Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Road to XLI

I've been watching the Road to XLI DVD set, and it's sort of making me sad. Watching Freeney and McFarland play again is awesome. It's a little hard to accept how amazing this team would have been if they hadn't gotten hurt. I've also noticed how well Keiaho and others played. Seriously, how did anyone who knew anything about football think the Colts were going to miss the Junes and Davids of the world? Marlin Jackson was laying wood. Freddy Keiaho was playing great down near the goal line.

One of the big things that hadn't occurred to me, but now seems obvious is that the Colts have stopped running the stretch play in recent weeks. When both of your tackles are hurt, it's hard to run wide. Last night on his radio show, Polian said that the state of the Colts line had them thinking it would be tough to run against the Raiders, so there's the answer to that question. From what I understood about Ugoh's injury, it had left him without full feeling in his right arm, and that it was going to take some time to get his strength back. That coupled with Charlie Johnson's consistently poor level of play has left the Colts without one of the staples of their offense.

I find it amazing that this collection of fill-ins and undrafted free agents not only has gone 12-2, but is 2 dropped TDs from being undefeated. I still think this is the best team in football, and if not for the injuries we'd be talking about them in historic terms. It's funny how different this year feels from last year. Listening to Collinsworth drone on about the Colts playoff problems was hilarious. The confidence that come from having won is invaluable.

It was also amazing to see how good AV was. I remembered the 5 FGs in Baltimore, but the three at the start of the KC game were huge. His 50 yarder before halftime really lifted the team.

At this point in the season, there isn't much left to talk about. The Colts' situation is simple: get healthy or go home. Fortunately, we have three weeks before our next meaningful game to heal up.

Oh yeah, one more Mitchell report note: isn't it interesting that the only one really denying the allegations is Clemens (oh, and Bonds I suppose)? Meanwhile, a stream of guys come forward and say things like, "Yeah, I bought steroids but...I didn't use them. It was only HGH. I was injured. It was just one time." Sounds like the Mitchell report evidence isn't quite as shaky as some pundits would have liked us to believe.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Speaking of talking heads underestimating the Colts....did you hear Wilbon on PTI yesterday say that he thought Jacksonville was the second best team in the AFC? For piss sake, how many times does Indy need to beat them before people stop saying they're better than the Colts? Three times, I guess, since twice is apparently not enough times.

So they beat Pittsburgh in the snow, whoopdy-do. The Steelers are a horribly average team this year. Wilbon's smokin' crack.

Deshawn Zombie said...

Yeah, check out the comments on yesterday's post for a discussion of Wilbon's insanity. Didn't these teams just play three weeks ago? Didn't Indy just beat them twice in seven weeks? Blech

Bob M. said...

BTW, looking at the playoff alignments, you have to love this. Assuming we go 14-2 (which I don't think will happen, but bear with me) and the seedings stay the same and favorites win, we'd face the only two teams that beat us in the regular season--a great karmic showdown when we're finally healthy (one hopes). First SD at home with an actual competent set of OTs and WRs, then NE in the snow with a healthy Colt team.

Revenge is a dish best served cold--especially if the dish includes a freezing cold Lamar Hunt Trophy standing in the snow and 30 MPH gusts in Foxborough.

Anonymous said...

I have to say that I am consistently amazed by (and grateful for) the lack of coverage regarding how well the Colts are doing in spite of all the challenges this year. Being overlooked isn't a bad thing; I just find it funny.

And Bob, I couldn't agree more. Revenge is best cold. Well said.

Anonymous said...

DZ, don't you mean XLI? Or is this some inside joke I've missed?

Deshawn Zombie said...

No, I'm just an idiot. I'm intent on making the Colts Super Bowl 61 champs and have been for months. I'm surprised you are the only one who said anything. It's supposed to be Demond's job to catch my idiot errors.