2007 AFC Champions (Part 2)

Scott has an excellent blog on the AFC title game, over at Scoot’s Random Thoughts - he makes a good case for Manning as the player of the game, and points out a number of aspects about the game that I did not mention in my post. The long and the short of it is that if you think my posts on the Colts are, um...thorough...then you should definitely check out Scott’s posts.

What follows here started out as a comment to Scott’s post about the game, but, as per my usual, I got wordy - so I elected to post it in the Blog-O-Rama. I also did that as a way to shamelessly plug Scott’s blog for the sports fans out there who might not have wandered into Scott’s part of the world just yet.

I noted in my post that I thought Manning had not had a particularly good game, and that the Colts, for most of the first half, looked the way they always look in the playoffs - like kids who are about to have their lunch money stolen on the playground. However, I would like to make it clear that I was not thrashing Manning in particular when I said that Dallas Clark deserved the game ball. Manning, of course, is the bedrock foundation of the offense - he says let there be catches, and there are catches. And he sees that it is good. And so on. As goes Manning, so goes the Colts offense.

I think that Clark gets the game ball because he was the one who finally stepped up and started making the plays that Manning was putting out there. Prior to that, the Patriot secondary was making the plays - and they were just sick. There's no other word. The New England secondary is so good that they should have to play with some sort of handicap, just to even the score. My suggestion would be gravity boots.

Anyway, Clark was the one, I think, who really got the Colts fired up on offense - in part because of his catches, and in part because of his infectious spirit. I don't think there is another receiver in the league who is as excited when he catches a ball as Dallas Clark is - and the team feeds off of that. They needed not only the important completions, but also the spark, the fire, that Clark brings.

Up until their second field goal drive at the end of the first half, however, there was no spark - and that's why it's hard for me to call this a great game for the Colts. A great WIN, yes - but maybe not a great game.

The Colts did regroup nicely, as they always do. And yet, I see this as something of a negative - a result of the flawed Tony Dungy game plan. Said game plan, as I see it, is:

1. Win the toss.
2. Score quickly and intimidate other team into going vertical before they wanted to, thereby letting the Colts Cover 2 defense do its stuff.

Things get more complicated when the Colts do not win the toss - and they of course have no control over the coin. This means that the Dungy game plan comes down, in large part, to luck.

There are only so many days in a week, and so many dollars underneath the salary cap. Paying for the offense and perfecting the Cover 2 use up much of that resource base, which leaves the run defense high and dry - especially when you have a good linebacker fire sale every off-season.

What is most frustrating about it is that the run defense still has good personnel and can play well. They just don't (always) - and the breakdown between what they CAN do and what they DO do is a huge vulnerability. It isn't just Manning who gets rattled when the offense isn't firing or when he throws a pick - that affects the confidence of the run defense, too, becuase it shifts to them a burden they haven't trained themselves to carry. I suspect that the guys in the run defense feel slighted by the coaches and management, too, with all of the attention paid in practice and during the off-season to the offense and the guys who make up the Cover 2.

Yes, the Colts can - have generally always been able to - recover well at halftime (this year’s road divison games being notable exceptions); it concerns me that a team as loaded with talent as the Colts so frequently has to go back to the locker room and regroup.

I will readily admit that I may, in fact, be too critical of the Colts - but it’s very difficult to watch/listen to this team when they play poorly, because they have so much talent. It would be one thing if this were the Detroit Lions or the Arizona Cardinals. Those are not good teams - they aren’t even close. The Colts are a good team - in fact, they are a great team. They are loaded with talent at every position, and have some of the best guys in the league at quarterback, runningback, wide receiver, center, defensive end, free safety, punter, kicker, and return specialist. They have the best offensive coordinator in football, and one of the best head coaches. Apart from the fact that the run defense does not play well consistently, this is a team with few flaws.

The mark of a great team is not just that it plays well when it is supposed to, under ideal circumstances - it is also that the team plays well under adverse conditions, in hostile territory, and sometimes without key personnel due to injuries. Being able to regroup when things go wrong is a necessary part of every coach’s preparation, but for a team as good as the Colts, it concerns me that they have to rely on that part of the game plan as often as they do.