rookie who turned a tough start into a memorable finish. It was only one half, and it was preseason, but it left anyone who watched muttering that Steelers coach Mike Tomlin was right when he said Luck “ain’t a miss” with the first overall selection.
“All the great ones think (a bad play is) a fluke,” Colts coach Chuck Pagano said. “He understands the competition level and those type of things. He was able to bring his team back from behind.
“There was nothing surprising to us.”
That’s because the Colts see Luck every day in practice, and they have been just as impressed in practice as anyone has been watching his two preseason games.
Luck has an innate knack to feel the rush, to move from it while reading the coverage, and then throw the ball where it has to be. The consensus from anyone with the Colts is that Luck is everything he was supposed to be — and maybe more.
“He has good poise in the pocket, and he doesn’t get rattled,” Colts defensive end Dwight Freeney said. “That’s what you like to see. He doesn’t press too much. After throwing that pick, he came back and drove the ball back down and put us on top.
“It was a collective effort, but he did a great job.”
After the pick six, Luck led the Colts on an 80-yard touchdown drive that started with a 5-yard sack. No big deal. He followed with completions of 9, 13, 14, 24 and 21 yards to set up a touchdown run.
On his next drive, Luck found T.Y. Hilton behind the secondary down the middle of the field for what could have been another touchdown. But Hilton inexplicably lost control of the ball and batted it in the air and into the hands of Pittsburgh’s Will Allen.
Luck shrugged that off with another 80-yard touchdown drive. He started with completions of 8 and 9 yards before his finest pass of the night — a throw down the left sideline to Reggie Wayne that went over the linebacker and dropped into Wayne’s hands well in front of the safety.
That drive ended in a touchdown as well (run in by Luck on fourth and 1, a call that only offensive coordinator Bruce Arians would make).
Finally, for good measure Luck started the Colts' final first-half possession at their 34 with 42 seconds left and one timeout. He completed three passes, and then spiked the ball with a second left to set up Adam Vinatieri’s 53-yard field goal.
“It’s competence more than confidence,” Luck said. “I think I’m feeling more competent with the offense and how it’s designed to attack certain things.”
He’ll see more complexities in the regular season, and the Steelers had their backups in the game for a healthy portion of the second quarter. But Luck exposed them — doing what a good quarterback is supposed to do. If responding to difficulty matters, Luck answered like a Stanford graduate. He treated the interception like a leaf on his shoulder.
In two preseason games, he’s completed 26 of 41 passes for 363 yards, two TDs and two interceptions. In 11 possessions, he’s led the offense to five touchdowns and a field goal.
That’s in about one game’s work, with a team that has a new general manager, a new coach, two new coordinators and a boatload of new players (54 of the 90 have two years or less experience).
“It’s normally hard for a rookie,” Wayne said, “but it doesn’t ever seem like anything is too big for him.”
