It was bad enough to lose a game to the New England Patriots on national television. It was compounded by a slew of injuries to key players that threatened to impact more than just that game. At 1-4 the Colts cannot afford to lose more than 1 or 2 more games before they start to lose any chance at relevance. The power rankings this week reflect the Colts stumbling start. It doesnr17;t matter much whether you compete in games Authentic Anthony Walker Jersey , it matters if you win them. Right now the Colts havenr17;t proven they can finish those games, and their ranking reflects it. Letr17;s take a look at those rankings heading into week 6.Nate Davis of USA Today has the Colts at 27th, up one from last week.Frank Schwab of Yahoo! Sports has the Colts down 2 spots to 30th.ESPN has the Colts ranked 26th, down from 24th last week.Sporting News has the Colts ranked 29th, down from 26thBleacher Report has the Colts ranked 29th, up from 30thNFL.com has the Colts ranked 29th, down from 27th last weekIs Andrew Luckr17;s statistical fall a true narrative of his current ability? There are a lot of opinions right now in regards to the Indianapolis Colts franchise quarterback, Andrew Luck. Most of the media r12; and now a healthy dose of Colts fans as well r12; are questioning the strength of the passerr17;s surgically repaired right shoulder.The entrance of Jacoby Brissett to throw the Hail Mary in the waning moments of the Coltsr17; Week 3 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles only made the conversation more unbearable. And now, most are left wondering why Luck and this offense appear to be less efficient and more of an issue than the teamr17;s defense, which was supposed to be the unit that would take time to mesh.Most might not be, but it seems as if a great deal of Colts fans are forgetting one of the most obvious reasons they feel theyr17;re seeing a lack of aggression in Luck and the offense. First, head coach Frank Reich mentioned that his system would see to it that Luck was able to get the ball out of his hands quickly. He also suggested that this offense would be aggressive, multiple, and would attempt to eat up big chunks of yardage as well. Itr17;s fair that these two statements from the rookie head coach might be where the disconnect lies.Of course there are additional circumstances: Anthony Castonzo has been sidelined, the right tackle position has been a bit of a turnstile already in this young season, and therer17;s a real lack of punch from the running game so far. Reich did touch on some of this yesterday, and herer17;s what he had to say during availability.About Andrew Luck receiving the balance of praise/blame r12;And about the optics of appearing to r16;check-downr17; so often r12;I took the liberty of eliminating some of the redundancy in those statements, but thatr17;s the meat and potatoes of those quotes. And Reich is correct, you can remember some of the plays her17;s refering to, and thinking to yourself r0;yep, that was pretty obviously supposed to go deep and it didnr17;t pan out.r1;On the other hand, we are also seeing Luck make plenty of mistakes that a quarterback with that mind and so physically gifted such as him should not be making. But, a few other things remain absolutely true regardless of whether or not we want to believe them. Luck isnr17;t going downfield often, her17;s not putting much r16;stankr17; on passes that truly need it (this is not a new issue, however), and the Coltsr17; offense is nowhere near where it needs to be if the Colts are going to make any noise this year.If the Colts have any aspirations of a postseason berth Youth Kenny Moore Jersey , something is going to have to give. Luck has been sacked 5 times in three games, but has still taken 19 QB hits (19th). Should Reich/Luck sacrifice a sack or two more than theyr17;re allowing per game right now in order to attack the opposing defenses a bit more? I think itr17;s a reasonable question, but would the payoff truly net more touchdowns? I would think that it would, but I donr17;t truly know if thatr17;d be the case or not.The one thing that we must keep in mind right now is that we know what Andrew Luck brings to the table. Her17;s an amazing talent who hovers around 12 yards per completion for his career, has averaged about 4,300 passing yards when her17;s played at least 15 games, has led the league in touchdown passes, and has the ability to be a clear top-5 passer in the league.As much as some of what Luck does occasionally aggravates me, I canr17;t r12; even for a second r12; accept that he no longer possesses the ability to be the most deadly quarterback in the league. At any rate, letr17;s look at the general statistics for Luck and sort of cross-reference them with NFL.comr17;s Next Gen Stats just for the fun of it.We often use yards per attempt or yards per completion to rationalize a common passing narrative, and sometimes to debunk it. Now, though, there are so many different stats that we can look to in order to attempt to shape our respective thoughts on a matter such as this.Here wer17;ll look at Next Gen Stats (their glossary), and Luckr17;s general stats for a bit of clarity. Then again, maybe itr17;ll just muddy the waters for some. Anyhow, here we go.Luckr17;s Next Gen StatsTime to throw: 2.52 seconds (7th fastest)Average intended air yards: 5.5 AYs (34th of 35)Aggressiveness percentage: 16.95 (14th)Air yards to sticks: - 2.1 yards (33rd)Expected completion percentage: 67.8% (comp% = 68.5%)Personally, from this group of stats, I get that Luck has indeed been getting the ball out quickly r12; mostly by design of course r12; which is a good thing if your17;re on board with the selection of Quenton Nelson, keeping the opposing pass rush under control, and are in favor of Luck taking what the defense gives him on early downs, thus, getting into manageable third down situations more regularly. On the other hand, we canr17;t presuppose anything about him getting r16;betterr17; protection from this stat. Luck has been hit 19 times, which seems to counter that argument.Additionally, wer17;re seeing that Luck isnr17;t going down field hardly at all (intended Air Yards), her17;s not attacking the first down marker with any regularity (Air Yards to Sticks) and there is a reliance on an underachieving unit of receivers to gain an unrealistic amount of yards after the catch to keep this offense competitive and on the field.We also find that Luck is indeed more quantifiably accurate http://www.coltsauthorizedshops.com/authentic-quenton-nelson-jersey , and isnr17;t a victim of too many drops r12; donr17;t watch the Eagles game r12; or having a large number of accurate balls being knocked away by defenders. However, his aggressiveness percentage may be, in fact, skewed due to the receivers not getting separation early on in their routes. Theyr17;re being seen, or deemed aggressive, but itr17;s more likely a combination of a lack of receiver talent and some bad throws mixed in there.General Stats:Completion rate: 68.5% (10th)Pass yards: 662 yards (23rd)TD percentage: 4% (21st)INT percentage: 2.4% (T-17th)Yards per attempt: 5.3 yards (31st)Adjusted yards gained per attempt: 5.1 yards (29th)Yards per completion: 7.8 yards (32nd)Pass yards per game: 220.7 yards (24th)Net yards gained per attempt: 4.83 yards (28th)Adjusted net yards per attempt: 4.56 yards (28th)I canr17;t say that I expected there to be an AH HAH! moment in here somewhere between all of these numbers, but the general side of the statistical game looks even worse to me. Basically, it just confirms that Luck is checking down a lot, the receivers arenr17;t doing much after the catch, and that her17;s probably thrown more interceptions than he should for running such a r16;conservativer17; passing game.The yardage monster that Luck is, is not putting up those numbers this year, his touchdown numbers are on the down side of average thus far, but hey, her17;s been really accurate up to this point. I know I tend to put a bit of a condescending tone to this, but the numbers are what they are, and the injury issues with the team, the offensive system, the talent level and everything else you want to add to it are all part of the formula.For all of the negative that this puts forward, I do actually believe that Reich and Luck will work together with the offensive line, receivers and running backs coaches to improve their offensive game plan. Attempting to limit Luckr17;s hits, get the running game going, lighting a fire under the receiver room and STILL trying to get the offense to third-and-manageable at a high rate is going to be a hard trick to pull off. But, we may at least start to see bits and pieces of alterations to the game plan as the weeks go by. Guys will get more comfortable up front, receivers more adept at getting open earlier in their routes and hopefully the running game will begin to take some of the pressure off. I think this is a reasonable assumption for the progression of Reichr17;s plan for the season, and I believe the Colts will need it in the back half of the season.
