Luck's protection plan.After one week http://www.indianapoliscoltsteamonline.com/adam-vinatieri-jersey , they like the results.Sure, Andrew Luck was sacked twice and hit seven more times in Sunday's season-opening loss, but a makeshift offensive line with three new starters held up perhaps better than expected."I'm not sure I've ever seen an offensive line pass protect as well as they did," offensive coordinator Nick Sirianni said Tuesday."It wasn't just that they weren't getting near Andrew. You know they got there every once in a while, just as they will with any quarterback. It wasn't so much they weren't getting near him, it was the kind of effort where the offensive line was selling out for Andrew."Sirianni was most impressed by the teamwork from the starting five and their willingness to do whatever it took to keep Luck upright after going more than 20 months between regular-season starts.Plus, the Colts (0-1) weren't even close to full strength — and they may not be again this weekend at Washington.Left tackle Anthony Castonzo, Luck's longtime blindside protector, injured his hamstring between the end of mini-camp and the start of training camp.He returned briefly after being placed on the physically unable to perform list, then re-injured the hamstring before the preseason opener. Castonzo hasn't played since and was limited in practice all of last week.Denzelle Good looked like the probable starter at right tackle heading into the preseason, but hurt his knee and wrist in Week 3 of the preseason and sat out all of last week.Indy danced around those absences by plugging their most versatile lineman, Joe Haeg, into Castonzo's spot on the left side, and putting veteran J'Marcus Webb http://www.indianapoliscoltsteamonline.com/rigoberto-sanchez-jersey , who didn't even play in the NFL last season, in Good's spot on the right side.Indy's plight may have taken another hit when Webb injured his hamstring on Clayton Fejedelem's clinching 83-yard fumble return to seal Cincinnati's victory. Webb was placed on injured reserve on Tuesday."Anthony wasn't in much of training camp, either, so we were kind of ready for it," Haeg said. "We have been constantly shuffling guys around, getting guys reps at every position, so it really wasn't as big a deal, I think, as if Anthony had been healthy all of OTAs, all of training camp and then showed up Week 1 and not been able to play."But the Colts' options are pretty limited.Haeg could swing back to the right side, where he is more familiar, if Castonzo starts. The only other tackle on the active roster is Le'Raven Clark, a third-round pick in 2016 who was inactive against the Bengals.What else could the Colts do?Second-round pick Braden Smith lost out on the starting job at right tackle during the preseason and the only other lineman on the active roster is veteran guard Mark Glowinski, who started 19 games in three seasons with Seattle. He Authentic Quenton Nelson Jersey , however, is listed as a guard."You have to find a groove so that you're ready whenever your name is called," Smith said.The Colts certainly didn't play a perfect game against Cincinnati.Sirianni acknowledged there were some missed assignments and they need to run the ball consistently. But he figures if the Colts continue to protect Luck the way they did for 55 passing attempts Sunday, Indy's starting quarterback should be in good hands — regardless of the starters."I was really just amazed at how little he got hit, dropping back that many times." Sirianni said. "We got some movement on a really good defensive line on some run plays that we were really encouraged by."Notes: The Colts have reached injury settlements with linebackers Tyrell Adams and Jeremiah George, receivers K.J. Brent and Krishawn Hogan and safety T.J. Green. All five become free agents after initially going on the Colts' injured reserve list when they cleared waivers. ... Indy also has signed cornerback Lenzy Pipkins to the 53-man roster from the practice squad and signed guard Sean Harlow and cornerback Tarvarus McFadden to the practice squad and released offensive lineman Jamil Douglas.Indianapolis Colts by the Numbers: Week 2 Offensive Stats Every week, I will present a summary of some basic and advanced stats for the Colts performance relative to the league. Thanks to Pro Football Reference, NFL.com and the nflSCrapR project as the sources of weekly data.If I could only have one stat to measure a team by, it would be the highly under-rated Drive Success rate (DSR). DSR is basically the percentage of a team’s down series that are converted to a first down or a TD.DSR = (First Downs + TDs) / (# of Drives + First Downs)It is one of the best stats there is to both explain how an offense performed as well as predict performance in future games, but unfortunately it is not an intuitive stat. In week 2, the Colts put up a 70.8% DSR but that probably doesn’t mean anything to most football fans. Therefore, I have built a drive detail graphic to help flesh the number out visually.OK tell me that graphic isn’t awesome.There is a lot of detail, but let’s walk through a bit of the Colts week 2.Each bar represents the team’s drives in top-down order, with the starting field position on the left and the ending field position on the right. Therefore Authentic Ryan Kelly Jersey , the length of the bar represents the drives net yards, which is the numbers in white.Just looking at the relative length of the bars, you can get a feel for the success of each drive.Drive 1: awesome. Drive 2: not so much.DSR basically measures the relative length of drives.The Colts had three 75 yard TD drives and one 58 yard drive that ended with a fluky pick.That is what good offenses do (not the pick). They also had 5 drives in a row without a first down. That is what bad offenses do. The mixed bag of results is why the Colts 70.8% DSR is just a bit above league average (68%) and not as good as the previous week’s 72%.TEAM TOTALSThese are the numbers for week 2 only (I’m hoping to have season totals added by next week).I have added a few metrics since last time that I think help builds out the narrative of the game.At 2.1 adjusted points per drive (drives with QB kneels removed), the offense did better than league average but just barely (just like DSR!). An above average DSR and a below average yards per play (4.7), means that the Colts did not get their points with big plays. And that is backed up by the first down conversion metrics. The % of non-penalty first downs per play (25%) is below what other teams are doing. That could be a sign of a bad team or it could point to a team that runs shorter plays and pushes it’s conversions to 3rd downs. Well, what do you know, the third down conversion rate of 56.3% was 2nd best this week. Combine that with last week’s league best 64% and either the Colts are getting very lucky on 3rd downs or they are putting themselves in an easier position to convert. Average 3rd Down Yards to GainTeamWeek 1Week 2TotalTeamWeek 1Week 2TotalThe Colts have the 3rd lowest 3rd down yardage situations in the league.That’s a dink and dunk offense.Combined with a high 3rd down conversion rate, it’s a dink and dunk offense executing well. PASSINGSorted by ANY/A, Luck has a very poor mark this week, finishing 29th of all QBs.That is primarily driven by the 2 picks and the short yardage play calls. His completion rate of 67.7% is pretty high, but it’s completely due to a near league low 4.3 average depth of target. That is very low and probably can’t sustain a successful game unless your defense steps up . . . hmmmmm.As low as Luck’s aDot is, his air yards per completion is even lower at 2.7. That is a big red flag in my book as it implies that you aren’t connecting on the longer passes you do throw.Luckily the above average 5.9 YAC helps make up for that a little bit.But even combined his Yards per Attempt was only 5.8. That is . . . bad. Like lose a lot of games bad. I don’t see this offense scoring a lot of points unless they can get a little more depth out of the passing game.RUSHINGI have sorted this table by weighted Rush Success Rate as that is the most correlated to and predictive of wins than any of the other run stats presented.Indy’s week 2 is about average, with a 29% wRSR. The unweighted RSR show that about 39% of all runs were “successful”: defined as a TD, first down Womens Matt Slauson Jersey , 45% of yards to gain on 1st down or 60% of yards to gain on 2nd down.Since the weighted stat is lower that means that a lot of that success came from 1st and 2nd down gains (which are weighted lower).Excluding QB kneels, 24 of the Colts 26 carriescame on 1st or 2nd down.That’s neither good nor bad but it is encouraging that we are at least average in some running measure.CONCLUSIONThe DSR points to an offense that is working in aggregate, but the extremely low yardage plays are concerning. Basically, the Colts margin for error is much thinner than other teams.If 3rd down conversions start to dip, we haven’t shown that we have the explosive play ability to make up for it.It will look a lot like the middle of the Washington game, where there were 5 successive drives without a first down. But it’s only week 2 and there is a lot of offense we haven’t seen yet.Thoughts? Suggestions? Comments? Leave it below. METRIC DEFINITIONSOffensePts:All team pointsAdj PPD: Points per drive with defensive and special team scores removed from team points and drives ending in QB kneels excluded from drive countsNet PPD: Adj PPD with adjusted points reduced interception and fumble TD returnsStrt Fld: Average starting field position (all drives)DSR: Drive Success rate calculated as FD + TD / (Drives + FD). Typically TDs are included in FD counts and so DSR = FD / (Drives + FD - TDs).Drives ending in kneel downs are typically excluded. 1st%:The number of non-penalty first downs divided by plays.3DC:The % of third downs converted to firsts. Pass1st%:The number of non-penalty passing first downs divided by attempts + sacks.aDOT : The average depth of passes thrown relative to the line of scrimmage (completed or not)aYd:Air Yards for completed passes20+ : Pass plays for more than 20 yardsANY/A :Adjusted Net Yards per Attempt = (Yds - Sack yds + 20 * TD - 45 * Int) / (Att + Sacks) Rush1st% :The number of non-penalty rushing first downs divided by carries.10+ Yds : Rush plays for more than 10 yardsRSR: Rushing Success rate is the % of carries that result in success defined as a TD, First Down, 45% of ytg on 1st down and 60% of ytg on 2nd down.4th quarter adjustments are included for time remaining and point differntialwRSR: Weighted RSR is RSR with a weighted value attached to each success type. TD = 2, FD = 0.9, 45% of ytg on 1sts = 0.65 and 60% of ytg on 2nd = 0.55. EPA/c:Expected Points Added per carry. This uses EPA data as calculated by the nflscrapR project.