I have just called myself for a third false start penalty as I try to write the opening to this post - because I just don’t have a clue what I want to say about the game today. Actually, that’s not entirely true - I just can’t make up my mind as to how I want to treat the Dominic Rhodes thing. I suppose I’ll just get to it when I get to it.
Something I definitely want to draw attention to is the fact that the defense did not give up a touchdown today; and, right up to the Ben Utecht fumble at the end of the first half, which came at an absolutely heartbreaking moment during what had been a very well run two-minute drill, the run defense was actually looking like it had made some strides, both in terms of closing on the ball and making tackles that the runningback could not break.
For your consideration - the Colts gave up 111 yards on 31 carries today, for a 3.6 yards per carry average that is well below their 5.1 yards per carry average for the year so far. The 111 for the game is also well below their 165.4 average for the year. The pass defense was even better, giving up a scant 51 yards, a whopping 120 yards better than their 171.8 yards per game average so far this year. Thus...the Colts defense gave up a grand total of 162 yards, which is 175 yards less than their per game average this season.
And yes, I’ll grant you that they were playing the hapless Buffalo Bills, whose 250.5 yards per game of total offense is good enough for 30th in the league—and the game was in the Hoosier Dome. Nevertheless, you rarely hear people talk about how a bad defense is going to turn its season around when a team with a bad offense comes up on the schedule; the way you hear it is the other way around, and even more so when the team with the bad offense is used to playing in the cold in Buffalo and comes into the 72˚ Hoosier Dome. But that’s not what happened today in the Dome.
What happened today in the Dome was that the Colts defense shut a team down for the first time this year and held them to three field goals. The problem is that the performance by the defense is going to be overshadowed by the two fumbles committed by the team that was second in turnover differential going into this game at plus-10. Only Baltimore, at plus-14, was better than the Colts.
Late in the first half, Ben Utecht fumbled as he went down on a play in the aforementioned two-minute drill. Up to that point in the drive, the Colts had been moving the ball well and were looking at a touchdown that would have put them up 17-3 and getting the ball back to start the second half. Instead, Utecht lost the ball and Terrence McGee picked it up and ran it back 67 yards for a Buffalo touchdown that tied the game at 10 and brought a hush to the sellout crowd at the Hoosier Dome. Momentum - gone. The only upside was that the Colts were getting the ball back in the second half, and the most consistent thing about the team so far this year, apart from the play of Manning, has been the adjustments they make at halftime to come out more complete and ready to win in the third quarter.
The Rhodes fumble late in the game was almost another story altogether. Butterfingers was stripped of the ball near midfield, and the Bills wasted little time in setting themselves up for a field goal attempt that, if good, would have given them a 19-17 lead with seven or eight minutes left. And then Dwight Freeney got his first full sack of the season, dropping Buffalo quarterback J.P. Losman for a 7-yard loss that made the field goal attempt long enough that Rian Lindell missed it. Shanked it, in fact. It left his foot and looked like a home run for about half a second before it angled wide right like someone had popped a thumb up its ass.
Oh, man...I almost went down to the basement to look for the tar and feathers, although I think we are out. Apart from the fumble, Rhodes actually had an okay day (14 carries for 72 yards and a decent 5.1 yards per carry - not bad at all, really, until you look at Addai’s line, which was 13 carries for 78 yards, a 6.0 average, and a touchdown). But it’s those fumbles that worry me. Dominic Rhodes is this season’s tragedy waiting to happen - he’s the fumble in the AFC title game that will let Denver or New England or San Diego get back into a game the Colts were getting ready to salt away. I know Rhodes had a monster season in 2001 after the eventually-Cardinal-to-be blew out his knee - I picked him up off of waivers for my fantasy team the very day he helped the Colts beat Kansas City - but seriously, D...what have you done for me lately, apart from hand the ball off to the guys in the jerseys that don’t look like yours? I don’t think he should be getting paid for that. In fact...I think he should have to pay a New Stadium fine for every fucking fumble he has this year. Hell, make it a retroactive fine to when he joined the team. Cut the uninformed taxpayers some kind of break so they quit bitching that it’s the stadium’s fault that crime is going up in the city.
The Colts are the first team ever to open two consecutive seasons by going 9-0, and that’s a nice thing to have done and all, and I like that we haven’t lost a game - but it’s probably going to happen at some point. And if it’s practically impossible to go 16-0 in the modern NFL, just how hard do you think it’s going to be to go 19-0 in the modern NFL? There are no comebacks in the playoffs - you can’t lose a game, shake it off, learn from your mistakes, maybe call home to mom for a hug over the phone, and then go back and make it right in the next game.
It’s one and done in the playoffs, and that means that it comes down to teams with heart and fire and drive - teams that don’t come out flat and stinking the place up in the first quarter, only to fix those mistakes later and then roll to victory. And quite honestly, that’s the only flaw with this team - that they let the other team come out and dictate the terms of the game. Now, someone with a more optimistic outlook might think of that as “luring the other team into our trap,” and that’s fine - that may even be what they’re doing.
But the Chargers are lurking out there with big, scary traps of their own...LaDanian Tomlinson ran 22 times for 104 yards and FOUR TOUCHDOWNS this afternoon, as the Chargers put up 49 points on Cincinnati to go 7-2. And even though the Bengals are having what can only be thought of as a rough season so far, they still have a high-octane offense that put up 41 points against San Diego. The Bengals really have to be hating that, because those 41 points would have been good enough for a win against ANY other team that played today, including the Colts and the Bears, who had a monster second half and slaughtered the New York Football Giants in a match-up that might come around again in the playoffs.
The cream of the NFL crop are beginning to bare their teeth, as the second half of the season gets under way and teams start to think about the playoffs and how deep they can go in those playoffs. Here are my top five teams in the league right now. All five are complete, dangerous teams that should contend for their conference’s championship.
5. NYG - You could probably argue that Baltimore, with a better record, should be in this list ahead of the Giants; but the Giants have had a tougher schedule, and Eli is looking more and more like his big brother - his drop into the pocket and quick release are almost identical to Peyton’s, and the Giants are using the stretch play to great advantage with Tiki Barber in the backfield. Their monster schedule is a lot easier from here on out, and if they get healthy on defense, the Giants are going to into the playoffs with a full head of steam.
4. Denver - The Broncos have been consistently good all year, but that might not cut it in the second half of the season; unfortunately for the Broncos, a bizarre scheduling quirk has them playing San Diego twice in the next four games, and San Diego is heating up faster than any team in the league. The Bronco offense will have to step up huge in the next few weeks, or they might find themselves on the outside of the playoff picture, looking in.
3. Chicago - If Dominic Rhodes is the Colts disaster waiting to happen, then Rex Grossman is Chicago’s. When he’s on, this team is nigh on impossible to beat. But when his concentration slips, the Bears have a tendency to collapse - and if that happens in the playoffs, it’s all over.
2. San Diego - Just as dangerous as the Colts, and getting hot at the right time. Apart from the two Denver games, the schedule is cake from here on in - they finish at home against Arizona (albeit in a game that won’t matter if they beat Denver both times). If they roll into the playoffs as hot as they are right now, they’ll find a way to beat the Colts.
1. Indianapolis - Peyton Manning is the smartest player in the league, but conservative coaching keeps them from foaming at the mouth when they come out of the gate. I have them over San Diego only because they haven’t lost yet. The schedule is light from here on out, and they’ll have to work hard to keep from looking ahead to the playoffs; but until they can start doing in the first quarter what they have been very good at doing in the third quarter - crushing the hope of their opponent - then this is a team that’s asking for trouble. Of the five teams on this list, these guys are the most likely to make an improbably early exit from the playoffs.
And finally, I’m going to complain a bit about the television commentators this afternoon - Dick Enberg and, I think, Boomer Esiason. Enberg has been broadcasting games for something like 132 years now, and should have learned a few things in that time. One of those things is that a stretch play is not the same thing as a draw. Boomer corrected him, sort of, and called the play, which was to Joseph Addai at some point in the first half, though I don’t recall precisely when, a “mini-stretch play.” I guess that was closer, except that the play was still a draw and Boomer - who has run a few of them in his life, I suspect - still didn’t see it for what it was. Enberg at one point also referred to the sellout crowd of 55,000 at the Hoosier Dome. Okay. Yeah, except the Hoosier Dome holds a shade over 57,000 for Colts home games. Probably that’s in a media guide somewhere. Maybe we should messenger one of those over to Enberg. Toward the end of the game he referred to the team as the Baltimore Colts - which they haven’t been for twenty-two years now.
I’m used to listening to Bob Lamey call the game on radio, since I am at work for most of these affairs; and even though Bob Lamey can be awfully negative at times, spying out doom and defeat around a corner where neither lurk, he’s a lot of fun to listen to when things go well for the Colts, and he knows the team well, knows their history well, and so knows what he’s talking about when he calls the game.
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