Colts: just want to reiterate
Colts fans have to be happy with today's win. Manning is going to have off days rarely, but to know they can pull off the victory in the midst of that against a very tough Jags squad means they're growing up. And the nature of their playcalling (i.e. the completely unexpected draw to Carthon to score the winning TD) indicates to me the same thing would've happened had the game been played in Jacksonville.
posted by Publius @ 2:45 PM
2 Comments:
But Manning will have plenty of off-days against top defenses--in fact, he almost always plays poorly when he has to face a good defense and the Colts NEVER EVER adjust their playcalling to try and minimize the damage Manning can cause in these games--so wins like this one and the one last week are huge because they'll absolutely run into a good defense in the playoffs.
Here's a memo to Dungy and Tom Moore: when you face a good defense in January, forget about Peyton's ego and turn it into a clock/ground game by using Edge 25-30 times beginning on the very first series. Today's game should have proved to them that they can win like that.
Yes, I agree entirely with your now long-held notion that Edge is the key to that offense - as you noted in the past, even Ray Lewis made that point to the ESPN SNF crew before their game two weeks ago.
That said though, I think over the last couple years, it's tough to say Manning has really had a lousy day against anyone other than the Pats, until yesterday.
And I'm with you that the Colts have to be thrilled that they won the game in that fashion. PM probably grew up a lot more yesterday than he has in the last couple years combined simply because he knew on that last drive that he needed to be handing the ball off to EJ in order for them to win. He's getting comfortable not having to win the games by himself now, and shelving the ego for the team to have its best chance.
This will make this year's Pats game all the more interesting.
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