Andrew Luck already has a blueprint for his month away from the Colts.FORT WAYNE – Perhaps no player with the Colts had been as scrutinized and criticized as much as cornerback Jacob Lacey.
Dwayne Bowe’s seven catches for 128 yards and two touchdowns in a 28-24 Kansas City victory Oct. 9 at Indianapolis wasn’t even the low point for Lacey, who is in his third year.
No, the low point came when Lacey was inactive in Week 8.
“That was a terrible feeling, and it’s something that I never want to feel again,” Lacey said. “I have nobody to blame for that. But that is behind me now, so I am just trying to move forward from this point on.”
Lacey started redeeming himself Sunday, intercepting a Matt Hasselbeck pass and returning it for a touchdown in the Colts’ 27-13 victory over Tennessee at Lucas Oil Stadium.
It was the first victory of the season for the Colts (1-13), who play host tonight to AFC South-champion Houston (10-4).
Lacey, 24, has played in 41 games with the Colts, starting 26. He has 152 solo tackles, five interceptions, three forced fumbles and two touchdowns.
He has started the last three games, after getting benched for five in a row and six of the previous eight.
“That was the key the whole time, wanting to play,” said Lacey, who was undrafted out of Oklahoma State. “They gave me another opportunity and another shot, and I had to make the best of it.”
Colts coach Jim Caldwell said Lacey has improved his tackling in the second half of the season. But injuries in the secondary also helped force the Colts to use Lacey again.
“The last few weeks, he’s been doing a very nice job,” Caldwell said. “He broke on the ball extremely well, and he did a nice job in terms of ripping the ball out of (Chris Johnson’s) arms and putting it in the end zone (Sunday). But he also almost had another pick down in the red zone as well. He had a real good jump on it, and he broke up a number of passes as well. I’m proud of the way he came back. He was down earlier in the season, it was a little tough on him, but he was able to bounce back, and he’s playing well right now.”
How did Lacey, who started in Super Bowl XLIV as a rookie, overcome those tough times?
“I just leaned on my family,” he said. “My family was there for me, and they told me to just keep my head up and keep playing. This is what I do and this is how I’ve been since forever, so it wasn’t really a big difference in how I came about coming to work. It was mainly just from a mental statement of keeping my head in the game.”
Note: Colts running back Joseph Addai says the velocity on Peyton Manning’s short throws last week was game-ready. On Tuesday, team vice chairman Bill Polian told reporters that Manning was throwing “better” and responded “that’s correct” when asked whether Manning had decent velocity on throws 20 to 25 yards down the field.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
