Colts preparing to go with backup plan against Steelers

All the Colts can do now is get ready for Pittsburgh (5-5), hope Luck will be cleared and prepare like he won’t.

The stakes are high for each team in Thursday’s game as both teams are a 5-5 on the season and need to win to help their playoff chances. Head injuries, though, are a player-to-player proposition.

How good has Roethlisberger been against the Colts?

Luck managed to finish Sunday’s victory over the Tennessee Titans and threw for 262 yards with two touchdowns and one interception on 15 of 28 passes. The Indianapolis defense has not recorded a sack in either game.

Luck is in concussion protocol and the Indianapolis Colts are planning on starting backup quarterback Scott Tolzien in his place, according to the NFL Network.

Luck’s status is obviously worth watching because Indianapolis will resemble winless Cleveland if he does not play.

The Titans came out flat on Sunday, allowing Adrew Luck to pick apart the secondary on the way to a 21 point lead. Put the Texans, Colts or Titans against the Patriots, Ravens, Steelers, Raiders, Broncos or the post-October 16th Dolphins, and you can tell that the AFC South is hanging out at the bottom of the AFC barrel.

“I can’t fall into that trap (of Roethlsiberger still nursing his injury). He’s young and has a long career ahead of him”, Big Ben said during a conference call.

“That would be a good assumption”, Pagano said of the short week adding to the difficulty of completing the protocol.

Prior to Sunday, they were eighth in the overall AFC standings, a half a game behind Miami. He’s done it his entire career and he strives when he’s injured.

Pagano said he wasn’t sure how, or when, Luck suffered his during the game. But his longest run was eight yards and his franchise-record tying streak of five consecutive games with a rushing score ended and he was stopped for no gain on fourth-and-1 from the Colts’ 19-yard line with 2:42 left.

Lastly, it’s Thanksgiving, surely we’re not going to get a dud, right?

The Steelers defense presents its own set of problems.

“It’s really about what we do it’s all about what we do and nobody else”, Mularkey said. “Those little mistakes you could get away with with 12 behind center, you’re not going to be able to get away with now”.

And with the 2006 Super Bowl champion Colts watching every play, the current team did something to make the old guys proud: beat Tennessee again.

The team still had not announced the injury by late afternoon Tuesday, but it did sign former Bears backup passer David Fales to its 53-man roster, off Baltimore’s practice squad. This coaching staff will be here in 2017, it would be great if they showed us that they could actually come up with a great gameplan given time.