Wow! Talk about your stingy Colts defenses. That was one of the most thorough defensive performances in a playoff game, ever. Holding the league’s second best running back to 32 yards. Holding a team to 0 (that’s right, ZERO) first downs in the first half (and through most of the 3rd quarter as well, I believe.) The Colts winning handily despite Manning throwing 3 interceptions. Nice to see.
I’m not going to plan the Super Bowl party quite yet. During the second half of the season, the Colts couldn’t win on the road. Hopefully they’ll get a whole earful of “can’t win on the road” so that they’ll be as pissed off going into Baltimore as our defense was coming into the Chiefs game. I’m not surprised we won, particularly. I’m surprised at how we won.
Great job by Colts defense and special teams who held Dante Hall down.Now can they do it on the road?Manning MUST play better in Baltimore and although completing 30 of 38 passes is great he can`t have 3 interceptions against Baltimore who has the best defense in the NFL.
I’ll have to see more to be convinced the Colts have fixed their defensive woes.At home they(defense) have been somewhat better although not as good as yesterday
I ran the numbers a few days ago, and they were still giving up about 150 yards per game on the ground, so yesterday’s performance was still a couple orders of magnitude better than their regular season home performance. But, still, I agree that doing it on the road will be different.
Baltimore has an outdoor stadium, correct? I checked the weather and the extended forecast suggests warm but rainy next Saturday. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Ravens went ahead and added a little “extra” rain to the field.
Maybe the Patriots will loan their old groundskeeper to the Ravens.
Yesterday’s win wasn’t all that surprising. Whenever a team “can’t win”, as we heard all week, they tend to do well. A lot of the analysts must have remembered other “can’t win” teams in the past, because they had reeled themselves in by the time pre-game rolled around and were picking the Colts.
One “feature” of Peyton’s game that he needs to lose quick is that tendency to throw to the running back when he’s standing amongst the opposing linemen. A few times yesterday, he either threw to the middle of the opposing line or just over them for very short gains, or for losses. Same issue with some of his screen passes yesterday. Baltimore has a historically athletic line and linebackers, and will just reach out and snatch those little babies right out of the air. It isn’t worth the risk for the small gain that might be made.
Otherwise, I like our chances if Peyton and the offense are able to communicate and bring a few new wrinkles, if the O line can defend, and if our defense shows up like yesterday.
Generally speaking, I like our chances against a great defense/mediocre offense better than against a great offense/mediocre defense. Our offense is better able to cope with a great defense than our defense is able to cope with a great offense.
Anyway, we’d exorcise a lot of demons if we could take the Colts to Baltimore and beat them, then have the Patriots in the AFC Championship and beat them, and then get Peyton a Super Bowl. But, if that happen, what the hell would the commentariat bag on the Colts for in the future?
Well, the only numbers the Chief’s offense put up yesterday came after the game was effectively over. The Colt’s D held one of the league’s best runners to next to nothing. That was the best Colts game I have seen for the last 2 years.
Yesterday did *nothing* to dispel Payton’s playoff curse story line.
No, and I think it is just going to add fuel to it. Three in one game? Wasn’t it like 1 every 3 games or so at the start of the season? 3 in one game? They’re going to be rubbing his nose in that all the way to the bowl if the Colts make it there.
Maybe I am being a Pollyanna, but I think it is important to the Manning playoff monkey in an important respect. There had been nine previous Colt playoff games in the Manning era. The Colts had won only three before Saturday: the 2003 and 2004 home games against Denver and the 2003 game in Kansas City. In each of those three games, Manning was nearly perfect. In most of the losses, he was off to varying degrees. Saturday’s game was an important game because it was the first time the Colts had won a playoff game with a less-than-stellar performance from Peyton. That doesn’t mean we are going to win in Baltimore, but I do think it is progress and that it will take a bit of the pressure off.
Beating an opponent who plays to your season-long weaknesses beats having a bye in my mind. I’m hoping Baltimore has the same rust we’re usually afflicted with due to sitting out the first week of the playoffs.
This week, we’ll have the annoying “Team returns to the city whose heart it ripped out by leaving town” storyline. They’ve ONLY been in Indy about a quarter of a century, you know. Hopefully Al Michaels won’t be announcing, or any of the others who accidentally still call us the Baltimore Colts from time to time.
Is Addai still healthy? Never heard much after his injury late in the game.
T, I couldn’t agree more. What do the Rams, the Raiders, the Titans, the Chargers, the football Cardinals, the Athletics, the Braves, the Dodgers, the baseball Giants, the Warriors, the Hawks, the Hornets, the Grizzlies, the Jazz the Lakers, and the Kings have in common? They all moved cities and kept (or retired) their nicknames. I do feel for the people of Baltimore, and don’t blame them for being upset about the loss. On the other hand, for some reason, the Colts seem to get way more bad publicity on this point than any other franchise that has moved. I realize that part of the bitterness is that the Colts kept the nickname and the records when they moved. It probably would have been better for both cities if Irsay had left all of those things, like Modell’s franchise did when they became the Ravens. But as the above list makes clear, such decisions are the exception rather than the rule. I don’t know that anyone really thought of it at the time. When Baltimore stole Browns 1.0, they asked Irsay for the Colts’ identity and were aghast at the amount of money he wanted. Of course, by that time the Indianapolis Colts had existed for over a decade and had built some sort of identity here. Indeed, I can’t remember another NFL franchise move in which the team’s identity was left for a later franchise. The worst has to be Bud Adams, who kept the Oilers nickname and records but retired it.
The vivid image of the Mayflower trucks pulling out in the dark of night is one of the reasons this still has currency. Even the Brooklyn Dodgers don’t have such imagery. Again, I sympathize with the people of Baltimore. I would be devastated if the Colts lost. But they do now have a team, a beautiful new stadium, and a Super Bowl cahmpionship. It’s a shame they can’t just enjoy it. And, I do have to admit that my evil side is looking forward to 2015, when we can say, “suck it, Baltimore! They’ve been here longer than they were there!”