Game plan: Colts at Falcons

Watch Indianapolis Colts vs Atlanta Falcons (live stream and scores here) game: Indy Colts vs. Falcons football game in Week 11 run of the 2015 NFL regular season takes place on Sunday afternoon at 1PM ET and gets underway at Georgia Dome. Sunday’s game with the Colts needs to be when the Falcons turn things around. After turning it over on each of their first two possessions, veteran quarterback Matt Hasselbeck led two long scoring drives to get Indianapolis back into the game.

The visitors were without first-choice quarterback Andrew Luck through injury, and his replacement Matt Hasselbeck got off to a shaky start when his first pass attempt was intercepted by Paul Worrilow.

RUSHING OFFENSE: D-minus. Running back Devonta Freeman, who had 43 yards on three carries, sustained a concussion in the first quarter and did not return. “I think we’ve got a really talented outfit”. It took one play for the Colts to almost get all of those yards back. The Colts have won three of their last four against the Falcons and are 4-1 against the spread in their last five in this series. “We got pressure on them, got them back there a few times, and batted the ball”. He was up to the task when a shoulder injury sidelined Andrew Luck earlier this season, keeping the team afloat by directing wins over Jacksonville and Houston.

“We knew it would be big today, especially in the middle”, defensive tackle Jonathan Babineaux said.

Of course, the big news out of Indianapolis is Luck, who is out with a lacerated kidney and he is gone for 4-6 weeks.

WHERE’S RODDY: Atlanta spent the last two weeks looking for ways to spark the offense. He has 80 catches for 1,029 yards and six touchdowns, giving him a shot at eclipsing Marvin Harrison’s single-season receptions record (143).

Julio Jones had another huge game for the Falcons, hauling in nine passes for 160 yards.

The defense came up with four turnovers, starting with a diving end-zone interception by Dwight Lowery to quell an early Atlanta threat. But Hankerson has one touchdown catch, and DiMarco has two.

Ryan completed 25 of 46 passes for 280 yards with the three touchdowns and three interceptions. “We didn’t play well in the fourth quarter”.

“It’s just a play I can’t make”, Ryan said.

Notes: Safety Mike Adams (ankle), receiver Phillip Dorsett (ankle), and linebacker D’Qwell Jackson (hamstring) did not practice on Thursday. “In order to be better in those situations, to me it comes down to making the plays when you have the opportunity”.

Trailing 14-0 midway through the second quarter, Hasselbeck led the Colts’ best drive of the first half. But picks were a problem in the Stage 2 Falcons’ lone victory, at Tennessee, which is why the score was only 10-7. They won’t win many games with the wide receivers combining for just 95 receiving yards.

“There is absolutely a renewal”, said rookie coach Dan Quinn, always the optimist. “We lost our offensive coordinator so it gave them a chance to kind of come together and figure out what we’re going to be going forward”.

The next step comes against the Falcons, who have dropped three of four after a 5-0 start.

The Colts managed to claim a win in their last outing (they had a Bye Week last week), and that saw them take down Peyton Manning and the Denver Broncos 27-24.