Dungy: Colts’ offense won’t miss a beat

Indianapolis
Tribune-Star Correspondent

By Tom James September 06, 2008 12:36 am

— Despite injuries within the last year to three Pro Bowl performers — wide receiver Marvin Harrison (knee), quarterback Peyton Manning (knee), and center Jeff Saturday (knee) — along with veteran offensive guard Ryan Lilja (knee), Indianapolis Colts coach Tony Dungy doesn’t expect the team’s high-powered offense to lose any of its effectiveness heading into the 2008 season.
Harrison missed most of the 2007 campaign while Manning sat out the team’s three-week training camp earlier this summer. Both, however, will be in the lineup Sunday night (8:15 p.m., WTWO-TV) when the Colts face off against the Chicago Bears at Lucas Oil Stadium. Saturday and Lilja, meanwhile, are sidelined and won’t see any playing time for several weeks.
Dungy is confident that Indianapolis’ offensive attack — which averaged 28.1 points, 252 passing yards per game and 106.6 yards per game rushing — will remain as potent as it’s always been. The Colts, who have had a penchant for getting off to fast starts early in a season, have not lost a game in September since 2004 and have posted a won-loss mark of 29-4 in September and October over that same time period.
“I really think, from my vantage point, it’s the fact that we have an experienced offense and our offense usually comes out clicking pretty well,” the Colts coach said earlier this week. “Normally, early in the season, the defenses are a little bit ahead of the offenses. The offenses take their time to get their timing down and you play more low-scoring games early on.
“We’ve just had the good fortune of playing well on offense, of not having turnovers and problems, and having scoring outputs early on. If I had to point to one thing, I would say the experience factor we have on offense has really helped us to get to those good starts [in September and October].”
Harrison did well in training camp and during the preseason. He appears to have made a full recovery from the bursa sac injury that he incurred in the fourth game of the 2007 season, which limited him to a career-low 20 catches for 247 yards and one touchdown.
Manning, meanwhile, has been able to take part in a full practice routine since getting back on the field on Aug. 26. While he didn’t play a down in the preseason, Dungy isn’t worried.
“I think, for us, we’ve gotten out of the ‘Let’s watch Peyton’ mode and see how many plays he does and what he is able to do,” he said. “We monitored him early on that first week [of practice], but as far as this week, it’s like a normal practice week for us.”
The Colts coach added that he hasn’t seen anything to make him believe that the timing between Manning and his receivers has been affected by the time spent away rehabbing his surgically repaired left knee.
“No, not really. I’m sure he’s not where he would like to be. He’s a pretty routine oriented guy and I’m sure that he would like to have had more time working with some of the younger receivers, like [tight end] Jacob [Tamme] and Courtney [Roby]. But I don’t think [missing practice time] will change the routine and timing that he’s had with Marvin, [wide receiver] Reggie [Wayne], [wide receiver] Anthony [Gonzalez] and [tight end] Dallas [Clark].”
• Kickoff/punt returners revealed — With T.J. Rushing out for the year with a knee injury, former Indiana University receiver Courtney Roby and ex-Cincinnati Bengals cornerback Keiwan Ratliff will most likely begin the 2008 season as the Colts’ regular kickoff and punt return specialists.
Roby excelled as a kickoff returner during the preseason, taking one kick back 103 yards for a touchdown against Cincinnati. He averaged 37.4 yards on nine kickoff returns.
Ratliff, meanwhile, takes over as the primary punt returner. The job isn’t new to him as he was the Bengals’ punt returner for four seasons (72 punt returns for 540 yards, a 7.5 yard average). Ratliff also was a standout punt returner at the University of Florida, setting a school career record with 860 return yards.
n Saturday, Pollak out — The list of Indianapolis players who will not play this week is a relatively short one. Rookie offensive guard Mike Pollak (knee) and Saturday will not play Sunday night against the Bears.
Defensive end Dwight Freeney, who missed the second half of the 2007 season with a foot (LisFranc) injury, sat out Friday’s practice. Freeney and safety Bob Sanders are usually given one day off from practice per week. Sanders’ off day was Thursday.
Wide receiver Roy Hall (knee), rookie defensive end Curtis Johnson (shoulder) and rookie wide receiver Pierre Garcon (shoulder) are listed as questionable for the Chicago game. Manning is listed are probable.
• Hot ticket — Fans interesting in purchasing a ticket for Sunday night’s game at Lucas Oil Stadium will have to hand over a lot of cash.
According to Razorgate.com, an online distributor, tickets are selling for as much as $1,113. The average price for a ticket is $174, second-highest among all NFL games this week. Only tickets for Green Bay’s trip to Minnesota game cost more.