Colts quarterback Andrew Luck is back, but he wasn’t able to engineer a comeback.
In a wild game that went down to the final minute, Luck appeared to be writing a storybook ending with a comeback drive. But after he completed a pass to tight end Jack Doyle, Doyle fumbled and Cincinnati’s Clayton Fejedelem scooped it up and raced 83 yards for a touchdown.
That gave the Bengals a 34-23 win, a score that looks a lot more lopsided than the game actually was. This was a close, back-and-forth game for four quarters.
For the Bengals, the star of the game was second-year running back Joe Mixon, who had 17 carries for 95 yards and five catches for 54 yards. Mixon looks like the player the Bengals thought he was when the chose him in the second round of last year’s draft.
Andy Dalton and A.J. Green also had solid games for a Bengals offense that looked better than expected -- unless the Colts’ defense is worse than expected.
But the story of this game across the league was the return of Andrew Luck, whose shoulder injury kept him out for 20 months before he finally returned today. Luck looked strong and healthy, taking hard hits and getting right back up. But his last-gasp effort came up short.
