INDIANAPOLIS — Andrew Luck and Andy Dalton have similar achievements listed on their résumés — and similar glaring holes.
Each made the Pro Bowl as a rookie. Each has three consecutive seasons with double-digit wins. Neither has missed the playoffs, and both understand their legacies will be determined by postseason successes and failures.
Sunday, the two young quarterbacks get another chance to fill in some of those gaps when the Indianapolis Colts and Cincinnati Bengals meet in an AFC wild-card playoff game.
“I don’t think just getting to the playoffs has ever been good enough in this building,” Luck said last week.
The Colts’ franchise quarterback learned his lesson the hard way.
After directing one of the greatest one-season turnarounds in NFL history in 2012, Luck came up short against eventual Super Bowl champion Baltimore in the first round of the playoffs.
Last year, after engineering the second-biggest comeback in postseason history, Luck spent the offseason pondering how to reduce turnovers. He blamed himself for throwing three interceptions that helped put Indy in a 28-point deficit against Kansas City, and then threw four more picks the next week in a 43-22 loss at New England.
Now Luck is eager to prove two-time AFC South champion Indianapolis (11-5) is ready to take another big step.
Dalton’s postseason problems are just as obvious.
In three playoff games, all losses, he’s thrown one touchdown pass, six interceptions and accumulated a passer rating of 56.2. Another defeat would put Dalton in a tie with Warren Moon for most consecutive opening-round playoff losses by a quarterback.
History is not on the Bengals’ side, either. Cincinnati (10-5-1) is 0-6 in road playoff games, has lost seven straight in Indy and hasn’t won in the playoffs since January 1991.
If Dalton ends that misery, he might finally silence the critics.
“Winning in general is how quarterbacks are judged,” Dalton said. “If you win a lot in the regular season but you haven’t won a lot in the postseason, then they’re going to say that you couldn’t do something.”
Dalton will have to try to break his postseason slump without his top wide receiver.
A.J. Green is still recovering from the concussion he suffered during Cincinnati’s Week 17 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers, and he will not be available Sunday.
