INDIANAPOLIS – Injuries and the arrival of D'Qwell Jackson made you forget about Indianapolis Colts linebacker Jerrell Freeman’s ability to play sideline-to-sideline, defend run and drop into coverage this season.

Freeman, though, gave a refresher against the Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday. He was all over the field, finishing with a game-high 15 tackles, 1.5 sacks and a forced fumble. The 1.5 sacks tied Freeman’s season total during the regular season.

Freeman, who missed four games this season because of injury, caused the fumble when he hit Bengals quarterback Andy Dalton in the fourth quarter. Defensive lineman Montori Hughes recovered the fumble.

“He played lights out,” coach Chuck Pagano said. “The whole defense was tremendous. But Free played a great game. He was all over the place. He was playing at a different speed than everybody else and our whole defense played extremely fast. Our team played fast and he played extremely well yesterday.”

Freeman, who led the Colts in tackles in 2012 and 2013, finished the regular season second on the team in that category this year with 94. Jackson had a team-high 140 tackles.

Freeman’s best game in more than a year came just in time because the Colts are about to face Denver tight end Julius Thomas. Thomas had eight catches for 104 yards and three touchdowns in the Broncos’ Week 1 victory over the Colts.