Anthony Richardson led a touchdown drive on his first series against Bengals backups on Thursday night, but had a tough time after that.
The Colts quarterback, who was drafted fourth overall in 2023, played a significant amount of time with the starting offensive players in the last preseason game. He struggled with accuracy and consistency.
Richardson completed 8 of 14 passes for 86 yards in Indianapolis’ 27-14 win over Cincinnati. Most of his success came on the first drive after a Cincinnati punt. He led an 80-yard drive, hitting 7 of 8 passes for 65 yards and ending with a 9-yard touchdown pass to Adonai Mitchell.
However, he missed an easy throw to tight end Drew Ogletree in the end zone, and things went downhill from there. Bengals safety Jordan Battle intercepted one of Richardson’s passes and returned it 9 yards for a touchdown.
On the third drive, Richardson missed Mitchell on a third-and-6 play and then missed him again on a deep throw, leading to another punt. On his last drive before Sam Ehlinger took over, Richardson struggled with a sack and fumble and only gained 3 yards on a scramble.
Despite the difficulties, Richardson remained positive.
“It’s always fun when I get to play football. As far as the game, stuff is going to happen,” he said. “Stuff is not always going to go our way. There’s going to be incomplete passes. I’m going to miss some passes, receivers are going to drop some. Stuff like that is going to happen.”
Richardson, who had an injury-plagued rookie season and only started four games, needs to stay healthy and prove he can be the impact player the Colts expect him to be.
