Luck may practice but Colts unsure who’ll start

“I do know that Bortles is hitting a streak in terms of touchdown passes”, Falcons coach Dan Quinn said. And when Luck has played, it hasn’t been good.

If the victor of the Colts/Texans contest next week wins their final two games, they will represent the AFC South in the playoffs. He was expected to miss two to six weeks.

The game was boring for 28 minutes, with the teams combining for nine punts and three field goals.

The Colts led 13-3 late in the first half, but Indianapolis didn’t stand a chance in the second half, as the Jaguars outscored the Colts 42-3 in the third and fourth quarter. He’s thrown 30 touchdown passes to 13 interceptions.

But in Indy, there are bigger concerns than who plays and who doesn’t.

“Matt is still dealing with some stuff”, Pagano said. But he’s not going to get caught up in what-ifs.

“Right now, whoever is behind that center, as long as they’ve got the attitude we all have right now, it’s just win”, said Mike Adams.

The players poured over the Jacksonville film Monday and the verdict wasn’t as discoursing as one would presume.

The Jaguars, though, weren’t talking much about the playoffs after routing the Colts.

“You can climb from the depths, from the bottom of the valley all the way up the mountain top”.

“We’ve got three games left”. We’ll see if he can increase his activity this week and return to action.

The Colts are handling Luck as carefully and cautiously as possible, and with good reason. This was a team that was once 2-4 and seemed on another rocky course toward another season of irrelevance.

Pagano stressed the hope is that Matt Hasselbeck will be ready to play.

And even when Andrew Luck returns, it’s doubtful that he can lead a Colts team that is lacking offensive play-makers and a solid enough defense to make a serious run at a Super Bowl.

While the Colts (6-7) are deadlocked with the Texans for first place in the AFC South Division and are coming off unprecedented 35-point losses in back-to-back games, Luck said he’s not yet 100 percent and his availability will be determined by medical scans without any influence by the magnitude of the next game. That’s why it is so important that Hasselbeck is available, and it sounds like Chuck Pagano expects him to be on Sunday against the Texans. I’m not embarrassed because Jacksonville has pro players. OK, it’s too wild to imagine, we agree.

-RUN DEFENSE: B. Even with Paul Posluszny, the heart of their run defense out with a broken hand, they held Frank Gore to 60 yards in 15 carries. They’ve spouted off this phrase off, once, twice, a hundred times the last few weeks, falling back on the life preserver that is the league’s most incompetent division, including the horrid NFC East. How bad is it? You’ve got to answer, and we didn’t answer. “We just can’t keep our heads down”. Andrew Luck is not the same as Bob Sanders. “He’s a great quarterback, but we still have to play better”.

-Outside linebacker Daniel Adongo was not active for the Jacksonville game on Sunday. Hasselbeck was wearing a sling on his left arm Monday, “that is to prevent some spasms that go along with his rib injury”.