Colts To Start Curtis Painter At QB Against Bucs
Added on Sep 30, 2011 by Jack Thurman in
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The injury riddled Indianapolis Colts have announced that perennial understudy Curtis Painter will get his first NFL start on Monday against the Bucs at Tampa Bay. The Colts had already come to terms with Peyton Manning’s likely season long absence, and now backup Kerry Collins is recovering from a concussion. This means that Painter is the man.
Painter has been practicing with the first team this week in preparation for this contingency. Indy coach Jim Caldwell said that the team has been acting under the assumption that Collins would be unavailable:
“You can really only get one ready, just in terms of the amount of time you have and the time you get on the field. It’s very difficult to get two guys prepared to play a ballgame. He’s (Painter) getting all of the work and I think he’ll benefit from that.”
He said that Painter is excited about the opportunity:
“He’s pretty excited about that, there’s no question about it. You can see it. He’s always pretty levelheaded, never too high, never too low, but you can certainly see the focus and intensity in his eyes.”
Caldwell said that Collins won’t practice on Friday and will be re-evaluated Saturday. Regardless of his progress, Painter will start on Monday night:
“At this point, there’s two days of practice missed, and some pretty important stuff that we put in. It’s tough to reclaim that at this point. We’ll see how his evaluation goes, but Curtis will end up starting the game.”
Caldwell praised Painter’s effort against the Steelers in Week 3:
“The first series was just getting his feet underneath him a little bit. I thought he came back and led a nice drive and took us down the field. He did a pretty good job without having many snaps in preparation for this game.”
Running back Joseph Addai also gave props to his quarterback:
“I’m a fan of Curtis. A lot of media, fans, really don’t understand what the quarterback position goes through. Seeing Curtis come in there and make some plays, that was good for him and as teammates we’re happy for him.”
Tampa Bay is a -10 point NFL betting favorite over the winless Colts with the total set at 40′.
