5 storylines: NFL's oldest QB vs. NFL's youngest QB
Here are five storylines ahead of the Indianapolis Colts (5-5) hosting the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (5-5) on Sunday at 1 p.m. at Lucas Oil Stadium:
1) Castonzo out:
For the first time in 67 regular season games the Colts will be without their rock on the offensive line, left tackle Anthony Castonzo. He sprained his right MCL in last week’s win in Atlanta, sensing immediately on a play in the fourth quarter, something was wrong. “I got rolled up on from the side, a guy rolled up on my knee,” Castonzo said. “Kinda felt something give. I knew exactly what happened.”
Castonzo knew because he suffered the same injury – a sprained MCL – in the preseason in 2012. He missed the team’s final exhibition game but returned for the season opener a week later.
While he remains on the mend, the Colts are forced to, again, play musical chairs along the offensive line. With Castonzo out, Joe Reitz will slide from right tackle to fill Castonzo’s spot on the left. Who fills Reitz’s spot remains to be seen. Based on practice this week, it appears rookie Denzelle Good, a seventh-round pick out of tiny Mars Hill, is the front-runner. First-year Colt Todd Herremans, benched in Week 3 and not heard of since, could be another possibility, although unlikely. Jack Mewhort, the team’s starting left guard, filled in at right tackle early in the season but was moved back to the guard spot after two games.
2) It's old (Hasselbeck) vs. young (Winston):
The Colts will face a quarterback on Sunday who’s coming off the finest outing of his young career. Bucs rookie Jameis Winston torched the hapless Philadelphia Eagles a week ago – then again, who doesn’t? – for 246 yards and five touchdowns in a lopsided victory His passer rating was 131.6. That’s a significant confidence-boost for a rookie signal-caller.
“Jameis is playing extremely good football right now,” Colts coach Chuck Pagano said. “We’ve got to do a great job of trying to make him work pre-snap and post-snap.”
This season, Winston’s already thrown for 2,405 yards and 15 touchdowns. He’s added four more scores on the ground.
Adding another layer of intrigue, Winston is just 21 years old. He's the youngest QB in football. On the other sideline Sunday? Matt Hasselbeck, at 40 years old, the oldest QB in football.
The Matt Hasselbeck you don't know
That means there’s an 18-year gap between the two, likely one of the largest in NFL history. For perspective, simply consider: The same year Winston was born – in 1994 – Hasselbeck was a freshman at Boston College.
Hasselbeck, meanwhile, hasn't lost this season. With last week's win over the Falcons, he became just the third quarterback in NFL history to win three consecutive starts after his 40th birthday.
3) Can the Colts’ D hold … again? Speaking of the Bucs’ rushing attack, there’s a lot more to it than Winston. As in: Doug Martin. Tampa Bay ranks second in the league in rushing yards per game (142.2) and Martin is the reason why. In his fourth season out of Boise State, the 5-9, 223-pound Martin is blitzing towards another 1,000-yard season (he has 941 yards in ten games), with a 5.0-yards-per-carry average.
The Colts, meanwhile, were stout against the run a week ago in Atlanta. (It didn’t hurt that the Falcons' top rusher, Devonta Freeman, was knocked out of the game on a hit in the first quarter.) All told, Indianapolis yielded 100 rushing yards, but stiffened late and shut out the Falcons in the fourth quarter. The three turnovers the unit forced didn’t hurt, either.
4) Bucs’ physical receivers: It’s not just Winston (6-4, 227 pounds) who poses a daunting physical test come Sunday. Try the guys he’s throwing to. Vincent Jackson is 6-5, 230 pounds. Mike Evans is 6-5, 231 pounds. In that pair the Bucs offer one of the most physically-imposing receiving tandems in football, not to mention a stiff test for an undersized Colts’ secondary.
Vontae Davis stands just 5-11. Greg Toler is is 6-even. Darius Butler? He’s 5-10.
In other words, good luck.
“A matchup problem,” Pagano called it. “Big, physical guys, they body you, they have a huge catch radius and especially once you get down in the red (zone), in certain third down situations, certainly they are athletic enough and fast enough to get on top of you. Fade balls, balls that are thrown outside the numbers, back shoulder things, there are a lot of things that are difficult.”
Help will come in the form of rookie safety Clayton Geathers, who’s expected to get the start again in place of Mike Adams. Geathers is 6-2, 215 pounds, and hits like a freight train. Just ask Devonta Freeman.
Still, Pagano likened trying to keep up with the towering Jackson and Evans to rebounding in basketball.
“That’s why I didn’t play,” he said, smiling. “Especially inside. I couldn’t go and get any rebounds.”
5) AFC South: No matter the Colts have won an NFL-record 16 consecutive games in the division, own a 19-2 record against AFC South teams since 2012 and have nine division titles since 2002. This year, the AFC South crown is up for grabs.
At 5-5, the Colts find themselves tied atop the division with the Texans, whom they own the tiebreaker over after winning in Houston in early October. But the race will be decided in the coming weeks. After facing Tampa Bay on Sunday, Indianapolis hits the road for back-to-back weekends, first in Pittsburgh, then in Jacksonville. They’ll finish by hosting Houston, traveling to Miami and hosting the Titans.
Colts, Texans bracing for fight in AFC South
The Texans, meanwhile, are on a three-game win streak and begin a three-game stretch that includes New Orleans, Buffalo and New England.
Don’t discount Jacksonville (4-6). After starting the year 1-5, the Jags have won three of four. It’s rare a December game in Jacksonville will hold playoff implications, but that’s exactly the situation the Colts will find themselves in for that trip on Dec. 13.
Call Star reporter Zak Keefer at (317) 444-6134 and follow him on Twitter: @zkeefer.