–Quarterback Andrew Luck was asked how satisfying it is to be named AFC Offensive Player of the Week for the fifth time in his career when considering where he was a year ago, missing 2017 due to shoulder surgery. “It’s nice,” he said of the honor. “(But) again, satisfy – I don’t like that word. It denotes that work is done in a sense, and by no means do I feel that way. It’s certainly nice to have something like that, I guess. I always thought it was such a team game. Any individual award or recognition is a product of you being on a really good team. So right now we are doing some decent things and we’ve got to keep doing them.”
As Luck continues his torrid pace of putting up career-best numbers, he was asked if this is the best he’s felt in the NFL. “I don’t know,” he said. “I do think I am getting better every week. I am not going to go and play the game of looking back to different years and comparing and contrasting – I don’t. It just doesn’t fly in my mind. But I do think that every week I feel a little better and a little better and every day I feel a little better and a little better. So, I’ll keep working on that.”
If he has three TD passes against the Dolphins, the eighth consecutive game would tie Peyton Manning for the third-longest streak in NFL history. He’s thrown at least one touchdown pass in 33 consecutive games, the longest active streak in the league.
–Head coach Frank Reich was effusive in his praise of Dolphins running back Frank Gore, who played his previous three years with the Colts. Gore will be starting his 119th consecutive game, the most for any active NFL running back, and that includes 48 for the Colts. “He’s legendary, not just in this building,” Reich said. “I have been on other teams, every team I have been on I have heard about Frank Gore as an offensive coach and someone who has spent a lot of time on pass protection. He has set the standard. Frank Gore has set the standard for pass protection for backs, for technique and fundamentals and getting it done, but also for understanding protections. Frank Gore set the standard on that.” Gore has also piled up the rushing yards, moving into fourth place on the NFL career list with 14,544.
–Tight end Eric Ebron leads the Colts with 39 receptions and nine TD catches, but he didn’t have a single target against the Titans. And he didn’t mind being used as a decoy, especially since it freed up Pro Bowl wide receiver T.Y. Hilton to have a monster game with nine catches for 155 yards and two TDs, including a 68-yard score. Ebron did have a chance to throw a TD pass off a double reverse, but the end-zone throw to a leaping Luck was just out of reach. Reich admitted that the Colts never would have heard the end of it if Ebron had completed that pass. “Maybe the Lord was having mercy on us,” Reich said with a chuckle.
–Reich provided perspective on kicker Adam Vinatieri setting yet another NFL record as the all-time leader in regular-season wins with 210. “It was kind of cool this morning in the team meeting I said to a couple guys, a couple of the rookies, I said, ‘Imagine if you had a 13-year career, that would be pretty awesome. Imagine if you went 16-0 for 13 straight years.’ I said, ‘Can you imagine that? That would be pretty incredible, right?’ I said, ‘You would still be chasing ‘Vinny’ (Vinatieri) for the most wins in a regular season, that’s incredible.’ So just a shout out to Vinny for breaking that record this past week. I think that is pretty special.” Vinatieri, the NFL’s oldest player at 45, has already set NFL career records in field goals (574) and points (2,561) this season. “That (wins) record is more about team accomplishment, being on some good teams for a bunch of years,” he said. “To play for a team that doesn’t win many games, you are nowhere near that. So it’s kind of a cool thing to think, I didn’t even know that record even existed or whatever. Yeah, have been on a great team and this win that put us over the top of that was when Reggie (Wayne) came back and got honored. Seeing all my old teammates that were a part of 100 of those wins or so, it was a pretty awesome moment last week in the game. It was kind of a cool thought.”
BY THE NUMBERS: 135.2 – Average passer rating for Luck in the four-game win streak, the first time he’s had four consecutive games with a 100-plus passer rating in his career. The only quarterback in franchise history who has been better was Hall of Famer John Unitas at 135.4 in 1965. Peyton Manning’s best four-game Colts stretch was 133.5 in 2004.
