Solution for lucks slow starts?

[Trace Pyott]

I have noticed many people on here complaining about lucks seemingly inability to start a game as well as he finishes and I will not lie I have noticed it as well. Is it lucks fault?  I'm not sold, it could of been coaching , or just a fluke however,  for arguments sake let's say it is lucks fault. What  do you think the team should do to fix it?  Would something like making him warmup extra hard 15 min earlier than normal help or something like that?  I know this is kind of silly but I'm serious if this is indeed lucks fault that he starts off slow what do you think he could do to remedy this situation?  

[Boiler_Colt]

I'm sure better talent around him would be a step in the right direction.

[DougDew]

Even when there was enough talent to go deep into the playoffs, the Colts started slowly.  I believe we were down 38-10 at one point to the Chiefs, before the big chunk pass plays started working.

 

Maybe script the first 15 plays in a limited-huddle pace.  Give him only a few down field routes in those 15 plays.

[#12.]

Build an actual, real team around him, so it's not all on him.  

[Flash7]

Luck does have issues with slow starts, and so do the Colts in general. IMO, since Luck's been here, he's never had a good running game. He finds himself in third-and-long far too often. A good running game can make the start of games much easier for everyone.

[#12.]

On the coin toss, it looks like we're in the deferring business.  Hopefully Luck's not going down a TD every game.  That won't help.  

[DaColts85]

Better play calling and having an actual offensive line is a pretty good step in the right direction. Hopefully we see better playcalling.

 

[LJpalmbeacher2]

Pre-Snap reads would help.

[Reidm]

I think luck plays better when we are playing fast pace no huddle type offense. Thats why he always does so well at the end of games when we are down.

[Luck 4 president]

I think it has to do with the defenses being fresh to start the game, and easier for Luck to pick apart as they get worn down. Better talent and play calling will help.

[CR91]

we need drive starting plays. Stuff like slants, curls, corner, swing, drags, and rub routes. I feel like Luck is always looking for the big play right out of the gates and I think it stems from this one clip I remember freeney telling Andrew as a rookie about not being scared to take shots early in the game which is fine, but the problem is if the drive stalls because of it then its counterproductive. 

[Creekside]

Luck's passer rating 1st and 4th quarters:

 

2012                        107.6         70.2

2013                         82.7          82.7

2014                         81.5          87.4

 

2015                         42.2          96.6

2016                         67.1         107.4

 

This was a big problem in '15 and 16'. I remember in the beginning of games Lucks passes would be thrown too high. They would sail over the heads of open receivers.

 

Against the Ravens several passes were a foot or so too high.

 

It's strange that the slow start began in '15, when in fact, in his rookie year he was great at the beginning of games. 

[Flash7]

1 minute ago, egg said:

Luck's passer rating 1st and 4th quarters:

 

2012                        107.6         70.2

2013                         82.7          82.7

2014                         81.5          87.4

 

2015                         42.2          96.6

2016                         67.1         107.4

 

This was a big problem in '15 and 16'. I remember in the beginning of games Lucks passes would be thrown too high. They would sail over the heads of open receivers.

 

Against the Ravens several passes were a foot or so too high.

 

It's strange that the slow start began in '15, when in fact, in his rookie year he was great at the beginning of games. 

It's interesting that Luck had his best Q1 starts as a rookie.

 

My take: As a rookie, all he had to worry about was his performance. He was a rookie and made sure that he played to the best of his abilities so that he would not let the team down. 

 

As time went on, he realized that his best wasn't enough. He had to worry about the O-line, the lack of running game, and lack of scheme. All this wore down on his brain (processing), which led to over-thinking, hesitation, and slow starts. Usually, after falling behind, he would just say "F it" and let it fly. That's when he's at his best, when he's not thinking too much and just playing. 

 

It's clear that as the team regressed personnel-wise, his Q1 starts regressed, both due to lack of talent and by having to do too much.

[Surge89]

19 minutes ago, Flash7 said:

It's interesting that Luck had his best Q1 starts as a rookie.

 

My take: As a rookie, all he had to worry about was his performance. He was a rookie and made sure that he played to the best of his abilities so that he would not let the team down. 

 

As time went on, he realized that his best wasn't enough. He had to worry about the O-line, the lack of running game, and lack of scheme. All this wore down on his brain (processing), which led to over-thinking, hesitation, and slow starts. Usually, after falling behind, he would just say "F it" and let it fly. That's when he's at his best, when he's not thinking too much and just playing. 

 

It's clear that as the team regressed personnel-wise, his Q1 starts regressed, both due to lack of talent and by having to do too much.

 

I think it was more scheme. Arians is a big supporter of chunk them early to exploit seams and slugs.  

 

After him we had a more conservative approach but without easy plays like screens and dumps. Really hard to play short ball when you don't use the bread and butter of short ball.  So often he'd be in the long distance situations where he's chucking it deep.

[RollerColt]

1 hour ago, egg said:

Luck's passer rating 1st and 4th quarters:

 

2012                        107.6         70.2

2013                         82.7          82.7

2014                         81.5          87.4

 

2015                         42.2          96.6

2016                         67.1         107.4

 

This was a big problem in '15 and 16'. I remember in the beginning of games Lucks passes would be thrown too high. They would sail over the heads of open receivers.

 

Against the Ravens several passes were a foot or so too high.

 

It's strange that the slow start began in '15, when in fact, in his rookie year he was great at the beginning of games. 

Don't forget: 2015 was when the injuries to his body and shoulder happened. Throwing high might have been him adjusting and compensating for the pain he was experiencing. Just my thoughts, and musings mind you...

 

We will see how this season fares with Reich. If, and it's a big if I know, they are able to make use of multiple tight ends, receiving backs and the wide receivers, there should be mismatches to be exploited. 

[Coffeedrinker]

Unfortunately, there is no 1 reason for it, but I think it's pretty obvious that Chud was not good for a QB.  he did awesome his rookie year.  But even under Pep he did consistently good, not great.  But under Chud he's a bottom feeder in the 1st quarter.  It's because Chud didn't know how to game plan and when the 4th quarter rolled around it was hurry up offense and Luck calling the play at the LOS and Luck is one of the best improvisational QBs in the game.

[Horse Shoe Heaven]

I think electrically shock treatment would probably cure it!

[LJpalmbeacher2]

2 hours ago, Flash7 said:

It's interesting that Luck had his best Q1 starts as a rookie.

 

My take: As a rookie, all he had to worry about was his performance. He was a rookie and made sure that he played to the best of his abilities so that he would not let the team down. 

 

As time went on, he realized that his best wasn't enough. He had to worry about the O-line, the lack of running game, and lack of scheme. All this wore down on his brain (processing), which led to over-thinking, hesitation, and slow starts. Usually, after falling behind, he would just say "F it" and let it fly. That's when he's at his best, when he's not thinking too much and just playing. 

 

It's clear that as the team regressed personnel-wise, his Q1 starts regressed, both due to lack of talent and by having to do too much.

 

First time I've heard Luck described as 'over-thinking'.

[Trace Pyott]

I know this probably won't be a popular opinion but could some of lucks heroics and many comebacks and totally better 4th quarter stats be because teams are playing with a large lead and playing mostly prevent thus allowing luck to score "cheap" points and yards?  Could it be that he's an amazing Qb at facing soft prevent defenses where other Qb might be avg and he's just a little above avg on other types of defense in a game?  All Qb have strengths maybe one of his is going up against prevent in a no huddle defense. I'm not saying this is true....I'm just raising the question. 

[indyagent17]

4 hours ago, Trace Pyott said:

I have noticed many people on here complaining about lucks seemingly inability to start a game as well as he finishes and I will not lie I have noticed it as well. Is it lucks fault?  I'm not sold, it could of been coaching , or just a fluke however,  for arguments sake let's say it is lucks fault. What  do you think the team should do to fix it?  Would something like making him warmup extra hard 15 min earlier than normal help or something like that?  I know this is kind of silly but I'm serious if this is indeed lucks fault that he starts off slow what do you think he could do to remedy this situation?  

LaRaven Clark as your LT is not very comforting either

[Superman]

Good play calling, plain and simple. Good play callers are acutely aware of the strengths and weaknesses of their players, and they call the game in a way that takes advantages of the players' strengths while trying to minimize their weaknesses. 

 

If a team with a good QB routinely struggles to find an offensive rhythm early in games, I'm looking at the play calling first. 

[Chrisaaron1023]

Meh.. let Jacoby start the game. And luck will finish. We'll go undefeated

[DougDew]

6 hours ago, #12. said:

On the coin toss, it looks like we're in the deferring business.  Hopefully Luck's not going down a TD every game.  That won't help.  

Gone are the days of PM, where he wanted the ball first and the Colts often were up 7 before the other team touched the ball.

[NewEra]

2 scoops of Hyde

[SOMDColtsfan]

Simple solution. Sit Luck down before each game and tell him "no more care packages from Mother of squirrel oil or baked turtle necks" til his side arm proves true and steady with no ricochets occurring. Strike fear into the enemy from the onset 

[GusFring]

In the past I thought he was a lil too focused on going deep. He just doesn't look as comfortable to start gms. I have no idea why. You'd think he'd be most comfortable while the scorr is 0-0

[GoColts8818]

Right now all solutions with Andrew Luck start with patience as he’s still getting back into the grove of playing football.  Beyond that better talent around him wouldn’t hurt.  Besides TY no WR on this team has shown the ability to get open on a regular basis against other starting defenses.  Luck can only do so much if no one is open.

[LockeDown]

I agree that Andrew does over think and I also agree that good play calling solves the issue.  

[chad72]

Play calling and quick offensive adjustments are key. Lot of teams will run the first 10 or 15 plays as scripted to see how the D will adjust and then adjust. 

 

The other aspect is - defenses are typically better in the early part of the season because they have to play more of a reactionary game than a rhythm game like the offense. As the season goes on into quarter 2 and further, the O gains a better rhythm and defensive injuries pile up more. So, our D needs to hold the fort down a bit early in the first 4 games till the O catches up, and we didn't seem to do that either putting us in holes. Having vets like Cory Redding, Antoine Bethea and Robert Mathis did help in 2012 to keep games close, which is why we won a lot of close games then, thus reducing the pressure on Andrew, IMO, throughout games.

 

Sometimes, I did feel Pep Hamilton called better plays than Rod Chudzinski, but as time went on, did not build on it and got stale. That is just my opinion though. Arians, was definitely a better play caller, just the proportion of 5-7 step drops were too much for my liking with the OL we had. 

[jskinnz]

21 hours ago, Trace Pyott said:

I have noticed many people on here complaining about lucks seemingly inability to start a game as well as he finishes and I will not lie I have noticed it as well. Is it lucks fault?  I'm not sold, it could of been coaching , or just a fluke however,  for arguments sake let's say it is lucks fault. What  do you think the team should do to fix it?  Would something like making him warmup extra hard 15 min earlier than normal help or something like that?  I know this is kind of silly but I'm serious if this is indeed lucks fault that he starts off slow what do you think he could do to remedy this situation?  

 

I think trying to judge anything on two preseason games is comedy gold.

 

I think the suggestion that he warm up harder as the solution to this "problem" is more comedy gold.

 

[Restored]

19 hours ago, Superman said:

Good play calling, plain and simple. Good play callers are acutely aware of the strengths and weaknesses of their players, and they call the game in a way that takes advantages of the players' strengths while trying to minimize their weaknesses. 

 

If a team with a good QB routinely struggles to find an offensive rhythm early in games, I'm looking at the play calling first. 

 

Exactly. The Seattle game offered a glimpse of what good playcalling can do for a QB to help him settle into a rhythm early on in a game.

[Trace Pyott]

9 hours ago, jskinnz said:

 

I think trying to judge anything on two preseason games is comedy gold.

 

I think the suggestion that he warm up harder as the solution to this "problem" is more comedy gold.

 

I'm not referring to the pre season game I'm talking about what has become a trend in his career so far.  As far as my other point, I come from the sport of boxing and I've seen many fighters come into the ring not properly warmed up and their performances sufferered because of it. I'm not saying his muscles being cold is the issue but this trend has been around with multiple coaches and offensive systems and players. Luck is the common denominator. What do you see is the cause of his slow starts and what is the solution?  

[CoachLite]

Andrew Luck is a very smart guy. But this can also be a problem. Besides the rust that comes with not playing, football play is too fast to think through plays as they develop. It requires a "read and react" sight picture awareness, and that happens in many sports (it looks like intuition and reflex, but it's not). This may come with practice, but it doesn't seem like this is part of Luck's practice regimen.

[throwing BBZ]

On 8/22/2018 at 1:42 PM, egg said:

Luck's passer rating 1st and 4th quarters:

 

2012                        107.6         70.2

2013                         82.7          82.7

2014                         81.5          87.4

 

2015                         42.2          96.6

2016                         67.1         107.4

 

This was a big problem in '15 and 16'. I remember in the beginning of games Lucks passes would be thrown too high. They would sail over the heads of open receivers.

 

Against the Ravens several passes were a foot or so too high.

 

It's strange that the slow start began in '15, when in fact, in his rookie year he was great at the beginning of games. 

 

Reggie caught everything he could get a hand on those first couple years.
And Lucky forced many a throw his way. And it still worked.
LMAO, as he was behind going into the fourth quarter in 9 of his 11 wins his rookie year.
Against a bunch of BAD teams with lame QB's.
 Lucky also ran the ball constantly to keep drives alive.
 I have watched us play a lot of bad football to get behind early in games throughout Lucky's career, and watched defenses start taking deeper drops, softening as is said.
 THEN Lucky has receivers more open and then he gets rolling. 
  It is all different now with Reich. This O will create open receivers quickly requiring fast decisions and accurate throws in tight windows for catch and runs. Lucky is NOT that guy historically. His brain needs rewired for this. As usual, he chose not to throw to wide open receivers and took sacks last game.  Good Luck!