INDIANAPOLIS -- The Dolphins spent the past week trying their best to keep Ryan Tannehill’s status for Sunday a secret.

And even after he played against the Colts — completing 58 percent of his passes for 290 yards and a touchdown — Tannehill was in no mood to discuss his much-scrutinized left knee.

“I made it through,” said Tannehill, who played with a brace. “I think I’ll be all right.”

And when asked if he ever thought he might not start because of the injury — a bone bruise and thigh contusion — the rookie quarterback had a one-word answer:

“No.”

Tannehill probably will go through the week with a whole new batch of aches and pains after the punishment he took Sunday. The Colts’ defensive front sacked him twice and hit him six times in Miami’s 23-20 loss.

“As an offensive line, we got him hit way too much today,” guard Richie Incognito said.

Said receiver Brian Hartline: “I don’t like our quarterback getting touched. But I’m never going to question his toughness.”

Hartline finished the game with 107 yards on eight catches — the third time this year he has gone over 100 yards in a game. Through eight games, Hartline already has set a career high in receiving yards for a season (662).

“I want nothing to do with that,” Hartline said. “We lost the game.”

Special message

Chuck Pagano, the Colts coach who has been away from the game while undergoing treatment for leukemia, attended Sunday’s game and addressed the team both before kickoff and afterward.

“It was a very personal message to the team,” interim coach Bruce Arians said. “He’s about to undertake a very, very serious week of his treatment, but he’ll bounce back. We know he will.”

Arians, on the atmosphere of the game: “Those two teams battling it out, I wouldn’t be surprised to see them back in the playoffs.”

THIS AND THAT

•  Olivier Vernon blocked a field goal for the second week in a row, deflecting Adam Vinatieri’s 54-yard try in the first half. Vernon, the reigning AFC Special Teams Player of the Week, blocked an attempt by the Jets’ Nick Folk a week earlier.

•  Davone Bess, who caught six passes for 67 yards, moved into a tie with Tony Martin for 11th on the team’s all-time receiving yards list (3,152).

• With two field goals and two extra points, Dan Carpenter now has the fifth-most career points in Dolphins history (497).

•  Cameron Wake stripped Andrew Luck on Sunday, giving him 8.5 sacks through the season’s first eight games. Wake’s career high for sacks is 14, set in 2010.

• The Dolphins fell to 38-55 all-time when facing the No. 1 overall pick in the draft.

• Dolphins inactives: Pat Devlin, Richard Marshall, Anderson Russell, Josh Kaddu, Will Yeatman, Tony McDaniel and Michael Egnew.

Russell didn’t play, even though the Dolphins elevated him to the 53 from the practice squad Saturday night, which is often a sign that the team plans to use him in the game.

•  Matt Moore, Sean Smith and Vernon were the Dolphins’ captains.