Should Andrew Luck Play Sunday?

Dec 21, 2014; Arlington, TX, USA; Indianapolis Colts quarterback Andrew Luck (12) prior to the game against the Dallas Cowboys at AT&T Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Matthew Emmons-USA TODAY Sports

The Indianapolis Colts (10-5) have the opportunity to uproot the Tennessee Titans (2-13) and finish the season 11-5 with an unblemished 6-0 mark in the AFC South for the second year in a row.

But should Andrew Luck and the starters play on Sunday?

No matter what happens in Sunday’s slew of games, one thing is now certain: Indy cannot get a first-round bye. Even if the Raiders somehow upset the Broncos to bring Denver down to 11-5, there is no way for Indy to get that bye with Pittsburgh and Cincinnati in the mix as well. In any case, the Colts will host a playoff game against a wild-card team as the No. 3 or 4 seed. There’s no reason to try and climb further while a loss will certainly not hurt the Colts in any way.

This may be the first time in the Luck era that we’ve seen Coach Pagano and the coaching staff have to deal with a possible intentional benching of the starters. Last week, we got a whiff of this backup Colts team when several players were retired in the third quarter due to the unimportance of the game. Luck relinquished his control of the offense to backup quarterback Matt Hasselbeck, Dan Herron played the rest of the game in the backfield and even Zurlon Tipton and Josh Cribbs got some action in the offense.

This game provides the perfect opportunity to give the Colts’ backups some playing time against a lowly Tennessee Titans team. Players like Dan Herron, Donte Moncrief, Jonathan Newsome and Henoc Muamba, players who have promise in the Colts’ system, would relish opportunities to prove themselves in a big game.

So what’s Pagano going to do?

Likely, we’ll see something similar to the Colts offense shown in the Cowboys game. Luck will play a few series with Hilton, Wayne and the rest of the offense before sitting the rest of the game. Then the coaching staff will make way for the younger players on offense and play a simple defense. The last thing this team needs is to lose stars on either side of the ball to injury in a game that simply doesn’t matter. At any rate, the Titans have been struggling all season.

If the Colts can play their cards right and keep a sound coaching strategy throughout the game, the team should sweep Tennessee for the third season in a row.