By Do-Hyoung Park on September 8, 2014

It’s a story that people around the nation have become all too familiar with.

The Colts fall behind early after a sluggish offensive first half before Andrew Luck ’12 takes charge and leads the Colts to glory. We’ve learned to never count the Colts out regardless of how slowly they start. Week 1 of the 2014 NFL season was more of the same, though Indianapolis ultimately fell just short in a 31-24 defeat to the Denver Broncos at Mile High Stadium.

Peyton Manning and the Broncos jumped out to a 24-0 lead in the first half behind a career day from wide receiver Julius Thomas. The deficit certainly didn’t faze Luck, who ran the subsequent two-minute drill to perfection. He and the Colts drove 71 yards on eight plays before hitting paydirt on the ninth, when Luck made highlight reels by scrambling out of the pocket after finding no open receivers and diving from the 3-yard line to nick the right pylon for a touchdown before his knee touched out of bounds. At 24-7 heading into halftime, the momentum had begun to swing in favor of the Colts.

And after Indianapolis was stuffed on fourth-and-goal early in the third quarter, Luck was able to orchestrate three more scoring drives, including a bullet to the back of the end zone that bounced off of a defensive back’s hands into the waiting arms of Hakeem Nicks to pull the Colts within one score with 3:26 left to play. And when Denver went three-and-out on the ensuing possession, Luck had one final shot at late heroics to send a tough road matchup into overtime before a Bradley Roby pass breakup on fourth-and-6 brought the Colts’ comeback hopes crashing down.

“A lot of mistakes were made,” Luck said after the game. “Especially those early ones, not taking advantage of third downs and getting points. It’s tough.”

Despite throwing two interceptions, including one late in the fourth quarter in Denver territory, Luck had a solid statistical game with a 35-of-53 performance for 370 yards and two touchdowns. Although some of his throws were off the mark and he did not have much help from a Trent Richardson-led running game, Luck benefited from the return of a healthy Reggie Wayne and set the tone for a solid passing attack that should again be the focus of the Colts’ offense and give him the opportunity to put up big numbers in his third year in the league.

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Two of the Cardinal’s former Tree Amigos had solid performances in week 1, as tight ends Zach Ertz ’13 and Levine Toilolo ’13 each caught a touchdown for their respective teams, the Eagles and the Falcons, and combined for six catches.

Ertz cemented himself in the Eagles’ rotation as he played 60 percent of the offensive snaps and lined up all around the formation after starting in the slot. He finished the game as the Eagles’ second-leading receiver with his three catches for 77 yards, including a late third-quarter touchdown reception that brought Philadelphia within three points as the Eagles mounted an aggressive second-half comeback by notching 34 unanswered points to down the Jacksonville Jaguars 34-17.

On the other side, for the Jaguars, Toby Gerhart ’10 had an unremarkable game in his first performance as a starting tailback, notching 18 carries for 42 yards and an average of just 2.3 yards per carry, leaving the game with an ankle injury at one point. Gerhart is expected to remain Jacksonville’s starting running back for the season after spending the first few years of his career backing up Adrian Peterson in Minnesota.

Toilolo caught three passes for 19 yards running almost exclusively underneath routes, leading to success in the red zone and a receiving touchdown as his Atlanta Falcons benefited from two late long field goals to ultimately win an overtime thriller against the Saints by a 37-34 final score.

The final member of the Tree Amigos, the C0lts’ Coby Fleener ’12, had a less distinguished week. He caught three passes for 21 yards but showed less explosiveness and less polished play than counterpart Dwayne Allen, who notched 64 yards on four receptions and will look to be Indianapolis’ primary tight end target as the season moves forward.

A former teammate of the Amigos, running back Stepfan Taylor ’13, also notched a key score for his team, the Arizona Cardinals. He rushed just once for five yards but accounted for three receptions for 21 yards, including a touchdown on which the play broke down and quarterback Carson Palmer scrambled right before finding Taylor open in the corner of the end zone. The score marked the first career touchdown for Stanford’s all-time leading rusher. Arizona would go on to win an 18-17 nail-biter over the Chargers on Monday Night Football.

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One former Stanford player noticeably absent from his game’s box score was the most notorious All-Pro Stanford graduate in the league: cornerback Richard Sherman ’10. In the Seahawks’ 36-16 blowout of the Green Bay Packers on Thursday night, Aaron Rodgers and Green Bay played keepaway from Sherman by matching him against wide receiver Jarrett Boykin and not even thinking about targeting him, effectively only using half of the field in their passing attack. On the other side, top receiver Jordy Nelson matched up against Byron Maxwell, who ended up accounting for the only interception of the game.

“It’s rare. It’s very rare. I don’t think that was their game plan,” Sherman said. “I think they wanted to see if I would travel and follow Jordy and all that. But we don’t mess with the integrity of our defense. We do what works for us and we make them move around us and that’s what we forced them to do tonight.”

Contact Do-Hyoung Park at dpark027 ‘at’ stanford.edu.