Lions kick Colts in 39-35 shootout

Stafford shared the wealth with his offense during the drive hitting three different receivers in Riddick, Ebron, and Jones to set up Matt Prater with a 43-yard field goal opportunity.

They drilled these scenarios – variations of them, anyway – throughout training camp in preparation for these types of moments. That gaffe preserved the Lions’ three timeouts.

Riddick and Abdullah were efficient, catching all 10 of their combined targets, which should help them build trust with Stafford moving forward. And guys made plays.

Detroit barrelled down the field, charging into field goal range.

The difference between the Indianapolis Colts and the Detroit Lions isn’t great, but the Colts had to like their chances. The Colts moved the ball but Joe Reitz gave up a sack, which was followed by a pitch play to Robert Turbin on 3rd and 15 which forced the offense to punt, but when you have the best punter in the National Football League in Pat McAfee, it is not always a bad thing as the punt was a touchback. Wentz played mistake-free football despite missing the last three preseason games with injured ribs. So you didn’t have any blunders in terms of substitutions. “Yeah, we can look back and say it would’ve been nice to bleed a lot more time off the clock”.

“We have a system in place”, Caldwell said. But the confidence they showed because they’ve done it, you know, numerous times. “It’s not a huge thing, but it’s something where, situationally, we can be a little bit better”.

“Tired of talking about slow starts, exhausted of being a part of slow starts, disappointed in myself for being part of a slow start and that surely affected it”, Luck said.

So when it comes time for games and for making actual decisions, there are no questions – just solutions Stafford has to find.

This problem was one of the main reasons why the Colts missed the playoffs in 2015.

“I don’t care what anybody says about anything, in this league it’s hard to win a game anywhere, home or away”, Caldwell said.

And he explained what he believes the advantages are to having all of his timeouts late in a game.

Owners in need of tight ends in Week 2 may want to gamble on the Colts tight ends. “There was quite a few of those”, Caldwell said. “We felt like it was more important to get back, get gathered, get a call in, get settled because we still needed a touchdown”. It’s a pretty delicate balancing act. (When) you can come out and move the ball like we moved it towards the end of the first half and then move it in the second half and get off the field, it’s a byproduct.

On Sunday, the Lions were helped out by a couple of factors.

Bad coverage, miscommunication among the defensive backs and some poor tackling lead to Indy taking a brief lead at 35-34 late in the fourth quarter.

“We have systems and strategies in place that we kind of look at and numbers that we are looking at all the time and guys in the (coaches’) box that are looking at it … and trying to stay within it so we have enough time to score”, Caldwell said.

When 37 seconds remained on the clock, Lions’ running back Ameer Abdulah said his team had more than a pulse. But when the Colts called the timeout was highly questionable. Would he have used one of his own? The Titans lost 25-16 at home this week to the Minnesota Vikings, however they did not allow a single offensive touchdown and held Adrian Peterson to 31 yards on 19 carries.