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Eyes in the Backfield:  Kansas City and Atlanta


Who will have a worse Thursday:  Joey Harrington or this guy?

Simply because we are lazy, we've combined Eyes in the Backfield for the next two games.  It's easy to see them as a unit and a prelude to the big rematch with Jacksonville, so we'll confess that we are indeed guilty of looking ahead just a bit.  This week:

1.)  Watch for Rice-a-roni.  Not to go all Chris Berman on you early, but Simeon Rice should get some very limited playing time in these first two games.  No one is overly optimistic that he’ll contribute much (and certainly not until the long layoff before Jacksonville), but it should be interesting to see what he can do mostly in nickel packages where he can just rush the passer.  More importantly, see if Josh Thomas can continue his solid play this year in an expanded role.  He usually makes a play or two a game as a spot rusher.  He’s the real answer at LDE.

2.)  Watch for draw plays when Rice is in the game.  Long the bane of the Colts existence, Freeney was actually not bad at chasing plays down from behind.  Simeon Rice doesn’t have that same speed anymore.  Defenses might try and take advantage of him to run the ball.

3.)  Watch for Tony Ugoh.  The single biggest reason the Colts lost the last two games is because Tony Ugoh was hurt.  He’s been back at practice this week and should play.  His presence should transform the run game, which has been stuck in neutral for six quarters now.

4.)  Watch for good coaches with bad reps and bad coaches with good reps.  Everyone likes to pile on Herm Edwards for his bizarre statements, but he always seems to put teams in the playoffs.  Meanwhile in Atlanta, Bobby Petrino has a pretty college pedigree which means jack squat in the NFL.  College coaches not named Jimmy Johnson almost always fail in the NFL.  Petrino will be back working in the SEC in about two more seasons.

5.)  Watch for rematches.  The Colts and KC met in the playoffs last year in a game that launched the defense into a new level.  Peyton Manning and Joey Harrington met on Thanksgiving before in a game that saw Peyton throw for six scores.

6.)  Watch for T.J. Rushing.  He was resigned this week after being cut for the Chargers game.  With Tim Jennings and Dante Hughes both not practicing this week, the Colts might have to use Rushing in some nickel and dime packages.  Yikes.

7.)  Watch for the return of Junior Seau Jr.  Colts fans were just falling in love with Freddy Keiaho when a concussion took him out for several games.  He’s back practicing now, so look to see if his presence doesn’t bolster a defense that has been playing with a lot of pride and fight, but is now missing a key leader.

8.)  Watch the game…if you can.  Thursday night’s game will be invisible to most of the country.  Unless you live in the greater Indy area or have the NFL network via a dish, you won’t get to see the game.  This is a real blow to the Colts who are trying to establish a state-wide fan base, but won’t be able to be seen by thousands of Hoosiers.  Coupled with the fight over the Big 10 network, the government is starting to take notice, meanwhile, Comcast still hasn’t responded to our email…

9.)  Watch the league weep.  Instead of a key matchup between two contending teams lead by marquee quarterbacks Manning and Vick, they get to show a potential laugher.  It remains to be seen whether Vick’s name is even tangentially referred to in the league sponsored telecast.

10.)  Watch the returner’s back…as he sets sail down the sidelines.  According to footballoutsiders.com, Sunday night’s performance was the second worst special teams game in the last 12 years with two kicks run back and two field goals missed.  We could write this every week, but frankly it gets old.

11.)  Watch the Priest on Sunday.  With star running back Larry Johnson still out, the Chiefs will start Priest Holmes on Sunday.  His comeback is sort of miraculous, but really doesn’t ascend to the level of transubstantiation.

12.)  Watch Adam Vinatieri hit every kick the rest of the season.  Or heads will roll.

13.)  Watch for improvement from the receiving corps.  If the theory that Manning doesn’t need great WRs, just practice time with any WRs is true, we should start to see some improvement over the next couple of games, although the real test would be what happens after 10 days off.  Aaron Morehead is playing for his NFL career at this point and ought to be sufficiently motivated.  Couple this with the return of Dallas Clark, and the passing game should hum a little more than week

14.)  Watch for endless replays of Peyton’s six picks from last week.  It will continue to be mentioned by every pregame and postgame highlight package, as well as during the games.  If he throws a TD, they’ll say, “Wow, that wasn’t like last week.”  If he throws a pick, you’ll see stats about how many ints he’s thrown in his last 5 quarters.  This will continue well into Thursday game, but should die there.

15.)  Watch the ISHAA State finals.  #1 Pike has chance to capture their first 5A championship in football.  Just thought I’d mention it.  

16.)  Watch for desperation.  The Falcons season isn’t lost yet; the Chiefs are fighting to stay in the division race, and the Colts really need a pair of wins to get back on track.  Bill Parcels once said that in football the more desperate team usually wins.  It’s hard to know who that is in these games.  

17.)  Watch for turkey.  Apparently, in an effort to be more animal friendly, the Atlanta Falcons have agreed to set up a wild game preserve in the bowls of the Georgia Dome.  Hundreds of wild turkeys have taken refuge there in an attempt to avoid the inevitable slaughter that comes every Thanksgiving.  There has been no word on Mike Vick’s involvement with this.

18.)  Watch the Colts quietly move to 9-2.  With two winnable games and most of the country writing them off, the Colts will take advantage of their new found anonymity to seize firm control of their playoff fate.  Going into another huge game with the Jholes, they should take care of business and make for a happy holiday for everyone.

 

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