The Colts beat the Chiefs by a score of 13 to 10. It’s a lot better than a loss and it goes into the “win” column, and it helps our playoff hopes, but somehow this was about the least satisfying Colts win I’ve seen in awhile. The running game seemed stagnant, receivers were running bad routes and dropping passes, and Manning seemed to be running for his life back in the pocket. Oh, and the Ice Man, Adam Viniateri missed two in a row to compliment the critical ones we missed last week in San Diego.
Our defense was very good, however, and our special teams defense wasn’t as atrocious as normal. About my only complaint with the defense was that, with Dwight Freeney gone, there wasn’t much in the way of pressure on the Chiefs quarterback.
Hopefully we can limp through another win against a below average Atlanta team this coming Thursday and then get a bunch of people healthy in time for Jacksonville’s trip to the Dome on December 2.
The colts should have been auditioning place-kickers last week. It’s not too late to start. Vinatieri’s a proud guy, and no one has better focus. So more than likely it’s a leg problem. We need someone with more than a hope of making it outside 42 yards, and who is automatic from 29. Not usually automatic, or formerly automatic, but automatic in the present and near future.
Otherwise I much enjoyed that idiot Al and his sidekick Madden defending the Patriots for running up the score late in games, and then amazingly criticizing the Bills for trying to score late in the game. It wasn’t as good as idiot Al’s electioneering for Bush during a Colts/Pats game before the 04 election. But still a good effort on his part.
Also, I HATED the decision to kick a field goal at the end. Ideally you would figure out in your mind the odds that you’ll fumble vs. the odds your kicker will miss. I think the odds of a fumble were much less. First and goal from about the three with 90 seconds left, you have got to try to pound that ball in.
Also, after years of watching these Colts, I wish they would learn that four seconds is NOT the right amount of time to have on the clock on 4th down and getting ready to kick the game-winning field goal. It just isn’t. You need one second, two max. But really only one, because it’s the last play. And the game can’t end on a defensive penalty. And any offensive penalty in live action would eat up way more than four seconds. What I see as I look around the league is other teams kicking the field goal as time expires, and our team always having to kick off one more time after the kick–which given our poor special teams play is just a game-losing kickoff return waiting to happen. And if the officials forget to start the clock and the field goal magically only takes a second to transpire, then they get a kickoff AND another play. Just stupid clock management–but we do it in that situation every time. Always four seconds. I just don’t get it.
There was a good deal of grumbling about that call at my house as well. I had a couple of Amy’s cousins watching the game with me, and we were mystified.
With regards to the kick coverage problems: there’s a reason Adam V. kicked it out of bounds on that last kickoff. Sure, they take over at the 40, but the chances were better of the defense stopping them on an offensive desperation play than of the coverage unit stopping a return.