What we learned from Sunday's Week 7 games
Indianapolis Colts 37, Buffalo Bills 5
1. Buffalo's defense, the pride of a beleaguered
Bills (2-5) team, forgot to board the plane to Indianapolis.
Colts (2-5) quarterback
Andrew Luck completed 17 of 23 passes for 156 yards and four touchdowns (passer rating: 131.5), but the bigger point is the
Colts' running game, which racked up 220 yards on 37 attempts, including a 19-carry, 126-yard, one-touchdown day from
Marlon Mack. The runner ripped off gains of 23, 15 and 10 over the course of the game, punctuating an Indianapolis ground game that ran the
Bills into submission and provided excellent balance from which Luck could operate.
2. Luck has to be extra thankful to have
T.Y. Hilton (four catches, 25 yards, two touchdowns) back in the fold. His value to this offense is undeniable and was immediately noticeable Sunday. Hilton did what he often does: Found soft spots in zones, made contested catches and adjusted on the fly to give his scrambling quarterback an open target. The last resulted in a touchdown, and the others brought much-needed balance to a
Colts passing game that was overly reliant on its tight ends in recent weeks. Speaking of tight ends, Frank Reich is using his tight ends to the fullest.
Eric Ebron and
Erik Swoopehave been a nice one-two punch at the position.
3. Buffalo's offense was abysmal, especially after losing
LeSean McCoy to a head injury early in the first half (though
Chris Ivory and
Marcus Murphy did admirable jobs, rushing for 134 yards on 20 carries). That made an already uphill climb seem mountainous for
Derek Anderson, whose stat line looks much worse than the majority of his day actually was. Anderson's final two interceptions came in garbage time, but his first (and Buffalo's offensive ineptitude) had some ready to turn to the game when hearing
Nathan Peterman had his helmet on at the start of the third quarter. That was just a false alarm, though Buffalo's offense wasn't much better with Anderson.
-- Nick Shook