One Hundred is Better than Perfect.....

After week 16 when the Indianapolis Colts gave away their chance at a perfect season, Mike Tricarico and I blasted the team on our weekly podcast. At the time, I went through a laundry list of reasons why I thought the Colts should have gone for perfection, with history (both all time and the Colts own) playing a major part of my reasoning.

Being remembered forever as a perfect team (What can you name faster, the winner of Super Bowl XIX or the only perfect team?) is forever, while unless you are part of the fan base for the team, or have the Elias Sports Bureau seared into your brain, it takes even the most ardent sport fan a little while to match Super Bowls played more then five years ago with its winner. (BTW, SB 19 winner was the 15-1 San Francisco 49ers)

Also the Colts history of coming out flat for their first playoff game after having rested players to finish the regular season and having the bye week has been the opposite of perfect. As a matter of fact, they are 0-2 in that scenario with losses in 2005 to Pittsburgh and to San Diego in 2007. So if I’m the Colts, maybe I try something different and let it all hang out to see if history can be made for the first time in 37 years.

Other parts of my thinking included the fact that Indianapolis had won many of their first fourteen games in comeback style and seven of them by four points or less. Besides Reggie Wayne and Dallas Clark (more on them later), the rest of Peyton Manning’s weapons on offense had never been through the “playoff wars” before, so keeping them in rhythm and allowing them and Manning to keep their magic going in game situations seems like a good idea. Also, for Manning, while Super Bowls are how quarterbacks are measured, a perfect season capped by a Super Bowl would virtually lock him in as the greatest QB of all time.

Garbage, we were told by the Colts organization after their “white flag” effort against the Jets. “None of that personal stuff means anything to us” was the mantra coming from the locker room. Even Peyton Manning followed marching orders and did not sway the conversation to allow for any controversy. But what about the looks of disbelief on the sidelines as their first loss was being secured that Sunday, with their own home crowd booing them unmercifully? “Cameras didn’t capture the true picture” and the “fans are fans, and don’t realize the organization has a plan” were the bullet points used to answer those inquiries.

In the hours and days after the game there were many “pundits” (like what Mike and I did on the podcast and many others) along with former NFL players who questioned the Colts’ game plan and the discussions got loud. It was so bad in Indianapolis that the General Manager, Bill Polian, had to cut short his weekly radio show and the Colts website put out a request asking their fans to “let it go”. These were Colt fans who were upset at their own team. We haven’t even delved into the facts that by allowing the Jets a free pass; it blew up the AFC playoff picture.

Well, I still believed I was correct with my thoughts as the week progressed, but if the organization truly believed that ignoring history (theirs and the NFL’s) and focusing on the Super Bowl Championship was the way to get the job done, who was I say it was wrong? Bill Polian and Peyton Manning have more rings then I will ever have, so record be damned, the Colts were focused on a Super Bowl victory.

Now before I go any further, I can already hear the “Well, see what happened to Wes Welker’s injury”, or the “What if Peyton got hit and was lost for the rest of the year” arguments. First, the Welker injury was a non contact injury and could have happened to anybody, at any time, especially if playing on a poor turf (more later), and could easily have occurred during a practice. Second, if we are going to pull the Peyton getting hit card, shouldn’t there be some evidence to back up that this could occur? The Colts and Manning have a great history of not allowing sacks of Manning, so why in the world does anybody think that it was all of a sudden going to change?

Anyway, on Sunday morning, I’m all on the Colts’ “forget history, let’s get the ring” bandwagon, and I’m ready to take the reigns. Let Peyton (to keep his consecutive game streak alive) and the offense run a series and then it’s off to the showers and maybe another commercial or two for Manning to help increase his Q rating.

Really, what else would the team do after pulling the starters the prior week from a game in front of their own home crowd, which they came into undefeated with possible history in front of them, which they were leading at the time of the substitutions, and with an opponent playing for their playoff lives? Then add the week’s worth of “talking points” and the fact that the game was in cold, snowy Buffalo, and their opponent, the Bills, were done with their season weeks ago. I mean, come on, maybe one series was even too much.

Here is where the story takes a turn and ankles break from jumping off the “records mean nothing, rings are the thing” bandwagon.

Seems Reggie Wayne and Dallas Clark needed five and seven receptions respectively to reach the one hundred catch mark for the season. While nice, with the top seed wrapped up, the perfect season given away, and snowy conditions in Buffalo, there is no way the Colts would risk anything for personal milestones, would they? Well, it seems they would, and the Colts did just that on Sunday against the Bills. Wayne got his five catches, while Clark got his seven with Manning as their quarterback while playing in the snow.

I didn’t see a red practice jersey on Manning to tell the Bills not to hit him during the game. Nor did I see any “no touch” markings on Wayne or Clark, or anybody making sure they did not slip and injure themselves while route running in the Buffalo snow. Was there something going on that we were not privy to, to prevent any of those injuries the team was so concerned about the week prior while they went for these individual records.

So while the organization says perfection was not important, it does seem that keeping its top players happy and hitting milestones is important. How else can you describe what went on in getting Wayne and Clark those receptions? Claiming to not want to risk a Manning injury one week, was thrown aside to force passes to his two receivers to hit personal benchmarks. We are not even talking about NFL records on the line here. Just one hundred catch seasons for each player.

While getting to 100 receptions is nice, there is another question to add to the mix, and that is why not try to complete those passes to Clark and Wayne the prior week, at home in front of their fans, while still pushing an opponent that needed to win the game? Trying to get those receptions against the Jets would have knocked quite a few items off their “to do” list as the Colts could have achieved personal milestones while possibly keeping their perfect season alive in front of the home fans, and make a team earn its possible victory that was desperately needed for its playoff chances.

Instead we got a lay down against the Jets and a week’s worth of words that by the following Sunday’s actions on the field were all shown to be not quite so believable anymore.

I also wonder if some players on the team, who may have wanted to try for an undefeated season and may not play a position that has those type of milestones (offensive linemen, punter, etc.), are questioning why certain players were allowed to risk injury for personal milestones, while their own claim to fame of being part of a possible undefeated season was tossed aside?

If you want to go full throttle cynic and conspiracy theorist, you could wonder if the Colts would have rather given the Jets the playoff shot, while at the same time hurting the defending champion Pittsburgh Steelers, who could be considered a tough match-up for the Colts, and had once before knocked them from the playoffs when Indianapolis had the AFC’s top seeding.

While I don’t believe that to be the case, I do believe that the Colts’ actions the past two Sundays raise more questions for the organization than it answers. In the end, none of this will probably matter to most sport fans if Peyton Manning and the Colts are the winners of Super Bowl 44, while others who wanted to witness perfection will wonder, “what if and why”.