Pryor makes quite a run at upset
INDIANAPOLIS — On a day when the Raiders surprised everybody but themselves, Colts quarterback Andrew Luck had to resort to his best Terrelle Pryor impersonation to pull out the win.
Pryor ran for 112 yards and threw for 217, but Luck ran for a 19-yard touchdown with 5:20 left in the game to give Indianapolis a 21-17 win in the season opener at Lucas Oil Stadium on Sunday.
After Luck’s TD, Pryor drove the Raiders downfield but threw an interception to safety Antoine Bethea at the 8-yard line with 25 seconds left.
Oakland safety Charles Woodson said of Luck’s score that he knows how the Colts’ defense felt chasing Pryor.
“Breaks your heart,” Woodson said. “Breaks
your heart. You can have good coverage, and then all of a sudden, a mobile guy gets out and scores a touchdown. …
“(Pryor) gave us a chance to win. If we want to be the type of defense that we want to be, we have to protect the lead.”
Luck led seven fourth-quarter comebacks last year in his rookie season.
On Sunday, the Stanford alum also threw for 178 yards and two of touchdowns.
Pryor threw an earlier interception in the end zone, and Sebastian Janikowski missed a 48-yard field-goal attempt in the second quarter, so the Raiders had chances to win this game.
“I learned a couple of things and I can put it in my bag of tricks and bring it out for next weekend and keep learning,” Pryor said.
Raiders head coach Dennis Allen said there are no moral victories but that he was proud of his team, picked by many to be the worst in the league.
“They played extremely hard,” Allen said. “To battle back the way our guys battled back and take the lead shows a lot about the character of the guys that we have in the room.”
The Raiders’ defense settled down and made some blitz adjustments after Luck easily led the Colts to a 14-0 lead after two possessions.
On the game-winning play, Luck scrambled up the middle of the field, cut to his left and evaded three tacklers on his way to the end zone. Former Oakland receiver Darrius Heyward-Bey might have gotten away with a hold on cornerback D.J. Hayden.
“They doubled Reggie (Wayne), so that means one more guy out of the box,” Luck said. “Sometimes when it opens up like that, you can’t help but go. Darrius did a great job of coming out of his route and just pinning a guy, blocking his man in, and led a nice lane into the end zone.”
Before that, it was Pryor making plays out of nothing.
In his second career start, Pryor went 19-for-29 for 217 yards and one TD and broke the Raiders’ single-game rushing record for a quarterback with 112 yards on 13 carries.
Rich Gannon set the previous mark of 85 yards on Oct. 8, 2000.
“It’s not fun watching Terrelle Pryor run around and do his thing,” Luck said. “I’m sure for everybody else watching, it’s pretty electric.”
Using a read-option for which he was almost always the option, Pryor broke free for runs of 29 and 13 yards, setting up Darren McFadden for a 1-yard TD run that trimmed the deficit to 14-7.
Janikowski made a 38-yard field goal in the third quarter, cutting Indy’s lead to 14-10, and Pryor gave Oakland the lead when he connected with Denarius Moore on a 5-yard TD pass with 11:09 left in the game.
Pryor “provides a spark and has some things he can do and create with his feet,” Allen said. “I think that was outstanding.”
The interceptions and problems at times getting in and out of the huddle were not outstanding, but that’s nitpicking at this point.
“The plays he makes are plays where most quarterbacks are going to throw it away or throw it into coverage,” center Stefen Wisniewski said. “And he’s getting 20 or 30 yards on those plays. That’s amazing for an offense.”
“Amazing” is a word that many would use for the Raiders’ performance, given that the expectations were so low and that the Colts were 11-5 last year and now have won seven in a row at home.
Allen scoffed at the notion that the narrow loss gave him or his team a shot of confidence.
“I had that feeling about this team anyway,” he said. “I like this team and I’ve said that from the very beginning. I like their mind-set; I like the way they go about their business. … The mind-set is there. The execution is what we’ve got to improve.”
The defensive players were downright upset.
“We expect to win every game,” defensive tackle Vance Walker said. “We can’t a spot a team 14 points. … We don’t have time to grow. We have to win.”
The league is about wins and losses, but this almost-win should have the players, coaches and fans excited about the rest of the season.