FO's audibles

One of my favorite parts of the week is reading the footballoutsiders audibles column. It's basically an email exchange among the writers commenting on the games as they go along. This week there are two Colts games covered. They had the Bears game and the Lions game on this week's column.

Statements like this:

There was a pass here where Marvin Harrison ran a simple curl route and came to a complete stop. Peyton began his throwing motion and the defensive back began to close in. As Peyton’s arm hit its highest point, Harrison suddenly cut to the outside. It looked like complete miscommunication that would lead to an easy pick for the defender, but in fact Harrison and Manning were in total sync. Manning was aiming for the outside all along, Harrison was right there to catch the pass and the defender was left guarding a curl route that wasn’t there and a ball that would never arrive. It was just a little eight-yard play in a meaningless game, but it reminded me how special these guys are and how, even after the Super Bowl win, it’s easy to take them for granted.

get me fired up for this season. 18 to 88 really is an amazing thing to behold.

Demond Sanders' Comments: The FO guys seem to have questions about Ugoh. I guess I need to rewatch the tape (yeah, right) to get a better feel for how he played. I just keep thinking about how easy they made it look in scoring 21 points. The question is what happens when they play against a great defense. Realistically, you can't get into third and long against the San Diegos of the league and expect to pull completions out of your rear every time. That said, it seems the strength of Indy's O alone is going to once again be sufficient to beat two-thirds of the league. And that's all that matters.