Bell: Andrew Luck already forming his own NFL identity

• No. 1 pick may be following in Peyton Manning's footsteps, but athleticism already sets him apart from predecessor
• Coming through on third down already one of Luck's valued traits
• Luck or RGIII? Only one has led his team to a winning record

INDIANAPOLIS — Of all the throws that added up to an NFL rookie record 433 yards from the arm of Andrew Luck on Sunday, one of the pure snapshot images came midway through the fourth quarter as the Indianapolis Colts drove for a game-winning field goal.

It was third down, which Luck clearly owned at Lucas Oil Stadium against a Miami Dolphins unit that entered the game as the NFL's best third-down defense. He completed 13 of 16 third-down passes for 204 yards and 11 first downs. That's how you win.

In this instance, on the last third down from the Miami 45, with the game tied at 20, the Colts desperately needed to convert to move into Adam Vinatieri's range.

Then something horrible happened. Cameron Wake barreled around left end with a clear path to the quarterback. He crashed into Luck, who stumbled awkwardly. Before hitting the turf, though, Luck flicked a low, tight spiral to the middle of the field to Reggie Wayne, his security blanket of a veteran receiver.

Wayne was somehow on the turf, too, having collided with a defender.

No matter. Wayne corralled the pass to convert for a 6-yard gain, and five snaps later Vinatieri booted the 43-yard kick that held up as the game-winner.

"Fearless," Wayne said, shaking his head as he left the locker room on Sunday night.

He was talking about one of the vital components that makes the No. 1 pick overall so special. Quarterbacks need to have so much of what Luck has and indeed demonstrated on Sunday. A cannon arm. Athleticism. Leadership. Football IQ.

Yet it can be easy to overlook the courage that has prevented many talented quarterbacks from ever reaching their potential. It takes some true grit to hang in there for another split second when you can feel a blow coming from somebody like James Harrison.

For all of the highlight moments — Luck threw a laser of a 9-yard TD pass to Wayne on a skinny post, then later back-foot heaved a 36-yard scoring strike that was finished with T.Y. Hilton leaping between two defenders — some of his best plays were pure blood and guts.

On a third-and-14 to keep the first TD drive alive, he took a shot from Jared Odrick as he launched off his back foot and completed a 25-yard throw to Hilton.

There were multiple cases when he escaped the pocket and passed on the move. He is a throw-on-the-run campaign slogan: Keep Hope Alive.

"Playing the quarterback position, stuff doesn't always go right," said Luck, who completed 30 of 48 passes, with zero picks. "You have to make a play with your feet and get the ball out. If you can tell a quarterback he is going to have a clean pocket, won't get hit once during the game, wouldn't that be the life? But it's not, so deal with it."

His last completion was special, too. As the pocket collapsed, Luck was smacked by Odrick and spun into the back of guard Joe Reitz. Then came Miami defensive tackle Randy Starks, grabbing and tugging. Luck gently flicked the ball in traffic to tight end Dwayne Allen for a 2-yard completion. An ugly-but-pretty completion.

"His eyes are always downfield," said interim coach Bruce Arians. "He knows where his guys are, so if they're draped on him, he's strong enough and accurate enough to still get it to them. A couple of those were big-time plays near the end there."

Wayne, the 12th-year veteran, realizes that the rookie quarterback has inherited what he considers to be an unfair burden of following in Peyton Manning's footsteps.

The comparisons, though, will hardly go away. Especially on days like Sunday, when Luck not only topped the single-game rookie mark of 432 yards that Cam Newton set last season but also became the second rookie in NFL history to post four 300-yard games in a season. You know who the first was: Manning, 1998.

Even Wayne, though, can be prodded to compare. In the Manning offense, the quarterback rarely used big scrambles to improvise on broken plays. Wayne has been so impressed that Luck does this on a regular basis. It's one way he'll create his own identity.

"That's why he was the first player taken in the draft," Wayne says. "He's special."

There is no second-guessing the Colts for taking Luck over Robert Griffin III. As it stands now, it appears they could not have missed with either one.

Yet it seems a bit weird that through the first half of the season, Griffin III has generated a lot more buzz while his team sputters at 3-6. The Colts (5-3) would be in the playoffs if the season ended today.

And just think: Luck is getting better by the week.

"Well, he finally hit a deep ball," said Arians, who also coached Manning and Ben Roethlisberger as rookies. "We've been close, under-throwing and over-throwing, but we hit a big one today. Two of them."

Arians harped all week about the need to get chunk plays against Miami.

And he has been preaching about third-down conversions.

"We need him out there chasing Ben for that completion percentage record on third down," Arians said. "Early in the season, we weren't there quite enough."

The messages are surely sinking in.