Indianapolis Colts quarterback Anthony Richardson left Sunday’s game twice on the same drive. And he didn’t return to the game that the Colts eventually won, 27-24 against the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Richardson, who was knocked out early in three of his four games for the Colts last season, left with another injury on Sunday. He left the game briefly during a drive, after he was hit as he went down at the end of a run and grabbed at his hip, and was replaced by Joe Flacco. Later in the drive Richardson was back, and tried to run to his left. It seemed his leg gave out and he awkwardly slid down.
Richardson limped a bit and then came back out. He headed straight back to the locker room with the athletic training staff and was later ruled out of action for Sunday.
Flacco came back in and threw a touchdown right away to Josh Downs. He finished 16-of-26 for 168 yards and two touchdowns.
The Colts said Richardson had a hip injury.
After the game, Richardson told reporters his hip was “still sore” and that he told head coach Shane Steichen he “tried to accelerate and couldn’t push off like I wanted to.” ESPN’s Cameron Wolfe reported postgame that Richardson has a hip pointer, and there’s hope in Indianapolis that he misses “very little or no game action.” He’ll undergo further evaluation this week.
Regardless, the injury is not good news for the Colts, whose focus all offseason was how to keep Richardson healthy. Richardson had struggled through three games but at least he had stayed healthy. That changed Sunday, bringing up bad memories of his injuries last season and all the talk offseason about his durability.