Colts dominate Redskins to give Reich his First win as Head Coach

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On a day that was totally dominated by the Colts defense, the Indianapolis Colts gave head coach Frank Reich his first career win as they defeated the Washington Redskins 21-9.

The game got started fast for the Colts when they took the opening drive 75 yards and converted on third and three for a seven-yard touchdown pass from Andrew Luck to Eric Ebron. On Washington’s first series, Jamison Crowder had a twenty-five yard run on the left side to get the ball to midfield but, three plays later the Redskins punted the ball back to the Colts.

The play of the day for the Colts came on second and four from the Washington eight-yard line when Nyheim Hines scored and had a nice spin move right at the five before bouncing into the end zone to make the score 14-3 with 6:51 left until halftime.

Halftime. #INDvsWAS pic.twitter.com/VCjL56Osd0

— Indianapolis Colts (@Colts) September 16, 2018

When asked about the fast start both Luck commented, “It was truly a team win, a fast start by the offense.” Luck was 21-31 179 yards two touchdowns and two interceptions.

The defense was the star of the show today by keeping the Redskins out of the end zone and forcing them to only three field goals by Dustin Hopkins from 49, 27, and 49 yards.

On getting his first career win as a head coach, Frank Reich was extremely happy with the Colts performance on both sides of the ball. “It was a hard fought win. It’s the way we want to win.”

Reich, when asked about Darius Leonard, said he was all excited about his performance, “I mean what, 18 tackles, a sack, unbelievable. Man, what a day.”

18 Tackles
15 Solos
1 Sack
1 Forced Fumble
1 Pass breakup
1 Insanely talented rookie

Have a day, @dsleon45! pic.twitter.com/SNGxb6mHnH

— Indianapolis Colts (@Colts) September 16, 2018

As for the defense, it was a lights-out performance led by Leonard, who also forced a fumble late in the fourth quarter when the Redskins was driving to potentially cut the lead down to one score. After the fumble recovery by the Colts, they were unable to capitalize on the turnover but they were able to keep the Redskins out of the end zone despite them driving all the way down to the Colts 34 where Alex Smith’s pass to Chris Thompson on fourth down fell harmlessly to the ground securing the win for the Colts.

After the game, Leonard commented on his and the team’s performance, “Last week we knew that one got away from us, so we wanted to come out and compete every single play.”

As for Reich when asked about facing the Eagles next week in Philadelphia, “Yeah, I mean, we’ll enjoy this. Next week will obviously be a great challenge and we’ll look forward to that. But for now, we’ll enjoy this.”

With the win, the Colts snap a four-year skid of starting the season 0-2 giving them their best start since 2013 when they were in the playoffs before losing to the Patriots in the AFC Divisional Round.

The Colts face the Eagles next week at Lincoln Financial Field with Kickoff scheduled for 1 pm.