Backing it up
Colts QB Jacob Eason finally showed coach Frank Reich what he’s been waiting to see
The throw was the kind of throw the Colts have been waiting for Jacob Eason to make. A gorgeous deep ball, laid out perfectly to Parris Campbell, streaking ahead of Panthers cornerback Jalen Julius by a step in 1-on-1 coverage, landing with a feathery touch in Campbell’s hands.
The sort of instant highlight Eason’s incredible arm is capable of producing, and the kind of throw he hadn’t made enough in the first two weeks of training camp, opening the door for Sam Ehlinger to turn the battle for the Colts’ backup job into a two-horse race.
But Eason made the throw this time, and it led to a handful of other gorgeous throws in the first half of a 21-18 Indianapolis win over Carolina to open the preseason.
Eason completed 15 of 21 throws for 183 yards, putting on a showcase of the possibilities his golden right arm presents because he didn’t have to second-guess where the ball was supposed to go.
“I knew it pre-snap,” Campbell said. “Me and Jacob actually talked about it on the sideline. We both had the same thought process. We saw the linebacker pushed over, we knew they were going to roll over to 1-high (a single deep safety).”
Eason knew where the ball was supposed to go the moment he surveyed the Carolina defense, and as a result, the ball came out of his hand on time and in rhythm, an event
that hasn’t always happened enough on the practice fields at Grand Park in this training camp.
Although the former fourth-round pick is in his second season in Indianapolis, he is essentially a rookie, and Eason has had some growing pains getting the ball out on time against the Colts’ starting defense, leading to incompletions and sacks.
“There’s times where it needs to be better,” Colts head coach Frank Reich said.
But the first NFL game of Eason’s career was different.
“It just felt like there was a clearer image,” Eason said. “There was a lot less clutter.
You don’t have the coaches behind you, the defensive coaches behind them. There’s a lot less of that out there, and it’s just 11-on-11.”
Eason wasn’t perfect.
Under pressure behind a Colts offensive line that struggled, particularly at the tackle position, Eason took three sacks, fumbled once and misfired a couple of times, unleashing the full power of his four-seam fastball at times when he could have taken off a little bit of velocity in order to put the pitch in the strike zone. The ball came out a little late a few times.