In his first game back since suffering a concussion, Andrew Luck reminded the Indianapolis Colts they are set at quarterback for the next decade — and helped officially send the New York Jets back to the drawing board in their quixotic search for a franchise signal-caller.
Luck threw four touchdown passes — including three to tight end Dwayne Allen in the first half — and finished with the best single-game passer rating of his career on Monday as the Colts moved into a tie for first place in the American Football Conference South by routing the Jets 41-10 at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey.
“It’s always great to have your starting quarterback under center,” Colts head coach Chuck Pagano said. “I don’t think we threw very many passes. Completed a bunch.”
Photo: AFP
Luck, who was injured on Nov. 20 and missed the Colts’ 27-7 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers four days later, finished 22 of 28 for 278 yards and a passer rating of 147.6, before giving way early in the fourth quarter to Scott Tolzien. A perfect passer rating is 158.3.
“We know he’s a talented guy, but it goes back to his preparation,” Pagano said. “He does not like to not be available for his teammates. He hated missing that game. It’s great to have him back.”
Luck, who is in the first year of a six-year deal worth a maximum of US$139.1 million, completed his first six passes — including touchdown strikes of seven yards and 21 yards to Allen, who was wide open both times — in directing the Colts to a 14-0 lead less than eight minutes into the first quarter.
Photo: AP
Luck capped the Colts’ first drive of the second half with a three-yard touchdown pass to Donte Moncrief that put the Colts up 31-3.
He exited after Indianapolis’ fifth touchdown, a five-yard run by backup running back Robert Turbin.
“It’s always fun, especially when you miss a game — that’s no fun,” said Luck, who missed the final seven games of last season with a lacerated kidney. “To get back out and do some things was good.”
So, too, was moving back into first place in the division.
The Colts (6-6) are tied at the top with the Houston Texans and the Tennessee Titans, while the Jets (3-9) will miss the playoffs for the sixth straight season after being eliminated from post-season contention.
Head coach Todd Bowles said afterward that second-year quarterback Bryce Petty, who replaced Fitzpatrick at the start of the second half, would play out the string behind center for New York.
Former reality TV star Jessie Holmes on Tuesday night cruised to a repeat victory in the Iditarod, the about 1,609km sled dog race in Alaska. Holmes guided his dog team across the finish line in the old Gold Rush town of Nome, a Bering Sea coastal community. The race started on March 8 in Willow, a day after the ceremonial start in Anchorage. The course took dog teams and their mushers over two mountain ranges, along the frozen Yukon River and across the unpredictable Bering Sea ice. Holmes, a former cast member on the National Geographic reality show Life Below Zero, is the
Taiwanese boxer and Olympic gold medalist Lin Yu-ting has been approved to compete in the Asian Boxing Elite Championships, the Chinese Taipei Boxing Association (CTBA) said yesterday. The championships start on Saturday next week in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. At the 2024 Paris Olympics, Lin became entangled in a gender controversy, despite the International Olympic Committee confirming her eligibility to compete as a female boxer. In August last year, World Boxing mandated a new regulation that required all athletes to undergo a polymerase chain reaction. genetic test to determine their sex at birth and their eligibility. Since the introduction of the test, Lin has missed several
The Taoyuan Pauian Pilots on Sunday fell short in their bid for a first East Asia Super League (EASL) title after a 90-81 loss to Japan’s Utsunomiya Brex in Macau. The defeat marked the second straight year the defending P.League+ champions missed out on the EASL crown, but they remain the first team to reach back-to-back championship games in the league’s three-year history. The outcome was largely decided by long-range shooting. The Pilots struggled from beyond the arc, hitting just five of 20 attempts, while the Brex converted 19 three-pointers, shooting 46.3 percent from long range. Seven of the eight Brex players
ONE MORE CHANCE: While North Korea denied Taiwan in Australia, Taiwan, who last played in the World Cup in 1991, could still qualify via inter-confederation playoffs Taiwan yesterday lost 4-0 to a dominant North Korea in the AFC Women’s Asian Cup playoffs, closing off an avenue to qualify for the FIFA Women’s World Cup. Hong Song-ok scored a hat-trick in the match to determine the last of the confederation’s qualifiers from the tournament for next year’s World Cup in Brazil. With their victory over Taiwan, North Korea has qualified for the first time since a doping saga in 2011 led to their long absence from top-tier international tournaments. Angela Beard and Jaclyn Sawicki scored in a six-minute span to help the Philippines secure a World Cup spot with a
RSS