INDIANAPOLIS – Andrew Luck made all the big plays for the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday. Robert Griffin III could only watch from the Washington Redskins’ sideline.
Luck threw for 370 yards, a career-best five touchdowns and broke another one of Peyton Manning’s franchise records as he led the Colts past the Redskins 49-27.
For Luck, it was a milestone day.
He finished 19 of 27, joined Manning and Dan Marino as the only NFL players to top 4,000 yards in two of their first three NFL seasons and broke Manning’s franchise mark for 300-yard games in one season. He now has 10 this year with four games left.
Luck also became the fifth NFL player since 1970 to win 30 or more regular season games in his first three seasons, leading Indy (8-4) to its eighth win in 10 games.
And he did all that just days after Griffin, who was selected No. 2 behind Luck in the 2012 draft, was benched.
Griffin’s replacement, Colt McCoy, struggled early but finished strong. He was 31 of 47 for a career-best 392 yards and three TDs, also a career high. It was McCoy’s first 300-yard game since October 2011, but wasn’t quite enough to get Washington turned around. The Redskins have lost four straight.
Throughout the game, Griffin played the loyal teammate, studying plays on his tablet, cheering on teammates, bemoaning the penalties and miscues and sometimes moved so close to the field he was instructed to move back.
But Griffin never made it in, and was instead relegated to watching Luck’s show-stopping plays.
The Colt quarterback threw TD passes of 30, 3, 48, 73 and 79 yards, and Daniel “Boom” Herron scored on a 49-yard run in the second quarter. D’Qwell Jackson scored the Colts’ other touchdown on a 35-yard fumble return as Indy produced its highest points total since November 2004.
McCoy and Luck turned a 21-10 into a shootout in the third quarter.
The Redskins got it started when McCoy scrambled away from two tacklers and hooked up with Logan Paulsen on a 16-yard TD pass.
Three plays later, Luck found a wide-open Donte Moncrief down the seam for a 48-yard TD that made it 28-17. McCoy’s fourth-down fumble on the ensuing series was scooped up by Jackson, who sprinted to the end zone to make it 35-17.
And after DeSean Jackson caught a 42-yard TD pass from McCoy, Luck answered with a 73-yard touchdown pass to Coby Fleener to make it 42-24 with 4:45 left in the third.
Luck sealed it with a 79-yard scoring play to Moncrief early in the fourth.
Moncrief had three catches for 134 yards, while Fleener finished with four catches for 127 yards and two scores.
Jordan Reed had nine catches for 123 yards, and Jackson finished with five catches for 84 yards before leaving late with a bruised right leg.
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AP NFL website: www.pro32.ap.org and http://twitter.com/AP_NFL
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