Colts’ Luck hopeful for Patriots showdown

It’s expected to be yet another beatdown in which the Pats tell Ryan Grigson and Jim Irsay where to stick that ball pump.

Despite the best efforts of shutdown cornerback Vontae Davis, who has been one of the best ten CBs in the league this season, the Colts pass defense has been unsurprisingly atrocious. Rob Gronkowski is expected to throw safeties out of the club and plow through defenders to the end zone, several times.

Overzealous prognosticators are talking 50, 60 points for the Patriots. Eight months of anticipation have swelled expectations for this game to absurd proportions – to the point where anything less than a 91-0 massacre would be a letdown. Coach Bill Belichick and quarterback Tom Brady are dismissing suggestions the Patriots will be out to exact their DeflateGate revenge on the Colts. They need Chandler Jones and Jabaal Sheard taking up residence in the backfield.

OLB Trent Cole (back) sat out Wednesday’s workout but is expected to start the New England game on Sunday night.

No one is ready to give up on Luck, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2012 draft. And they need Dont’a Hightower tying it all together, reading Luck’s eyes, stuffing runs, finishing blitzes.

Andrew Luck (Quarterback): Luck has not played well, at all.

I say all of this to temper expectations (including my own) in New England. He has to be able to pull off the big pass reception, whether for a touchdown or not (he still hasn’t scored through five games this season), and open things up for the rest of the Colts offense.

“We all want to play”, Luck said. This Colts passing game should provide them in week 6. “Every athlete wants to be out there playing all the time”.

Gregory Hunt is a Boston native and a life-long fan of the Patriots, Red Sox, Bruins and Celtics. This is from a team that isn’t even a good rushing team, and really never has been. As for the Chiefs, he said, “Can’t win without (Jaamal) Charles (out for year with injury); humiliated at home”.

Ultimately the Colts don’t have the personnel to slow the Patriots offense down, nor the offensive firepower to keep up with Brady. “The one that seemingly threw his offensive line and the general manager who signed them under the proverbial bus: “[It’s] been the case for three years now, has it not?” Part of it is their pattycake schedule against the AFC South, but they’re actually a very good run defense. He could return to play Sunday night after missing two games. It would be lamented as anticlimactic.

To improve the Colts’ chances, Grigson needed to change the blueprint.

But let’s be real: these 63-7, 84-10, 126-2 score predictions are getting further and further away from planet Earth. They have to bottle up the Patriots running game as a starting point. The New England Patriots veteran quarterback, however, dismissed that line of thinking. They had to endure an offseason in which the validity of their four Super Bowl triumphs, appropriately or not, again was questioned. That they have any shred of mental toughness. But arguably for the first time since he entered the league as a “sure” thing, there have been a few alarming aspects of his play; specifically, inconsistent accuracy and decision-making that have led to a high total of turnovers (seven interceptions in three games). “I really, really hope not”.