INDIANAPOLIS: Andrew Luck made the complicated world of the NFL look simple Sunday.
One throw, one touchdown. Four possessions, three touchdowns. One game, one win.
It doesn’t get much easier than that.
The rookie quarterback threw two touchdowns, including a 63-yarder on his first NFL pass, to lead Indianapolis past St. Louis 38-3 for the Colts’ first preseason-opening win in eight years and their most lopsided preseason victory since 1966.
“It’s probably the easiest touchdown pass I’ll have in my life,” Luck said of the 3-yard screen pass that Donald Brown turned into a score. “I threw it 3 yards in the air and Donald (Brown) gets the ball and the blocks down field and we score. Hey, maybe we can do it in the regular season, too.”
Luck might have the toughest job in football this season — replacing Peyton Manning, the longtime face of Indy’s franchise.
But he showed everyone Sunday that he can do whatever is asked.
Colts coaches wanted the man billed as the most polished NFL rookie since Manning to take 20 to 25 snaps. He got 24.
They wanted to keep him upright, and though Luck hit the ground twice, he was not sacked.
They wanted him to show his command of the offense, and in less than one half, Luck seemed to have Manning’s playbook down pat, from the perfect baseball slide to rushing his team to the line of scrimmage so the Rams couldn’t challenge a catch on the sideline.
The rookie quarterback wound up 10 of 16 for 188 yards with two TD passes and a quarterback rating of 142.6. Three of the incompletions were drops, two were throwaways, and only one pass, the deep out that rookie T.Y. Hilton barely caught on the sideline, came close to being picked off. It was the most lopsided preseason win for the Colts (No. 32 in the AP Pro32) since a 35-0 rout of Washington in 1966.
He not only matched Manning, with a TD on his first NFL pass, he one-upped the four-time MVP by winning his first preseason game.
“He’s going to be a really good player,” new St. Louis coach Jeff Fisher said. “We knew that before playing him today. He’s got that sense and he’s smart. We’ve got unblocked rushers twice and he got out of there to avoid the sacks by spinning out of there.”
Luck did it all, and Colts’ fans couldn’t have asked for anything more after everything the Colts endured during the run up to drafting Luck — the injury to Manning, an 0-13 start in 2011, the release of Manning and other fan favorites during a tumultuous offseason.
With the rookie quarterback under pressure on his first play, Luck calmly stepped forward and dumped the ball off to Brown, who darted up the field with blockers in front, then cut from right to left and outran the defense to the end zone. Luck pumped his fist in the air and jogged to the sideline with a broad smile across his face.
Fourteen years ago, Manning did the same thing on an 8-yard throw to Marvin Harrison, who took the ball and sprinted to the end zone for a 48-yard score.
“I think (quarterbacks coach) Clyde (Chirstensen) told me that about a week ago,” Luck said, laughing. “I guess it’s coincidence. Funny, huh?”
Certainly not to the Rams (No. 28), who pressured Luck most of the day, yet couldn’t force him into mistakes, get him on the ground or find a way to reach the end zone.
The Rams’ offense moved the ball on its first two series, under Sam Bradford, but stalled. St. Louis did get a 37-yard field goal when Kellen Clemens was running the offense.
Otherwise, it was a daylong struggle for Fisher’s new team.
“It’s kind of an unusual game because the offense puts a drive together and then, bang, they’re back on the field one play later because we gave up a touchdown,” the Rams coach said. “Then you’re trying to catch up with plays for your defense and then you can’t stop them and then you can’t get the plays for your offense. We tried to get as many plays as we could on tape and we’ll move on.”
Bradford, the No. 1 overall pick in 2010 and the Offensive Rookie of the Year, was 7 of 9 for 57 yards and recovered his own fumble. Clemens was 4 of 6 for 18 yards.
The Rams had no answers for Luck.
Four plays after this year’s top draft pick converted a third-and-3 with the 12-yard pass to Hilton, Luck hooked up with Austin Collie in the front corner of the end zone for a 23-yard score to make it 14-0.
On Luck’s fourth series, he took the Colts on a methodical 13-play, 80-yard drive. Delone Carter ended the drive with a 1-yard run to make it 21-3, and Indy closed it out with two second-half touchdowns and Pat McAfee’s 31-yard field goal — even if the Colts know things are about to get much tougher for the rookie.
“I’m sure he’s going to have some bumpy roads from here on out. Every game is not going to be like this,” veteran receiver Reggie Wayne said. “As players, we understand that. Us being able to overcome those bumpy roads and keep it moving makes the next time out there better.”
