WESTFIELD Parris Campbell Jersey , Ind. — Andrew Luck felt like a different guy as he strolled down the tree-lined path to the Colts practice field Thursday.The recently married quarterback and now expectant father made the short trek, confident in his surgically repaired right shoulder and football future.And despite being limited to individual drills by a strained left calf as training camp opened, even the Indianapolis Colts quarterback took a few moments to reflect on how much has changed since he first appeared at Grand Park Sports Campus last July.“I remember walking through that sort of tunnel in the trees. Today I was sitting there thinking about it and how scared I was to go practice and how nervous I was,” Luck said.“I had no idea what the heck was going to happen on this practice field. I remember it being a very powerful feeling and then feeling so happy and almost relieved like I’d survived. Survived practice. My arm is still attached to my shoulder. That’s certainly a much different feeling this year.”Those initial fears gradually dissipated with a steady progression of successful steps — proving to himself the throwing arm could withstand the NFL rigors, leading the Colts back from a 1-5 start to end a three-year playoff drought and eventually winning the league’s Comeback Player of the Year award.Now Luck begins this season with another light workload.In 2016, team officials rested Luck as part of an effort to protect the sore shoulder he initially injured in September 2015. After opting for surgery on the still-ailing shoulder in January 2017, Luck missed all of training camp — and the entire season. Last year, Luck slowly returned with coach Frank Reich and general manager Chris Ballard closely monitoring Luck’s passing totals at camp to assure he’d be healthy for the season opener.It worked.This time, it’s different.Instead of talking about his arm, Luck has spent much of the offseason answering questions about the leg injury that kept him out of all of the team’s offseason workouts this spring, prevented him from working out with his teammates on the West Coast between June and July and now has limited his work early in camp.Luck threw Thursday in individual drills and is expected to return to seven-on-seven work Friday. Reich said Luck’s injury would be evaluated each day and hopes his starting quarterback is back in full action by early next week.But with their preseason opener two weeks away and their regular-season opener more than six weeks away, nobody at Colts camp is panicked. Instead, they’re playing it safe.“When you don’t go the whole spring, I just think it’s the smart thing to do,” Reich said. “We’ve got plenty of time. He’s working hard, he’s dialed in and he’ll get plenty of reps out here.”Besides, the Colts have a pretty good idea of how Luck will play once he is healthy.In his first season under Reich http://www.coltsfanshop.com/Ben-Banogu-Jersey , Luck set career highs in attempts (630), completions (430), completion rate (67.3 percent) and quarterback rating (98.7) while being sacked a career-low 18 times. He flirted with career highs in yards passing (4,593) and touchdown passes (39) and finished with the second-lowest interception rate (2.34 percent) of his career.He played in all 16 games for the first time since 2014 when he led the Colts to the AFC championship game, engineered a six-win improvement over 2017 and made his fourth Pro Bowl appearance.The Colts encouraged Luck to take some well-deserved time off following their divisional-round loss to Kansas City, but sometime before the start of OTAs, Luck injured his lower left leg.So he spent the spring studying playbooks, watching game tape and demonstrating his mastery of Reich’s offense by explaining what he liked and didn’t like last season, discussing adjustments and what could be changed in 2019.“He had input last year, but it’s not even close to the same level. We were installing it and it was more listening with a few comments here and there,” Reich said.“I think it has taken the meetings to a higher level and even when it’s the quarterback meetings with (offensive coordinator) Nick (Sirianni), (quarterbacks coach) Marcus (Brady) and myself, but even in the offensive meetings. The voice he has in there making sure he is talking to receivers, tight ends, backs. He has had a real strong presence this offseason.”And it should give the Colts a leg up on their competition when Luck returns.“You can go to bed saying, ‘I wish I didn’t pull my calf. I wish I didn’t feel like this,” Luck said. “I know anybody coming back from any type of injury Rock Ya-Sin Jersey , it’s the same thing. You’ve got to keep working and getting better and trust that.” Every week, I will present a summary of some basic and advanced stats for the Colts performance relative to the league. Thanks to Pro Football Reference, NFL.com and the nflSCrapR project for being awesome sources of weekly data.I have heard the Colts offensive performance against the Giants described as a tale of two halves.After reviewing the numbers, I would say it was more a tale of a very good offense that had a very bad first quarter.In the first two drives, the Colts managed only 6 yards of net offense and a promising third drive effort was killed by a mind-boggling throw-away pick from Andrew Luck.After that, though,the Colts offense dominated. The Colts notched 27 first downs and an impressive 84.4% Drive Success Rate, but almost all of that success came after the first quarter.Here is a breakdown of some stats by drives started in the first quarter vs. the rest of the game:1st Qtr ComparisonDrive Start1st downs (per drive)Yards (per drive)Points (per drive)DSRPasser RatingRushing SuccessDrive Start1st downs (per drive)Yards (per drive)Points (per drive)DSRPasser RatingRushing SuccessTEAM TOTALSOther than the turnover, there is not one bad number up there.Well, I guess we lost Time of Possession . . . so sad.The initial horrible offense (coupled with a horrible defense) caused a pass heavy game script for Indy. Ideally, you don’t want to pass on 75% of your plays.PASSINGLuck was very good last Sunday but his head-scratching interception reduced his Adjusted Net Yards per Attempt to a mediocre 16th place.He had a good completion rate with receptions averaging 7.6 yards through the air, which was 6th longest on the week. But Yards after the Catch were a miserable 3.9, which limited the total Yards per Attempt to just 7.6.However, the most important stat is the almost 40% of passes that resulted in a first down (6th best).If your QB can consistently move the chains with his arm (and Luck does) then Cmp%, YAC and YPA aren’t important. RUSHINGGame script limited the run game, which is too bad because the Colts rushers were delivering what mattered.While 3.3 Yards per Carry isn’t that thrilling, it can be a deceiving stat T.Y. Hilton Jersey , which is why I always look at how successful the runs were.Marlon Mack only accumulated 34 yards but in that total is a TD, 2 first downs and an 11 yard gain on 1st and 15. That’s successful running and it’s why the Colts cracked the top 5 in weighted Rush Success Rate. CONCLUSIONS & NEXT MATCH-UPThe offense stumbled early, but by the third drive, it was easy to see they were back in sync and put forth a great overall performance. Next up is the Titans, who these Colts hung 38 points on last time around. However, over the past 5 weeks, the Titans defense has been putting up some of the best numbers in the league, limiting opponents to 16.2 points per game and a 2nd best 64% Opposing DSR.Their usually “just average” passing defense has recently stonewalled QBs to a ridiculously low 2.4 ANY/A (3rd lowest). Of course, none of that adjusts for opponent and the Jets, Jaguars, Giants and Redskins haven’t exactly been setting the world on fire at the QB position. Against the run, the Titans rank 11th by DVOA on the season, which is similar to my 9th place ranking by wRSR and much higher than the 18th place effort they have put up the last 5 games.Against the Giants, game script forced the Colts to be one-dimensional.But if we can have early success with the run game against the Titans, then we should be able to move the ball.The Colts opened as 1 point underdogs. TRAILING 5 WEEK TOTALS (per game)SEASON TOTALS (per game)