As the Andrew Luck Elimination Series moves from Kansas City (where the Chiefs hosted the Vikings) to Indianapolis (where the Colts host the Chiefs), it’s unknown whether Curtis Painter will get his second career start for the home team.
“It’s a little early,” Painter told the media on Wednesday regarding whether he’ll get the assignment. “I’m just going to try and go in there with the mindset that I will be playing. Whatever happens down the road, we’ll go off that.”
He evaded the question of whether he thinks he won the starting job based on his Monday night performance at Tampa. “We did some things well and we scored a couple of times,” Painter said. “I can’t speculate on whether I earned it or not. I guess we did some things well, but we need to improve on it also.”
Still, it’s clear that Painter would like to be on the field again. “I don’t think there is a guy in the NFL who doesn’t want to play,” Painter said. “Certainly, I would love to play. Again, whatever role I need to be in, I’ll take that role.”
Painter played well for the Colts, who lost a close game for the third straight time after a 27-point Week One loss to the Texans. But coach Jim Caldwell seemed to imply that, once Kerry Collins is cleared to play, Collins will once again be the starter. “At this point Kerry has not cleared as of yet,” Caldwell said. “Curtis is our starter until our doctors tell us otherwise.”
Wow. So now we know who’s really making the lineup decisions for the Colts.