Doyel: Jacoby Brissett passed concussion tests, but he went from throwing darts to duds

IndyStar

Indianapolis Colts quarterback Jacoby Brissett (7) grimaces after he was sacked in the second half of their game at Lucas Oil Stadium Sunday, Nov 12, 2017. The Pittsburgh Steelers defeated the Indianapolis Colts 20-17.

INDIANAPOLIS — Jacoby Brissett trudges out of the shower and toward his locker in the Indianapolis Colts locker room. He appears to be limping, but he’s walking so slowly it’s hard to tell. One locker over, backup quarterback Scott Tolzien is smiling kindly, maybe sympathetically. Brissett isn’t smiling back. Hurts too much to smile, looks like.

It also hurts too much to stand – but he has no idea how he’s supposed to sit. Now at his locker, Brissett looks at the chair like a puzzle to be solved before grabbing the back of it and lowering himself.

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If he were a building, Brissett would be condemned. But he’s a Colts quarterback, so he’s merely injured.

The team is doing it again, is what I’m saying. The Colts are allowing another talented young quarterback to be brutalized, and this time the tradeoff isn’t a winning record and a spot in the playoffs. This time the tradeoff is a lost season, the Colts sliding deeper into the AFC South cellar on Sunday with another second-half collapse, this one a 20-17 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers.

While Colts franchise quarterback Andrew Luck is in Europe seeking more treatment for a shoulder that has been surgically repaired, Brissett is in the NFL concussion protocol after being speared in the head Sunday by Stephon Tuitt. A 303-pound defensive end, Tuitt didn’t seem to hit Brissett hard. Can you gently spear someone in the head? That’s what it looked like: Tuitt gently speared Brissett in the back of the helmet.

Only, Brissett didn’t get up. Not for almost a minute. After looking for all the word like a chalk outline, Brissett eventually rose and walked to the NFL-mandated concussion tent on the sideline.

How ugly was it? This ugly: On the Colts sideline, Tolzien started warming up.

Tolzien has no more business being on an NFL field than you do, but the Colts haven’t been exactly proactive when it comes to their quarterback position.

Because the previous front office didn’t build what football people would call “an NFL offensive line,” Andrew Luck absorbed more hits than any quarterback in the league from 2012-16. Along the way Luck suffered a concussion, underwent surgery on a vital organ and had surgery on his throwing shoulder. He hasn’t played this season. He won’t play this season.

Because the current front office also has failed to build what football people would call “an NFL offensive line,” the 2017 Colts have allowed an NFL-worst 82 quarterback hits (nine Sunday) and an NFL-worst 39 sacks (three Sunday). Because that same front office has failed to sign what football people would call “an NFL backup quarterback,” the Colts have Scott Tolzien. And so when Brissett came out of the concussion tent and sat on a bench and talked to no less than four team officials – quarterbacks coach Brian Schottenheimer sitting to his left, and three men I presume to have been medical personnel standing in a semi-circle front of Brissett – Tolzien warmed up.

Meanwhile, the Steelers had the ball. But not for long. Of all moments Sunday, the Colts defense picked this one to make a stand – recording its only three-and-out of the second half – and soon Pittsburgh was punting. When Brissett walked off the field and into the concussion tent, there had been 1 minute, 9 seconds left in the third quarter.

Now the fourth quarter is just 44 seconds old as the Colts offense runs back onto the field. And here comes Scott Tolzien, whose first pass of the season back in September had been a pick-six in the opener at Los Angeles, and whose last pass of the season was another pick-six in that same game.

Wait, what’s this? Now here comes Jacoby Brissett, grabbing his helmet and running onto the field. Tolzien runs back to the sideline. The crowd is cheering. Maybe those last two sentences are out of order. But maybe not.

In any event, Brissett is not himself for the fourth quarter. His first pass is thrown high and hard to tight end Jack Doyle, who lets the point-blank dart slip through his hands – and into the hands of Steelers linebacker Ryan Shazier, whose interception at the Colts’ 10 leads to a Pittsburgh touchdown that ties the game at 17.

On the first play of the next drive, Brissett is hit as he releases a pass that falls incomplete. On the next play he is sacked. On the next play? Sacked again. Since returning from the concussion tent, Brissett has dropped back four times and been hit on three of them – and thrown an interception on the fourth.

On the sideline, Scott Tolzien is warming up again. But when the Colts get the ball with 6:17 left and the score still tied 17-17, Brissett is back on the field. He throws four passes, completing two for 16 yards. The Colts punt with 3:10 left. They will not get the ball again. The Steelers drive from one 15-yard line to the other, eating up 70 yards and all 3:10 and winning the game on Chris Boswell’s 33-yard field goal at the final horn.

Through three quarters Brissett was 12-for-18 for 206 yards, two TD’s and no interceptions.

In the fourth quarter, after being speared gently in the helmet, Brissett was 2-for-6 for 13 yards, no TD’s and one INT.

In the locker room afterward, something wasn’t right with Brissett. Can barely walk and struggles to sit down, is how I’ve described it. “Concussion symptoms,” was the Colts’ wording in an official release. Brissett dressed slowly to meet with the media down the hall, but that meeting was called off. Brissett was diagnosed with those concussion symptoms, and placed in the NFL concussion protocol.

After being allowed to play the fourth quarter.

Listen, this is not me attacking the Colts. The team couldn’t send him back onto the field after the encounter with Tuitt. Only an independent doctor – an “unaffiliated neurological consultant,” in NFL lingo – can do that. And the independent doctor, the unaffiliated neurological consultant, did do that. Eventually.

The way this worked was unusual, but it happens. While the independent doctor was in the locker room tending to Colts cornerback Kenny Moore II, Brissett met first in that tent with team doctors. Brissett passed whatever concussion test was administered by Colts doctors, then returned to the tent moments later and was cleared by the unaffiliated neurological consultant.

Back to the field went Brissett, where he absorbed more abuse. An hour later, he was diagnosed with concussion symptoms.

Because the Colts just began their bye week, Brissett won’t have to suffer again in seven days. In two weeks the Colts will play their 11th game of 2017 against the Tennessee Titans, one step closer to the end of this lost season. Brissett will play in that game, assuming he can pass what football people would call “the NFL concussion protocol.”

Find IndyStar columnist Gregg Doyel on Twitter: @GreggDoyelStar or at facebook.com/gregg.doyel.

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