Insider: Bad Luck erased by good Luck in Colts' victory

GREEN BAY, Wis. – A special-teams touchdown on the game’s opening kickoff? The Indianapolis Colts' defense bowing up and getting stops on a short field?

And the Pro Bowl prodigy quarterback … stinking up the joint?

In a season when logic has rarely applied to this team, Andrew Luck was right on cue Sunday, opening this game against the Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field with interceptions on two of his first three possessions. That’s basically a death knell when playing on these hallowed grounds, where one of the NFL’s most storied franchises has won 214 regular-season games.

But Luck, stubborn as he is, doesn’t know any better.

That’s how the Colts came away with this potentially season-altering, confidence-boosting 31-26 win over the Packers.

It’s as if Luck had no idea the Colts were heavy underdogs. You’d think he was oblivious that Aaron Rodgers, one of the greatest quarterbacks of his generation, was his nemesis on this day. It’s like no one told him those two interceptions were supposed to send him into a shell from which he could not emerge.

• BOX SCORE: Colts 31, Packers 26

Doyel: Aggressive, fun Colts take game from Green Bay

So Luck, even after completing the same number of passes in the first quarter to the Packers as he did to T.Y. Hilton, came back to the huddle and said the following:

“ ‘Worry about the next play. The last play’s done,’ ” offensive lineman Joe Heag recalled afterward in the most joyous post-game locker-room scene of the season. “It’s that way whether we hit an 80-yard bomb, or whether we get a 20-yard sack. It doesn’t matter. It’s always the same: ‘Learn from it. Move on. Next play.’ ”

Only this time, Luck was talking largely to, well, himself.

The words must have resonated.

Luck pulled himself together and played some of his best football of the season. He left a trail of exasperated Green Bay  defenders in his wake, exchanging blows with Rodgers in the kind of quarterback duel people gleefully pay top dollar to watch. For every epic Rodgers escape act and throw, Luck matched it. At times, he simply outdid his rival.

The play that perhaps best represented Luck’s performance was the third-and-10 from the Colts’ own 25-yard line with 3:19 remaining. The Packers, after struggling throughout, had awakened. There was a feeling that, should they get the ball back, the Colts might not be able to stop them. Their track record in protecting one-possession leads in the final minutes this season is more than a little suspect.

So, Luck dropped back and two blitzing defenders immediately converged. One, Ha Ha Clinton-Dix, wrapped himself around Luck’s waist. But the quarterback effortlessly shook off the would-be tackler, stepped up and threw a strike to tight end Jack Doyle for 20 yards. The interesting twist: It was Clinton-Dix who made both of those early interceptions against Luck. But it was Luck who would have the last laugh.

“It’s character, it’s discipline, it’s just all these things that you’ve come to expect from Andrew Luck,” Haeg said. “He had a couple of interceptions, but we’re not fazed by that. If anything, it’s going to motivate him and he’ll come back even stronger. It’s so awesome to have a guy back there like that, and it was just such a fun victory.”

It was also a big one.

The Colts now head into a bye week with a 4-5 record, taking with them the peace of mind that comes with recording their biggest win of the season.

The Colts hadn’t won a game at Lambeau since 1988. Chris Chandler was their rookie starting quarterback then. Peyton Manning lost here – twice. Robert Mathis, a 14-year veteran, soaked in his first win at the venue. Maybe the Packers aren’t Super Bowl-bound – they are 4-4 and trailing the Vikings and Lions in the NFC North – but the Colts had not had a win on which they could hang their collective hat in 2016.

Maybe it was the start of something, maybe it wasn’t. But the Colts gave you reason to think they have a pulse. They have three home games remaining against their AFC South opponents, all of them beatable (despite the Colts’ current 1-2 division record). The Colts team that showed up on Sunday could beat just about anyone in the NFL.

With tight coverage in the secondary, gutsy play from the offensive line in the face of relentless blitzes and a 99-yard kickoff-return touchdown on the opening kickoff, just about anything seemed possible.

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All of those elements were necessary on this day. But, make no mistake, Luck was the man that made it all come together. You don’t beat Aaron Rodgers in his house without some quarterbacking heroics of your own.

There was the touchdown pass to Donte Moncrief, a back-shoulder beauty.

“That was perfect,” Moncrief said. “That throw was awesome. By the time I saw the ball, it was already right there.”

Then there was the read-option run on third-and-1. And don’t forget the 27-yard dagger to Hilton in the closing minutes that iced this win.

There was so much to love that you almost forgot how this day began.

“Not an ideal start offensively, obviously, (with) my two interceptions,” Luck conceded. “But, like anything, you have to move on.”

Perhaps no one does that better than Luck.

Worry about the next play. The last play’s done.

Words to live by. The words of Andrew Luck.

Follow IndyStar reporter Stephen Holder on Twitter: @HolderStephen.