The Colts’ special teams let them down, allowing the Chargers to score two touchdowns. Then the Colts almost come back but can’t quite pull it off. At the end of the game, they got their first down 10 seconds too late. Had it happened with more than two minutes left, they could have run down the clock, kicked the field goal from close and won the game without giving the ball back to San Diego. The Chargers had used their challenges and couldn’t have challenged the spot. Instead, the officials chose to review the spot; set Indy back a few inches depriving them of the first down. Then, the officiating crew called a phantom false start on the offense. Oh, and let’s not forget the “inadvertent whistle” that deprived the Colts of something like an 80 or 90 yard interception return.
The Colts offense is held together with spit and baling wire at this point, and they still almost won. God I’m pissed right now.
What was wrong with Adam Vinatieri?
I agree on the bad calls (and the whistle that took away the run-back to the 6 yard line after the recovered fumble).
However, when Manning throws 6 passes to the Chargers (yeah, the last one shouldn’t count), you can’t expect a win.
Vinatieri’s suspect at this point. He missed a field goal last year at Tennessee that was certainly makeable. He’s starting to miss kicks in bunches this year.
It’s one thing when the guy with “ice water in his veins” starts missing the close-range kicks. His head’s not on straight, and that can be fixed. He’s been a great mental kicker before and can be again. But his range isn’t what you would want if your team might need a 46-52 yarder in the future. There are a few kickers in the league making those kicks. Our guy isn’t. He also can’t do much with the kickoffs.
Probably better grab a kicker in the later rounds of next year’s draft.
As far as the officiating–it sucks. It’s strange that they can make an 80 yard gaffe or whatever it was, but they can bust out the ruler and subtract 6 inches or so when necessary.
The injuries are a problem. We’re still playing for a homefield playoff game, but otherwise we’re pretty set if we can keep rotating fresh bodies in and get some of the old ones to heal.
For whatever reason (probably a combination of the rain and Adam’s recent misses) I had zero confidence that he was going to make it. On the other hand, we got through what looked in the preseason to be the toughest stretch on the schedule. Our three remaining road games are against losing teams: Baltimore, Atlanta, and Oakland. I still think the Colts will do no worse than 13-3 and will grab the #2 seed, and we would have taken that before the season. If we can get healthy by January, anything can happen.
I couldn’t believe the game last night. After the first half I thought WOW their kick some (well I don’t have to finish that). Watching them come back in the second half was awesome. Who called for the review of the ball placement, SD was out of time outs, and couldn’t challenge because it was under 2 minutes. Why would the officials upstairs care about ball placement? Getting the spot of the ball on the correct yard line and yet all the angles were not on the six so each one of them had a different spot. Then “Money” steps up to hit a chip shot and I am thinking where is AV because it looked a lot like Mike kicking for Indy again. It looks like “money” has been “changed”.
It’s also clear that the offensive shifts prior to the phantom penalty were intended to draw the defense offsides. They called “simulating the snap” rather than “false start”. Yet nothing about the shift was illegal. If “simulating the snap” is really not allowed, you just made all pre-snap utterances by the QB–other than “Hike!”–illegal.
What happen to the receiver that holds Purdue’s record for recptions? I thought he played well in pre-season and the Colts kept him on the practice squad. His name is Sandeford ( ???? spelling).
Yes, simulating the snap (which refers to the actual motion of the snap, not “snap count”) is illegal–as it should be, because the snap motion is what signals to the defense that the play has started and they’re permitted to enter the neutral zone.
But that didn’t happen in the San Diego game. It was just a horrible call.