Mike Wells, ESPN Staff Writer 10y

Upon Further Review: Colts Week 10

INDIANAPOLIS – An examination of five topics from the Indianapolis Colts' 38-8 loss to the St. Louis Rams:

Getting roasted: Colts cornerback Vontae Davis was defending Rams rookie Tavon Austin on both of his long touchdown receptions (57 and 81 yards). Davis appeared to give up chasing Austin on his first touchdown catch along the Colts' sideline. "Oh no, we just had busted coverage," Davis said when asked if he was injured on the play. "It was busted coverage on my part. I misread the play. Busted coverage on my part, so he got behind us." Austin came across the middle of the field, caught a pass from Kellen Clemens and then just outran Davis and safety Antoine Bethea for his second touchdown. "They moved him around a lot, put him in mismatch situations, using his speed to run away from coverage and stuff," Davis said. Austin finished with two catches for 138 yards.

Good to get back on the field: Having a short turnaround in between games is supposed to be a bad thing. The Colts don't see it that way. They like that they play again on Thursday night against Tennessee Titans. The Titans are coming off a home loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars, who went into the game winless. "Yeah, this is a time where we're looking forward to getting back out there," Bethea siad. "We can get this taste out of our mouth and put this game behind us. Give credit to St. Louis, they played better than us today. But we have to bounce back and get ready for Thursday."

Zero running game: I give Colts offensive coordinator Pep Hamilton credit for trying to establish the running game with Trent Richardson. It just simply didn't work. Richardson ran the ball four times in the first quarter. Those four carries led to minus-3 yards. That was just a sign of things to come the rest of the afternoon for the Colts. They gained 18 yards on 14 attempts. But wait, there's more: Quarterback Andrew Luck was responsible for 17 of those yards. That means Richardson, Stanley Havili, Donald Brown, Matt Hasselbeck and Dan Herron combined for 1 yard rushing. The Rams entered the game ranked 28th in the league against the run. "It's tough when you can't run the ball," Luck said. "Credit to them for forcing us into a one-dimensional attack."

Good play turned bad: Sergio Brown did the right thing when he saved the ball from going into the end zone in an attempt to pin the Rams deep on their end of the field. What Brown and the Colts didn't expect, though, was for Austin to grab the ball and go 98 yards for a touchdown. "Had guys down there and a bunch of guys maybe assuming play is going to be down at the 1-yard line," Colts coach Chuck Pagano said. "We told our guys, they knew this guy would catch it at the 1, catch it 5 yards deep. He's that type of player and he's dynamic that way. He made a great play and we obviously didn't cover well enough." Austin finished with 172 yards on punt and kickoff returns.

Scoreless day: Colts kicker Adam Vinatieri's streak of scoring at least one point came to an end at 154 games. The Colts scored a touchdown when Luck threw a 13-yard touchdown pass to Brown in the third quarter. Pagano bypassed the extra point to go for two. Luck found tight end Coby Fleener for the conversion.

^ Back to Top ^