FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – Prior to Thursday night, Anthony Richardson Sr. hadn't had an extended opportunity to play in an NFL game in 362 days.

In between the Colts' second preseason game of 2025 and their preseason opener against the New England Patriots on Thursday at Gillette Stadium, the only game action Richardson saw came toward the end of two blowout wins early in the 2025 season. He was placed on injured reserve last October following a freak pregame accident in which he sustained an eye injury.

And while Richardson's start against the Patriots began in "rocky" fashion, he acknowledged, the 24-year-old bounced back to complete 11 of 14 passes (78.5 percent) for 145 yards with 53 rushing yards on six carries with a touchdown.

"He did a lot of good things," head coach Shane Steichen said. "He threw it well. ... (He) was going to the right spots with the ball."

Richardson found a rhythm in a two-minute series toward the end of the first half, completing three consecutive passes to chew up 50 yards – highlighted by a well-layered sideline ball to tight end Will Mallory. After the two-minute warning, Richardson picked up seven yards on a designed run; two plays later, he plunged a yard into the end zone for the Colts' only touchdown of the night.

Still, Richardson's thoughts after the game went toward a handful of miscues. He threw an interception when a ball slipped through the hands of wide receiver Coleman Owen on the Colts' first possession, and later in the first half he lost a fumble on a scramble.

"I don't even think I played that well, honestly," Richardson said when asked if he thought he proved something against New England. "Fumble, interception early. I got to limit turnovers. You can't win games with multiple turnovers. I don't think I played that well today. It was decent. We moved the ball a little bit, but I think we can definitely improve."

The Colts are currently in a critical stretch of their competition between Richardson and Riley Leonard, who completed 10 of 21 passes for 89 yards with an interception in the second half. They leave Massachusetts with a joint practice and game's worth of film to dissect on Richardson and Leonard; next week, they'll have two joint practices and a preseason game with the Atlanta Falcons in which Leonard will start and play the entire first half.

One data point isn't enough to determine which direction the competition goes, but the larger takeaway here is Richardson found a way to bounce back and get into a rhythm after some early-game hiccups. He played 27 snaps, more than he's played in a preseason or regular season game since Week 16 of the 2024 season.

And while those snaps were far from perfect, they certainly were meaningful for Richardson.

"These past few months just of my life have been, you know, a little weird," Richardson said. "Especially coming back from the eye injury and then not playing football in a long time. So getting back into my groove – it was a little rocky start for me in the beginning. But the guys on the sideline were telling me take the next play, and just go to the next play after that. And we found a way to move the ball and eventually put some points up."