He gave his all

Freeney insisted he play to the end without a painkilling injection.

"Hats off to Dwight. He's a warrior, that guy, the pain you could see he was in all night," Colts defensive tackle Dan Muir said. "For him to come out and play the way he did, you can't ask for no more from him. He's a warrior."

While there was some grimacing in pregame warm-ups, the Colts' franchise leader in sacks with 84 showed he could play just two weeks after a fateful misstep in the AFC Championship Game.

"Once I got on the field and was running around, I knew I was going to be fine," Freeney said.

His sack forced the Saints to settle for a field goal, their first points. Then the defense came up with a goal-line stand to preserve a touchdown lead. At halftime, the Colts led 10-6.

But Freeney's ankle stiffened at the break. He wasn't going to be able to move as well. He ran on the sideline to try to loosen it up. The ankle was re-taped. It was too tight. It was re-taped again.
"He was effective early on," Colts coach Jim Caldwell said. "It was a gallant effort on his part."

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Titanic Performance
written by Chip Bennett, February 08, 2010

Hard to believe that he played that well, for that long, without taking the shot.

What a monster of a game, by a beast of a player, to gut out that performance through the pain.

...
written by ColtsHeadBen, February 08, 2010

Another blown coaching call for Caldwell.

You know freeney only has a good half in him, so you make that the f**king second half.

@ColtsHeadBen
written by Bob M, February 09, 2010

I think we only know he was good for a half in retrospect.

After a few plays, I assumed he had taken shots and would again at the half--turns out he did neither. Maybe Caldwell could have strong-armed him into shots at halftime (which would violate a lot of work-place laws, I am sure); it might have provided us the margin.

I don't think you hold him out for the first half--if he stiffened up over the 30-minute half (as the announcers accurately predicted--and the onside kick worsened that factor by putting us on D sooner than expected), don't you think he'd be stiffer after sitting for the first half + halftime (about 90 minutes)?

I THINK they played him right, with the possible exception of pain-killers at the half. Clearly he was not the same beast as the game ended. I'd like to say "but with those short drops, it might not have mattered" but there were at least 3 plays where we had everyone covered and Brees had about 5-6 seconds to find his check-down guy. Which of course he did. grrrr. A fully healthy 93 on those plays COULD have made the difference.

This hurts, but not as much as the Pittsburgh playoff loss 4 years ago.

Next year....