add one more comeback win in 4th Q

I fear that effort will hurt Manning's MVP stock. not that he cares, but as fans, I know we all want to see that.

and was that a legit running game sighting today? I was really disappointed that we didn't see more of it towards the end of the game, especially given the 3 INTs.

big props to the D for the goal line stand. also, I liked Garçon stepping up his game today (any drops?) - I just expect him to take catches like his first one to the house. I can't wait until the offense starts playing with more consistency in general.

This team still looks good, and it's hard to complain about 10-0.

Manning threw 2 ugly INTs in the last two games, and the offense hasn't been dominating for four games already. That worries the hell out of me.

This is 4 straight games where the Colts had a 4th quarter comeback. Does anybody know the NFL record?

Cincy goes down to Oakland - pretty much nail us down as the #2 seed.

RIP 2009 NYJ

didn't fumble at the 1. However, seeing the running game show up, especially against a Ravens defense that is still excellent against the run. Tough game, against a good, desperate team in their building: I'll take it. Pierre Garcon had a great game, not dropping anything major. When Manning is the player that most did not have a great game, I'll be fine. This is a win that we needed, that great teams need (BTW, we now have a 3 game lead over the whole conference) to pull out. Looking forward to the showdown in Reliant.

Chargers still in the #2 seed race. Chargers have Bengals, @Dallas - and 2 bad teams and 2 losing teams left.

We're 7-3, SD is 7-3.

Who would you put your money on to get that bye?

All three have favorable schedules. The Pats have really only one truly tough game left next Monday Night, but its an NFC team, so they will probably end the reg. season with 3 losses, which is what they ALL have right now. The Bengals have a tough @SD and @MIN stretch, but honestly, unless this fumblitis continues, they could win those two.

It will be fun.

I meant to say they all have 3 AFC losses, the first tiebreaker in seeding (after head-to-head, obviously)

I know you guys don't care and it has nothing to do with anything Colts - but there is no feeling like reading the NY Post and the New York Daily News the day after the Jets lose to the Patriots.

It's the little things in life guys. The little things.

football night in america recapping the end of the colts/pats game right now. de de de da da --- I'm lovin' it!

Only November.

Talk to me in Feb.

DZ/others w/game film access: any way to track mason's success rate + yardage when going up against jennings? I remember a key series where jennings went out on 2nd down due to injury, and the D made a stop. Next down, on 3rd an long w/jennings back in on Mason, Flacco converts 1st down to Mason.

It would just be interesting to see. I can't wait for Hayden to get back.

Schedule is a huge part of it. SD's looks somewhat easier than the Pats' - so that is why I think it is a race. Bengals blew it today - they aren't getting a bye.

serious objective feedback, not trying to be 'that guy' - how'd mcgowan do last week? I remember you calling his number, but I don't remember him doing much.

and you going to the game in two weeks?

"I fear that effort will hurt Manning's MVP stock. not that he cares, but as fans, I know we all want to see that."

Doesn't really matter. Manning isn't going to win the MVP unless he goes 15-1 or 16-0. Nothing he does either good or bad will change that. The real issue is whether AP heats up and steals votes away from Favre. #4 is running away with it right now... but Peyton isn't out of the equation as long as the Colts keep winning.

...

Mark Sanchez just threw another pick.

I haven't seen the game a second time, but I remember telling myself in the second quarter "man, Jennings is playing well" until that point. He left a huge cushion on Mason for the rest of the game. It is what it is. He's a fine player, but Powers and Hayden are on another level really. What happened to Lacey? Name wasn't called alot, which is usually a good thing for a DB, but I saw Jennings and Powers as the 2 main CBs most of the time.

NE: @NO, @Mia, Car, @Buf, Jax, @Hou

SD: KC, @Cle, @Dal, Cin, @Ten, Was

SD has the easier schedule. Fewer road games, fewer "tough" games - therefore it is a race for the #2 seed.

McGowan played OK - Wilhite straight up blanketed Reggie Wayne's ass all day.

The two TD catches were about as perfectly thrown as balls could be - he wasn't really open at all the whole game.

Yea I'm going, I actually do some business with OJ McDuffy (as random as that sounds) so we're sitting in his seats.

Colts have won their last four games by: 4 points, 3 points, 1 point, 2 points.

I guess that's why Whitlock and others keep predicting their demise. But someone has to, you know, actually beat them first.

Actually reminds me a bit of the great Pats teams of the early decade. (Puke). Those teams BS'ed their way through the season, winning all the close games. Good defense is the reason.

OJ McDuffy.... LOL. Old school.

and kuharsky made a great point about how the colts haven't been playing their best ball for a solid 4 games now ... and how scary that is for the rest of the league.

seriously. as good as peyton has been, he's also thrown some of the worst INTs I've seen from him. couple that w/some bad WR drops, and that takes a lot of yds/pts of the board. if we correct the simple things, the fundamentals that the Colts are known to focus on ... we could be looking at a completely different team.

Really great to see we have a 3 game lead over everybody in the AFC and that the other top 3 teams have 3 losses in the conference. Great stuff.

I don't know see why anyone should be concerned about our play. If we can get W's while not playing to our full potential, we should have no problem with any team when we're hitting on all cylinders. And I do think we'll get there. We've got some guys about to come back from injuries and our younger players are going to continue to improve as the year goes on. I think we'll be right where we need to be come January. Plus our run game (the O-line in general, really) has been improving each week.

I'm just thankful we're winning while we're getting everything straightened out.

SD will probably get the bye unfortunately.

NE could lose 2/3 or @NO, @MIA, @HOU and will probably lose at least one. Should be

#1 Colts
#2 Bolts
#3 Pats
#4 Cincy

WC Pitt

After that it is so jumbled, I have no idea. Last spot could be Jax, Hou, Miami, Balt. Denver is fraudulent toast IMO.

Winning is everything.

My criteria for improvement: running game, O-line play, and the return of Hayden/Gonzalez. They did well on all fronts this week. So, yeah, I think you have to be pleased right now.

Addai looked like Addai, but the reason is the blocking. They weren't getting pushed around, and often they were doing the pushing. (Although I thought CJ missed a key block on the Santi fumble drive). It's an eyeball thing, which is hard to quantify, but it was there.

No sacks for either team, which was weird.

Also -- Stover kicked the game winner against the team that let him go. Has to feel good.

Because the worst way to end the season is to lose to the Chargers in the opening playoff game for the 3rd year in a row. I don't want any part of that. SD #2, NE #3 - I like the sound of that.

sure looked nice on that TD run. left ray ray looking like a sail in the wind

if San Diego and New England have to battle it out like in 06 and we get the Bengals.

However, that was a flukey loss for the Bengals, and I think they will win that game in San Diego.

I am really scared of SD getting that 4 seed. However, this is a different Colts team (I said this same thing last year, but we are alot more talented this year). They are almost like the 2004 Pats score-wise, winning a bunch of close games and a bunch of blowouts. Of course, statistically it is pretty different, but that was a great team and I'll take those comparisons.

My point has always been this: Why be scared of San Diego? They're all good teams at the top. I'd rather face Norv and Rivers in a heartbeat than Pittsburgh or NE.

Heck, Indy has lost to all of these teams in the playoffs before. Chances are the Colts will have to beat two of the three to go to Miami. Get ready.

but those San Diego games are so agonizing. I respect New England and Pittsburgh (and even Cincy this year), but San Diego is a team that folds in big games, except against us.

is looking for pine time if he keeps this garbage up ... not that I care, except that I've got Olsen and Forte in my fantasy lineup tonight.

JC,
NYC used to have one more tabloid (NY Newsday from Long Island, IIRC) and they, the Post, and the Daily news used to slug it out for outrageous headlines and self-canibalizing attacks on home-town teams (I forget which called Joe Torre "Clueless Joe" when he was hired), so the light is dimmer there than it used to be. Of course little can beat "Prez to NY: Screw You" when federal bailout funds were not forthcoming in the mid-70's fiscal crisis.

Back to the real world, this game was televised in Seattle and my wife's car crapped out on the way to the ski slope, so I actually got to watch the last 3/4. Manning's picks aside, it went more or less according to plan. His picks gave them 6 pts and our D was monstrous in stopping themin the red zone. (Flacco's differential QB rating was something like 14 in the RZ and 120 elsewhere.) I'ma little nervous and was okay losing this one, but as long as we won it, great.

Cinn helped us out, as did KC. Looks like HFA now, as long as we keep winning.

The MVP is now Favre's to lose, folks--he has been insane this season and perfect regular season or not for Manning, (see below) Favre has been better on paper. And at 300 years old, maybe I finally say he deserves it and forgive the Vicodin Kid for stealing it from Harbaugh in 1995. Maybe not.

We will lose one this year and it will be to Tennessee. It just seems right to me. Hou is good, but not good enough. Neither is Tenn, really, but they get lucky, we get unlucky, and any given Sunday.... 15-1--nothing to sneeze at.

More Tom Santi?

He did make the three mistakes, although I'm not sure what he could do about the fumble. The 2TE set definitely had another dimension with him in for Robinson, and made the Ravens pay for spending so much effort on Clark.

Maybe it was just luck, but as I said on the other thread, the 2TE 2WR split left formation was a disaster in every way. To crowded when they tried to run left, the throw to Garcon was bad/covered, the INT was worse, and the end around was in between. Looked like new stuff put in for this game, and it did not work.

Yea it does look like the MVP is in Favre's hands right now. Has he ever had so few INTs? He does have AP to lean on, though, so hopefully the voters keep that in mind. I know it's trivial but I'd really like Manning to get his 4th MVP over Favre this year. Twice getting back to back MVPs would be sweet.

I know I probably sound like a hater but I was so hoping Favre would lay an egg this year. Each year he's making it harder and harder for Manning to pass his records.

/sarcasm

This from Tim Graham's ESPN.com AFCE writeup:
"With 30 seconds left in the game and ahead by 17 points, the New England Patriots tried to deliver a sucker punch.

Tom Brady loaded up and fired a bomb toward Randy Moss down the left sideline. The intention was clear. They wanted to sting New York Jets cornerback Darrelle Revis."

Hey, we're up by 3 scores with 30 seconds left, so here's a giant middle finger we had carved from granite and we're dropping it on your invalid mother's house from a helicopter. Hope she dies a painful death. Why're we doing it? Because we can. Kaboom.

What a bunch of douchebags.

Moss was targeted 11 times and caught 4 balls. 1 TD and one when Revis was not covering him. Yes Welker eviscerated them, but this Revis kid sounds pretty good to me.

That kind of play is where unstable coaches (Cable--who was the old Packers position coach who had bounties on QBs?) and players (Romanowski) decide to go head-hunting. Classlessness aside, this seems seriously stupid to me, putting top-shelf players at risk just because somebody with a grudge and a hard elbow decide that the next tackle should include a shot to the head. (I said the same thing in 2007 til I was blue I the face and it never happened... doesn't mean it won't.)

Also, it s Favre's to lose. I think he will lose it. If you look, I still don't believe in Dallas, but assuming Warner is not hurt, I actually think the Cards can steal that 2 seed. They have a big matchup in the cactus in like three weeks.

Favre is putting up good numbers, but MVP voters don't just look at that, they look at the whole picture. Manning is carrying this team, with a little help from the defense, and is undefeated. Favre has the best back in the league and a great defense, and one loss. Yeah, he's played a tougher schedule, but I still think Manning has the edge right now. Throwing 2 picks to the Ravens is not unheard of. God, if Manning had AP in the backfield, it wouldn't even be close. I don't think voters will overlook that.

I just heard some radio guy say that the Jaguars are an under-rated football team. When you call the Jaguars under-rated, you are over-rating them. Nice win at home over Buffalo, Jacksonville.

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/sagarin/nfl09.htm

Colts have played the 19th hardest schedule. Vikings have played the easiest schedule in the NFL. Saints have played the 2nd easiest schedule in the NFL.

I like the the headline and picture.

Thoughts:

Nice job defense. Linebackers appeared to play a great game. Doesn't it seem like our Dlinemen are keeping our linebackers clean? The young DTs are quietly improving, I believe. Only concern - Freeney is obviously hurting more than he's letting on. He's really dragging that right leg.

Offense looked good other than the turnovers. The Oline is improving, Lilja is playing great and Devan play well. Gonzalez will make a difference. I like the idea of having the flexibility of attacking defenses with either Garcon or Collie in the 3rd receiver roll.

Santi needs to learn to just get down like the veterans. He looked good though. I don't recall him dropping any passes. He showed some run blocking promise as well.

Glad to see Caldwell go for it on fourth down at the 35. Speaking of which, I'm pretty sure Saturday didn't really need to tackle Ngata. I think Addai was going to elude Ngata.

"Manning is carrying this team, with a little help from the defense, and is undefeated."

Eh. I know we are used to saying that, but when you really look at the last month the D was the better unit in three of the four games.

I second that, DS. in fact, I'd say the D has been consistently erasing one or two Manning mistakes per game ... at least for the past couple games.

So no, he's not carrying the team. Really, he's made a handful of uncharacteristic mistakes that we're just not used to. Interesting to read DZ's take on his arm fatigue. The great thing is that when he's on, he's just at another level, even when it's just for two or three drives per game.