Neues » Luck will also take chances

Indianapolis bounced back from a dreadful performance at Dallas in Week 16 and completed a sweep of the AFC South for a second straight year. The Colts, who managed only 229 yards against the Cowboys in a 42-7 loss, totaled 378 on Sunday en route to their 13th straight divisional win. We needed to come out and win, said Luck. To get a victory after last week was huge. Indianapolis leads its all-time series with the Bengals by a 17-10 margin and won the only prior postseason matchup. a 17-0 whitewash in a divisional playoff back in 1970. Back in Week 7, Luck, who led the NFL with 40 touchdown passes this season, threw two scores as the Colts handed Cincinnati its worst loss of the year, a 27-0 shutout, the Bengals first in five years. Indy limited Cincinnati to 135 total yards in that one and sacked Dalton three times while forcing Kevin Huber to punt it a franchise record-tying 11 times. Man, there were a lot of problems, Bengals safety Reggie Nelson admitted when talking about that game. We got beat and they got the best of us, so its always good going back to a stadium, back to the scene of the crime. In the postseason the Colts are 20-22 all-time while the Bengals are only 5-12. WHAT TO WATCH FOR The offenses here are polar opposites with the Colts having nary a running game while placing everything on the shoulders of Luck, and Ciincinnati becoming more of a run-based, play-action club with the emergence of Hill, who led all NFL rookies in rushing yards (1,124) and rushing TDs (nine). Ultra Boost Saldi. In his past nine games, Hill has been dominant at times, averaging 103.2 yards on the ground per contest and becoming just the third NFL rookie with four 140-plus yard games. Hills presence forces the opposing linebackers to honor the run fake and that creates better throwing lanes for Dalton, who, despite all the criticism, is 40-23-1 as the Bengals starter, the highest winning percentage in franchise history. Winning in general is how quarterbacks are judged, Dalton said. If you win a lot in the regular season but you havent won a lot in the postseason, then theyre going to say that you couldnt do something. On the outside A.J. Green is currently dealing with a concussion but is always a threat as evidenced by his 1,041 receiving yards, his fourth straight year over 1k. Greens running mate, Mohamed Sanu recorded career-highs in catches (56), receiving yards (790) and TD catches (five) but struggles with drops at times. A.J. is doing fine, Lewis said on Wednesday. Hes doing the concussion protocol. The Colts defense, meanwhile, has lacked consistency, especially on the pass rush where they the club has missed Robert Mathis, who sat the entire season, first on a suspension and then with an Achilles injury. Veteran linebacker DQwell Jackson is the leader of the group in his first season since coming over from Cleveland, pacing the AFC with 140 total tackles. Jackson has rubbed well on rookie LB Jonathan Newsome, who comes in off a two-sack game last week. The defensive backfield is highlighted by Vontae Davis, one of footballs best man-to-man coverage corners as well as veteran safety Mike Adams, who led the team with a career-high five INTs this season. The Indy offense remains the teams strength, though, and finished third in the NFL with 406.6 ypg but was No. 1 overall in passing with 305.9 of those yards coming through the air thanks to Luck, who is just the eighth QB in NFL history to toss 40 TD in a season. The Stanford product has 12,957 passing yards since entering the league in 2012, the most of any player in their first three seasons. Luck has got a plethora of weapons starting with the speedy T.Y. Hilton, who amassed a career-high 1,345 receiving yards with 1,159 of them coming after the first month. Meanwhile tight ends Dwayne Allen and Coby Fleener each had eight TD receptions. Suppressing Andrew Luck is going to be kind of hard, Nelson admitted. He always starts off kind of slow and the scary thing is, he can always get his team going. What Luck doesnt have, though, is a running game although the disappointing Trent Richardson has always played pretty well against the Bengals, averaging 101.3 scrimmage yards per game in four career meeting against Cincinnati. Defensively the Bengals will need a big day from their top pass rusher, Carlos Dunlap, who lead the team with eight sacks. Luck will also take chances at times so when the opportunities are there to make a play, a talented defensive backfield has to pounce. Nelson led Cincinnati with four picks. We have a lot of respect for what they do, Luck said. They do a lot and they do it well. These guys do everything and do it with confidence and competence. Its a fun team to play. OVERALL ANALYSIS Geico Insurance has introduced a new generation of NFL fans to Ickey Woods and his famed Ickey Shuffle with a cute little marketing campaign showing Ickey celebrating getting some cold cuts with the shuffle. Fans in Cincinnati, however, understand the Bengals havent won in the postseason since Boomer Esiason was handing it to Ickey. In their minds its time to celebrate something far more important than cold cuts. At the end of the day, there are only so many teams that get this opportunity, said Bengals left tackle Andrew Whitworth. It doesnt matter what your record is anymore. It doesnt matter where youre seeded. All that matters is if you win. And winning here is going to take some Luck. Do we want to take the next step? Yes, Pagano said. Do we want to reach the Super Bowl thats going to be played in Arizona? Yes. Were glad to be in (the playoffs), but (were) never satisfied until we hoist (the Lombardi Trophy). ' ' '