Clayton Geathers moving towards return against Baltimore Rav

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has been making progress during training camp , and the Indianapolis Colts have been patient while he works his way back from a knee injury. It looks like the patience is paying off. With a second straight offseason spent in the training room, Geathers is on track to make his preseason debut against the Baltimore Ravens, barring any setbacks. “Hopefully, hopefully,” Geathers said via Zak Keefer of the Indianapolis Star. “I feel like it’s going well. If that day come, if I’m up, I’m up.”This is great news for the Indianapolis defense, which lacks playmakers at the moment. With a defense that is looking for players to step up, the Colts can afford to be diligent with the talented defensive back. Geathers should not play until his body is 100 percent ready to go, along with his head. One year ago, while making his way back from a neck injury, he admitted to playing timid at times. “It was limited , it was really just getting a feel,” Geathers said. “At times, I was a little scared. I was scared ... just being back, that’s a serious injury. Just going back, I was fine with it, felt good, no problems. That really gave me some clarity.”As it sits, with Geathers and Malik Hooker — who tore his ACL — making their journey back as starters, the Colts have holes in the secondary. TJ Green and Mathias Farley have garnered most of the snaps while Geathers and Hooker are out. In years past, Farley has served as a serviceable backup, but Green — who was drafted as a potential star in the making — has yet to live up to expectations. The return of Geathers, and Hooker for that matter , is important in its own right due to the fact Indianapolis has yet to find a star edge rusher to get after the quarterback — which means the Colts must find other ways on the defensive of the ball to generate big plays. With that in mind, Colts head coach Frank Reich is like the rest of the fanbase: Hopeful. “I think we’re hoping he’ll be ready,” Reich said. “I think a lot of it comes down to a confidence, and a lot of it comes down to the player. When a guy’s ready and healthy, sometimes there’s just that last emotional step of, ‘Hey, I’m ready to out there and go full speed for 20 plays or whatever it is.’”Indianapolis Colts Week 1 game balls vs Bengals Each week throughout the Indianapolis Colts 2018 season we’ll hand out game balls to those players who made their presence known. Whether it be a receiver carving up a secondary, a running back owning the ground attack or a defender making life impossible for a quarterback we’re going to recognize someone in all facets of the game each week.The Colts lost their opener 34-23 to the Cincinnati Bengals, but there was plenty to look forward to as this young group kicked off their season.OFFENSEAndrew LuckI mean it’s gotta be Luck, doesn’t it? Luck hadn’t played a meaningful game since January of 2017 and came out looking very much like the guy we expected him to be. Luck finished with 319 yards, 2 touchdowns and an interception on 39-of-53 (73.6%) passing for his first game back.Luck largely showed very good decision making, stayed strong in the pocket through his second and third reads and led the Colts in converting 11-of-17 opportunities on third down. Luck evaded pressure well all game , got the ball out quick, and to his playmakers and threw some absolute dimes downfield. We couldn’t have asked for a better start to the season from Luck, and he was without a doubt the shining star for the Colts on offense Sunday.DEFENSEMargus HuntOn this side of the ball there was a few quality options to choose from. Darius Leonard led the team in total tackles and was a ball of lightning all day, Kenny Moore had an interception and Matthias Farley forced a fumble Sunday. But, it was Hunt who made an impact throughout the game and was able to get to the quarterback not once, but twice.The Colts’ pass rush has been anemic over the past several years, and though we hoped to see an increase in pressure being generated with this group, I don’t know if anyone suggested it would come from Hunt. He did have a third tackle for loss in this one as well, and did his job against the Bengals’ run game as well as anyone.We saw that the Colts front four were able to get into the backfield a bit, but the team as a whole only had 3 QB hits for the entire game. For Hunt to succeed in getting big sacks which put the Bengals into a third-and-24 situation, and a third-and-15 respectively.Hunt’s first sack helped force a three-and-out on the Bengals first drive of the second half, and his second would have stymied Andy Dalton’s final touchdown drive had it not been for a pass interference call on the very next play. Both were big plays and gave the Colts a chance to get the ball back. That counts more than downfield tackles to me.SPECIAL TEAMSAdam VinatieriLook , I know he missed a 55-yard attempt, but he also nailed a 51-yarder and gave the Colts 9 points that they truly needed in a tight game. Realistically, Vinny was the only choice here. Zach Pascal did a fine job returning kicks, but he didn’t do anything great. Chester Rogers, again, nearly caused disaster by failing to have the spacial awareness to make a fair catch.Rigoberto Sanchez was fine Sunday, but he only had two punts and they didn’t play much of a part in the Colts outcome. Aside from that, nobody had an inordinate amount of special teams tackles or anything to speak of.We underappreciate Vinny far too often as the ‘old man’ on the roster, myself included. But, we’ve seen him rightly earn the game’s MVP honors for the Colts in the recent past. It’s pitiful, but true.

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