| Anthony Holds. 4th November, 2008 - 7:25 pm
 On Sunday evening, in front of a national television audience, the Indianapolis Colts faced their decade-long nemesis, the New England Patriots. Unlike other years, though, it wasn’t a contest to decide who would suffer their first loss or who would be considered the frontrunner in the AFC coming out of the game. It was more of a fight for survival – especially for the Colts.
Having won at least seven consecutive games to start each season for the last three years, standing at 3-4 coming in was unexplored territory for Indianapolis. And it was clear that, while not a mathematical necessity, a home win over the Patriots was a veritable must-have in the AFC playoff race. Lose, and there would have been a need to go at least 7-1 in the second half of the season to have a shot at making the playoffs – a razor-thin margin of error.
But thanks to Adam Vinatieri’s 52-yard fourth quarter field goal (his first over 50 yards in 91 regular season games), the Colts managed to pull out a methodical 18-15 win and keep their playoff hopes alive. With their most consistent and mistake-free effort of the season, they raised their record to 4-4 at the halfway point of the 2008 season and placed themselves in the middle of the pack of playoff contenders in the AFC.
Only Tennessee, at 8-0, seems out of reach.
Indianapolis will have another chance to gain ground this coming Sunday, when they visit 6-2 Pittsburgh. A win there could give a huge boost to the Colts going into the stretch run. Tough games against a rejuvenated Houston Texans' squad and the desperate San Diego Chargers will follow. If the Colts can win two, or even all three of those games, they should be in decent shape heading into their last five contests.
After a road game at Cleveland, they play three of their last four at Lucas Oil Stadium, including games against lowly Cincinnati and Detroit and a closing contest against a Titans' team that may well have clinched their playoff seeding by that time and will be resting key players.
In short, though, things are pretty simple: they need to string some wins together.
How does it look for this team and their ability to do that? As it’s been all season for the Colts, things are a little hard to predict.
Some of their season-long problems definitely remain. The running game has showed some signs of life over the past several weeks but never hit full-tilt before stumbling again (with only 47 yards rushing on a pathetic 2.2 yards-per-carry) against New England on Sunday night.
The 70.1 yards-per-game the Colts’ ground attack has generated has been dead last in the league all season long. This has, of course, contributed to the less efficient and effective performance of Peyton Manning and his receivers,in that it has rendered play-action passing plays far less effective than they have been in previous seasons.
On defense, there is still a general problem with getting off the field on third down. It was blamed entirely on the run defense early in the campaign, but over the last month a larger problem has been giving up first down pass plays in third-and-long situations. This is largely attributed to injuries in the secondary.
Starting cornerback Kelvin Hayden has been out since the fourth game of the season with a knee injury, and of course, All-Pro Bob Sanders has been gone although he finally returned (to positive effect) on Sunday.
Hayden should also be back against Pittsburgh, but more bad news came last week when it was learned that the other starting cornerback Marlin Jackson would miss the rest of the season with a knee injury suffered during practice last Wednesday.
With reserve cornerback Dante Hughes out with a foot and ankle injury against New England as well, the Colts were actually forced to start Keiwan Ratliff, who’d been picked up off waivers (he had been cut and re-signed by the Colts twice this year) during the week. Clearly, the health of Hayden and Hughes will be important if this first key win is to swell into a wave of hope for the team because the Manning-led offense must be given time to mount drives and score points.
Positives include steadily improving their pass protection from an increasingly healthy and cohesive young line. This is a must for Manning and his receivers to continue getting on the same page. Their connection was much sharper against the Patriots, but fans are hesitant to declare that all is well given that most of us already prematurely gave that diagnosis following the Baltimore victory three-and-a-half weeks ago only to see the situation become dicey again in losses against Green Bay and Tennessee.
Nonetheless, Manning looked accurate and made good decisions against New England’s defense, steadily taking what they gave him and not forcing the offense. That will certainly have to continue against the Steelers, who possess the NFL’s top statistical defense and made Jason Campbell, Clinton Portis, and the Redskins' offense look positively hapless on Monday night in Washington.
Another positive was the way the team bounced back from two disappointing losses. Regardless of the unspectacular nature of the win, the disciplined manner in which the team pulled it off showed the kind of calm, confident focus that has been the team’s hallmark under coach Tony Dungy. The most symptomatic stat here is probably penalties.
In the last two games, the Colts have committed a very manageable total of six penalties for 35 yards in losses. This represents a very encouraging trend after the two previous games, in which the Colts had generated a stunning 23 for 194 yards in losses and sparked talk that the team was starting to tune Dungy out.
We will know more of where this team is headed around about 7:30 pm eastern time this coming Sunday. A Colts' win, coupled with their victory against New England, would represent two straight impressive outcomes against probable playoff teams and the start of what could be a vitally important streak.
A loss, and their playoff hopes will once again be on life support. |
