Colts and Luck ready for Redskins

Indianapolis, Ind. (WLFI) - In the midst of a three game stretch over 12 days, the Indianapolis Colts will travel to Washington D.C. this weekend for their third preseason game of 2012.

The Colts (1-1) and Redskins (1-1) will kickoff at 4 p.m. on Saturday to conclude its road slate during the preseason.

With starters expected to play into the second half on Saturday, quarterback Andrew Luck will get some extended playing time. Luck is 26-of-41 for 363 yards and a pair of touchdown passes through two games.

The offense leads the league in averaging 31 points per game and has seen production from the first team through the third.

Offensive coordinator Bruce Arians was pleased with how his first team offense bounced back in the second quarter against the Steelers on Sunday evening and is looking forward to seeing them react out of halftime this weekend.

“We got a nice half in last week and coming out of the locker room hopefully we can put together a half like that again and come out of the locker room, simulate a real ball game and then get the guys out of there,” Arians said.

With the regular season opener a little more than two weeks away, Arians said the offense is using about 60-70 percent of its playbook right now.

That number isn’t too much of a worry to Arians but rather, it’s producing as a unit that he will be looking for against the Redskins.

“For us right now, being successful is more important than hiding anything,” Arians said. “We want to be successful, build confidence in everybody, not just Andrew, the whole unit. Offense builds confidence in the defense, defense builds confidence in the offense, that’s a football team.”

That confidence is vital for an offense that is so young at many skill positions.

Wide receiver Reggie Wayne has been seen throughout training talking with many of his young receivers and loves the talent that is in his position group.

“This is probably, maybe not, but probably the most talented bunch I’ve been around as a core,” Wayne said. “We’ve got some guys that can run really fast. We’ve got some smart guys, guys that enjoy taking notes and want to be good. Whenever you see that, there’s a promising future for those guys.”

The next week will have extra importance to many of the young players on the Colts roster with two games in seven days.

Rosters will be cut to 75 players on Monday before final cuts are made to 53 the following week.

Arians admitted that this is probably the hardest week each season in seeing so many guys leave that he has worked with for much of the offseason.

It will be a bit of a juggling act this next week for Arians and the Colts staff as they maintain their goal of winning while trying to establish a complete roster.

“It’s a fine balance because you want to get a look at some guys,” Arians said. “Most of those young guys need to find a place on special teams and then we’ll find a place for them on offense. It’s a fine line between getting reps, evaluation and winning.”