Colts Thursday Notebook: T.Y. Hilton Acknowledges Rough Start To Season

INDIANAPOLIS – As fans of the New York Jets are protesting Adam Gase still being their head coach, the Colts are busy preparing for arguably the worst team in the NFL.

Thursday marked the second straight day on the practice field for the Colts, with another home game waiting here in Week Three.

What did we learn from the Colts on Thursday afternoon?

Seeing T.Y. Hilton get off to a slow start isn’t the most unusual occurrence. He’s had many years where his first 100-yard game hasn’t come until later in September. But the drops—three in fact—is not the Hilton we are used to. Hilton acknowledged on Thursday it’s been a ‘rough’ start to the season. A call from grandma on Monday appears to have Hilton back on the right track though. “She shoots it straight with me, she’s my rock, my heart,” Hilton said on Thursday. “The person she saw on TV wasn’t me. It hurt me for her to tell me, ‘You look frustrated.’ I’m back to being me. I’m good.” Hilton said he feels like he was trying to prove something too much the first two games—and this is something we talked about during the offseason as the 9-year vet plays in his first ever contract year.

To the point above, Hilton hasn’t recorded a 100-yard game in the first two weeks of the season since 2013. But he is in the longest 100-yard game drought of his career. Including the playoffs, Hilton has now gone 15 straight games without a 100-yard outing. In fact, he’s only been over 75 yards in 2 of those 15 games.

When Darius Leonard got out of the shower following Sunday’s win over the Vikings, he quickly realized his wedding ring was gone. Leonard’s ring was with a fan inside of Lucas Oil Stadium, after The Maniac tossed his gloves into the stands following the win. Luckily, Leonard has the ring back and said he will continue to wear it during games.

After 4 straight missed practices for Jack Doyle (knee) he was back participating on Thursday. Doyle is a veteran, but you rarely see one practice day being enough to play that Sunday, after missing the game before. So his appearance on Thursday, in a limited role, was key in him returning to action this week. The Colts first thought Doyle could miss multiple weeks with this injury, but then felt a bit more optimistic about him being ready this Sunday.

No Rock Ya-Sin (stomach) for a second straight day at practice. Ya-Sin’s availability for Sunday’s game against the Jets is definitely in question. Currently, these are the healthy cornerbacks on the active roster: Kenny Moore, Xavier Rhodes, T.J. Carrie, Isaiah Rodgers, Tremon Smith.

When the Colts schedule came out in May, we stressed the need to get off to a good start as the slate looked much easier in the first half compared to the harder second half. That’s held true early on in the season. In the first 7 games of the season, the Colts see teams with a current record of 4-10. In the final 9 games of the season, the Colts see teams with a record of 13-5 (with the Texans having 4 of those losses, after losing to Kansas City and Baltimore). The final two months of the season currently has the Colts playing 2-0 teams in the Titans (twice), Ravens, Packers, @Raiders and @Steelers. This continues to stress the major importance of the Colts getting to 5-2 or 6-1 before the gauntlet arrives in November and December.

Looking at how the Jets have played the first two weeks of the season (27-17 loss to the Bills, 31-13 loss to the 49ers) and with them having a crazy long injury list (see below), you can see why the Colts are double-digit favorites in Week Three. Simply, the Jets are a mess. Although Sam Darnold did record a career-high 80 percent completion in beating the Colts back during his October of his 2018 rookie season.

While that 42-34 loss had the Colts starting 1-5 in 2018, it did mark the first time we saw this present starting offensive line play together. Back on October 14, 2018, the Colts used this starting offensive line for the first time: LT-Anthony Castonzo, LG-Quenton Nelson, C-Ryan Kelly, RG-Mark Glowinski, RT-Braden Smith. That group has started 23 of 29 games together since, including 18 in a row. I think you would take a loss on that October afternoon, knowing that you would find a quintet that has defined continuity since then.

It’s looking like the Jets will be without their starting running back, center, right tackle and top three wideouts on Saturday. In total, the Jets have an absurd 9 players on injured reserve and another 16 on the injury report this week. A roster that already had questions about its overall talent has been decimated from an injury standpoint early in the season.

The ageless one (and in my opinion a future first ballot Hall of Famer) Frank Gore is with the Jets. Last week, Gore became the oldest player in NFL history to carry the ball 20 or more times in a game (21 carries for 63 yards). Gore ranks 3^rd in NFL history in rushing yards (15,434). He is more than 1,300 yards behind No. 2 Walter Payton. Frank Reich came to the Colts the year after Gore left, but knows all about the aura: “I’ve been hearing legendary stories about Frank Gore everywhere I’ve been. This guy is a unique mindset. Then when I got here, just hearing Chris Ballard talking about him, the way he spoke about him. If you’re a football guy, you have to have the massive amount of respect that you can have for this guy. I think that’s what Frank commands. I think he commands that massive respect like few others in this league do – to be productive as he has been for as long as he has been playing that position, it’s incredible.”

The Colts will practice one more time on Friday this week before welcoming the Jets for a 4:05 PM kickoff on Sunday.

Thursday Injury Report

-DNP: CB-Rock Ya-Sin (illness), LB-Matthew Adams (ankle)

Bowen Analysis: Core special teamer LB-Matthew Adams (ankle) is going to miss multiple weeks after getting hurt covering a kick against the Vikings. Adams hadn’t played a defensive snap this season.

-Limited: Julian Blackmon (knee), TE-Jack Doyle (knee)

Bowen Analysis: Blackmon was on a pitch count in Sunday’s win over the Vikings, and continues to be listed as ‘limited’ in practice. We’ll see if this keeps him from taking on that full-on starting role from Hooker.