The Colts secondary is fortunate that they don't face Randy Moss every
week: The rookie tandem of
Jacob Lacey and
Jerraud Powers had, up
until Sunday, performed incredibly well filling in for
Marlin Jackson and
Kelvin Hayden. Moss and the Patriots made the duo look like a couple of rookies
on Sunday night.
The good news is that there's only one Randy Moss and
that Indianapolis won't face another receiver of his caliber for the rest of the
season. Powers did a good job of locking down on Andre Johnson in Week 9
and will likely draw Johnson again in Week 12, but that this about it in terms
of comparable talent.
Future opponents may try to attack the safeties deep like the Patriots were
able to, but they will not experience the same level of success. Alan Williams will work with his charges this week and every week from now until the
end of the year to make sure that the cornerbacks don't allow their man to get a
clean release off the line of scrimmage and that the safeties are aware of their
responsibilities and where they are on the field.
This is a "fool me once"
situation and Jim Caldwell, Larry Coyer, and Williams will not hang Melvin Bullitt and Antoine Bethea out to dry like they did on Sunday night.
If opponents want to focus on Dallas Clark, that is fine: For
all the talk surrounding Moss and his fantastic game, the fact that Reggie Wayne
was equally impressive has gotten lost in the shuffle.
With New England's
defense preoccupied with Clark, Wayne was targeted 12 times and had ten
receptions for 126 yards and two touchdowns, including the game-winner.
His first catch of the game was as amazing as his last. On the
game-winning touchdown, he engaged the cornerback, made a move, pivoted, pivoted
again, then jumped in the air such that his body was parallel to the ground, and
speared a Peyton Manning pass that was probably traveling between 35 and 40
miles per hour with his fingertips.
It's surprising that no one is talking
about that play as one of the ten best plays of the week. One of the
reasons for that is that Wayne has set the bar so high and everyone has become
accustomed to his greatness at this point.
It was another rough night for Pierre Garçon, as he was targeted 11 times and
only had three receptions, but, to his credit, he didn't give up. With no
real time table for Anthony Gonzalez's return, Manning and Garcon need to put in
some extra practice sessions and get on the same page.
Two of the failed
targets were on Manning, but even a 3-for-9 conversion rate is unacceptable.
Teams will start to focus on Wayne and the offense can only be so effective
throwing underneath routes to Clark and Austin Collie.
The nickel defense needs Daniel Muir and Antonio Johnson: One of
the interesting subplots from last night's game is that New England actually had
113 yards rushing and averaged four yards a carry. When Muir and Johnson
were in the line-up — in the first and fourth quarters they played the inside
positions almost exclusively — the Patriots had trouble moving the ball on the
ground.
When Eric Foster, Raheem Brock, or Fili Moala were patrolling the
middle, Kevin Faulk and Laurence Maroney got yards in bunches. Putting
Muir and Johnson in the middle has an adverse affect on the pass rush, but it
pretty much needs to be accepted that Dwight Freeney and Robert Mathis are
the pass rush and not allow the run defense to suffer.
Switching to Kyle DeVan was the right move: In his first two
games of action, DeVan has provided the Colts with exactly what they need at the
position. He has been capable in pass protection and is blocking with
violence and authority in the running game.
Vince Wilfork is a tough
assignment to draw, but DeVan and Saturday doubled up on Wilfork and pushed him
out of the way, opening up huge running lanes for whoever happened to have the
ball at the time — even Chad Simpson averaged nine yards a carry, running
primarily up the middle.
With the Tony Ugoh era having come to an end and
the Mike Pollak era needing an injury to get re-started, that's two consecutive
second-round picks — or, more accurately, the first two picks in the 2008 draft
— that Bill Polian has squandered on linemen that did not work out.
Indianapolis tends not to miss on first day selections, which is why their
top-heavy salary cap situation has not come back to bite them. But, if
Gonzalez busts out, too, Donald Brown is going to have to post some spectacular
numbers to salvage the last five years of first day picks.
Another chapter in the saga is complete: Manning and the Colts
seem to have turned the tide against Tom Brady and the Patriots. They
have won five of the last six games in the series. Two of those victories
were comebacks of epic proportions.
Bill Belichick seemed to not trust his
defense to stop the Colts offense with two minutes to play. Even if New
England had punted, Manning has shown time and time again that he is capable of
scoring from anywhere on the field against any defense in the two-minute
offense. Suddenly, the Patriots are prone to late mistakes and clock
mismanagement and Manning is the guy no team wants to see trying to mount a
comeback in the closing seconds.
A lot has changed in the past five seasons of this rivalry. There could
be another chapter coming in January. With this win, Indianapolis
effectively has a four-game edge on New England in terms of homefield advantage
in the playoffs.
That means the next act will be played on the same stage
it was last night. Even casual fans of the NFL have to be hoping for a
repeat of what happened on Sunday night.
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