
The sudden retirement of offensive tackle Tarik Glenn has all of a sudden accelerated the growth of rookie OT Tony Ugoh. But fortunately, Ugoh is coming along quite nicely, considering the circumstances involved. As reported by Mike Chappell of the Indianapolis Star, the best endorsement of Ugoh and his progress so far has come from Colts offensive line coach Howard Mudd.
Mudd told the Star, “I think he’s done quite well. Is he a finished product? No, not by a long ways. But some of the other people who have played for a long time aren’t finished (products) either. I’m OK with where he is. He’s acceptable as it is.” After nearly a month of practices and three preseason games, Mudd was convinced that Ugoh should start at offensive tackle. But that doesn’t come without its little problems.
A good example was against the Detroit Lions last Saturday. Ugoh was fooled into one of quarterback Peyton Manning’s play changes, Manning changing what was originally a run play into a pass play. The end result was Manning getting sacked for a 13-yard loss. But I would expect that Ugoh will learn from that error and improve upon that.
Yes, Ugoh is an unfinished product, so to speak, but at this rate of progress, he should man the OT position just fine. Nothing that a little fine-tuning and lots of game experience wouldn’t cure. And mark my words – he will for all intents and purposes pick up where Glenn left off, which for the Colts, is a very good thing.

The Colts will do whatever they can to make sure that their franchise player on defense – Dwight Freeney, is healthy come opening day, which is why he’ll likely sit in the Colts final preseason game Friday at Cincinnati. Freeney on Saturday night vs the Lions at the RCA Dome bruised his right thigh in the teams huge 37-10 win. Tony Dungy stated that the injury does not appear to be serious, and that if it was a regular season game this weekend that Dwight would likely play. The best thing to do is make sure that Freeney is ready to go for the opener September 6th, and simply make him a spectator for this meaningless game on Friday at Cincy.




Colts as a third-string QB behind Peyton Manning and Jim Sorgi. He has made just one Pro start, and that was with the Cardinals back in the 2004 season. He has not thrown a pass in a regular season game since 2005. With Navarre gone, Josh Betts should now have the spot of the third-string QB spot. One thing to remember though is the Colts usually only keep two QB’s so Betts should not get too comfortable or buy a house in Indy anytime soon.
Reports are surfacing that the Colts have lost defensive tackle Anthony McFarland for the season after suffering a knee injury. McFarland suffered a torn ACL according to reports, while the Indy Star says he injured his patella tendon. The report says that either injury would spell an end to McFarland’s season. The team is running tests on the big tackle. Tony Dungy said Saturday that McFarland was one of a few players who underwent a MRI in Indianapolis.





