The Colts throw away a chance at perfection and other NFL thoughts

(1) In my opinion, the Indianapolis Colts made a mockery of the NFL on Sunday. How can Jim Caldwell sleep at night knowing that he gave away a victory to a team that desperately needed the win to keep their playoff hopes alive? I don’t even care about the Colts supposedly not caring about going undefeated through the entire season, but I do care about the integrity of the league. How do you think the Houston Texans or the Pittsburgh Steelers or the Denver Broncos are feeling today? The Colts basically announced to the world that they don’t care about the spirit of competition. The only thing that Caldwell and Bill Polian are concerned about is covering their collective asses. I understand the reasoning used by Caldwell to justify his decision to pull Peyton Manning as well as several other star players in the third quarter, but I completely disagree with their justification. In the immortal words of Herm Edwards: “You play to win the game!” You don’t play the game to protect your star players from injury. You don’t play the game to throw your young, back-up quarterback to the wolves. You don’t play the game to cheat your fans out of a well-played game that they paid good money to attend. Honestly, this game felt like Week Three of the preseason. If I was a Colts’ fan, I would be pissed off today. If I was Peyton Manning or Reggie Wayne, I would be seething underneath the façade of supporting my coach. For God’s sake, I’m not even a fan of the team, but I have been fired up about the Colts’ Christmas gift to the Jets since hearing the news late Sunday afternoon.

The biggest reason that I’m upset about what the Colts did is because they are so robotic about how they handle these situations. They continue to rest their players because this is the way that they have always done it. If I woke up every morning, got drunk and drove around town, would my decision to drink and drive be a good one just because I’m consistent about it? The worst part about it is that the Colts have had absolutely zero success with this approach. The only season that they won the Super Bowl they were forced to play their regular players through the final week of the season. Nevertheless, Polian pontificates on a yearly basis about not caring about a perfect season or not wanting to get anyone injured in a meaningless game. I think it is pretty clear that this strategy is all Bill Polian’s idea. In a candid moment, I would hope that Jim Caldwell would admit that he would have liked to go for the immortality of a perfect season. In my opinion, if you don’t aspire to greatness, then what exactly are you playing the game for. The part that drives me crazy is that it would have been very easy to create a safe and conservative gameplan to protect Manning. I think we can all agree that playing it close to the vest with Manning is far superior to anything that Curtis Painter could muster. The reality of the situation is that Manning has only been sacked 24 times the last two seasons (one sack every 47 drop-backs), so where is the real risk? For the sake of Caldwell and Polian, they better hope that the Colts win the Super Bowl because, if they don’t, they will get raked through the coals much worse than if Manning had been injured in the Jets game with the Colts going for an undefeated season. Finally, I think that Roger Goodell has good reason to worry about the NFL becoming like the NBA. In basketball, it is more about teams tanking at the end of the season to improve their draft position, but I think that turning a regular season game into a glorified preseason game is just as bad. Let’s not forget that things could get even worse with an expanded schedule.

(2) What in the world has happened to the New Orleans Saints? I think we could all excuse losing to the Dallas Cowboys for their first loss of the season, but how do we look the other way when they lose to the 12-loss Tampa Bay Buccaneers at home? In fact, the Saints became the first 13-win team in NFL history to lose to a team with only two wins. Moreover, in the past four weeks, the Saints have played teams with a combined record of 25-35 and have been outscored 100-96. I think it is officially time to press the panic button in the bayou because this loss resembled one of the many losses racked up by New Orleans when they were better known as the Aints. Honestly, this outcome blew my mind when I checked the scores Sunday afternoon. Especially when you consider that the Saints roared out of the gate with 17 unanswered points and looked like they were going to pound the Bucs into submission. The plucky Bucs did not go into hiding and managed to hold the Saints scoreless for the entire second half and overtime. How exactly did Tampa Bay get it done?

I think we need to start with the fact that Tampa Bay rushed for 176 yards on 34 carries, which demonstrated that the Bucs were both committed to and successful with the running game. The dominate running game allowed the Bucs to win the time of possession battle and put rookie quarterback Josh Freeman in manageable situations. As a result, Freeman completed 67% of his attempts and gained confidence throughout the game despite throwing two interceptions. Freeman’s growing confidence allowed him to make the biggest play of the game when he scrambled for a first down on a third and six to keep the game-winning drive going in overtime. I think that the Saints should be awfully concerned about how well the Bucs ran the football, especially considering that their primary run stopper, Sedrick Ellis, was healthy for this game. New Orleans can expect to see a healthy dose of running plays when the playoffs start because teams are going to be scouring the video from the Cowboys game last week and the Bucs game to see how both of those teams attacked the Saints on the ground. It might get worse before it gets better for the Saints because they have to face the Carolina Panthers and their strong running game in the season finale. Secondly, the Bucs won this game because they turned the high-flying Saints offense into a dink-and-dunk offense. Drew Brees completed an astounding 86% of his passes, but he only had one completion longer than 16 yards. For the second week in a row, the big plays eluded the Saints and they struggled mightily as a result. I think that the inability to hit the momentum-shifting play frustrates Brees and the rest of the offense, which causes them to get impatient and make bad decisions. It looked to me like that Bucs were adamant about keeping the amount of big plays to a minimum and they were highly successful with their game plan. At the same time, Tampa Bay locked up the Saints’ running game after halftime, which put more pressure on Brees to make a big play in the passing game. I just think that the code has been cracked regarding the Saints and their potent offensive attack. It will be interesting to see how the Saints adjust because their playoff experience will be cut short if they don’t adjust well.

(3) I guess it is time that we all stopped second-guessing the New England Patriots. The Pats were all but written off after losing three out of four, including the heart-breaking loss to the Indianapolis Colts, but all they have done is win three consecutive games by a margin of 72-27. As a result, the Patriots celebrated their seventh AFC East championship in the last nine years. While we were all trying to bury the Patriots, we also took our shots at Randy Moss for mailing in a game two weeks ago. The media, fans and, even, their opponent took turns claiming that Moss had quit on his teammates, but the Patriots’ organization never turned their back on him and he rewarded them with a three touchdown performance against the Jaguars. It was the ninth time in his illustrious career that he had scored three touchdowns in a single game. We were also wondering what the heck was going on with Tom Brady after he had thrown for just 307 yards in his last two games. I guess we shouldn’t have worried too much with the Jags on the schedule because Brady loves hunting big cats. He threw four touchdowns and only misfired on three of his attempts, which was reminiscent of his brilliance the last time these two teams met: 26-28 for 262 yards with three touchdowns and no interceptions in a 31-20 divisional playoff victory on January 12, 2008. Ultimately, the Patriots look like they are hitting their stride at the right time.

I see three things that reinforce my belief that the Patriots are the team that no one wants to play in the postseason. First of all, they are running the football better than they have in the last three seasons. In their last seven games, they have rushed for over 100 yards in six contests, including 185 yards against the Panthers and 197 yards against Jacksonville. Even with Laurence Maroney banished to Bill Belichick’s doghouse, the Patriots have several options at running back to give defenses different looks and keep their guys healthy. Secondly, it appears that the young Patriots defense is finally putting things together. They throttled the Jags on Sunday, which was their third consecutive solid performance. They caused two big mistakes from David Garrard and held Maurice Jones-Drew in check with only 63 yards rushing. This comes on the heels of putting the shackles on Buffalo and Carolina. Keep in mind that it is the same Panthers team that subsequently put a hurting on the Minnesota Vikings and the New York Giants. Third, I think that the Patriots handled the Randy Moss early dismissal and subsequent tanking as well as they possibly could. Moss could have easily regressed into the behavior that he exhibited in Oakland, but the Patriots publicly said that they had his back, which is all the sensitive soul needed to get back on track. As a result, Moss is poised and ready to help the Patriots win games in the playoffs. With Moss in his right mind and Wes Welker still performing at a high level, the Patriots have one of the best one-two combinations at wide receiver in the NFL. Certainly, the Patriots are not the team to beat any longer, but I think they have enough veteran leadership and coaching no-how to make a surprise run in the playoffs.

(4) Let me start by saying that I’m on the record that I didn’t like the Brett Favre signing for Minnesota from the beginning. I thought his me-first approach would eventually wear out its welcome in the Land of 10,000 Lakes. Obviously, I looked foolish for questioning the move when the Vikings surged out of the gate with 10 wins in 11 games. As expected, the media began to fawn over Favre and the Vikings and I even thought they were the best team in the NFL after their 10-1 start. How quickly things can come apart? The Vikings look to be a team in turmoil after losing their third game in four weeks. They have been dominated by the Arizona Cardinals and Carolina Panthers. Even the Chicago Bears held them scoreless for the first half of their Monday Night tilt. They have been unable to run the ball recently and their defense appears to have lost their edge when team leader E.J. Henderson went down with a season-ending injury during the Cardinals game. It appears that history is repeating itself when it comes to one Brett Favre. Two years ago, we all remember his awful performance in the 2007 NFC Championship game that ended the Packers’ season and set in motion the sequence of events that led to his awkward departure and forced signing with the New York Jets. Favre not only killed the Packers’ chances of getting to the Super Bowl, but he had essentially lost the locker room with his prima donna behavior, including a completely separate dressing room. Last year, we all watched in horror as Favre dragged down the entire New York Jets organization after they started the season 8-3. Favre’s performance was so atrocious down the stretch that he got the entire coaching staff fired as a result. In a herpes-like move, Favre refused to let bygones be bygones and accused the Jets of failing to properly disclose his arm injury to the league office. As a result, the Jets were fined by the NFL well after Favre was no longer with the team. I guess you can say that Favre is the gift that keeps on giving. Fast forward to December 29th and it appears that the Favre effect is rearing its ugly head in Minnesota.
I can’t help but believe that Favre’s antics are poisoning the locker room and destroying a once promising season for the Vikings. Obviously, we don’t know the entire story, but the part that we do know about is that Favre is in the middle of a lover’s quarrel with Coach Brad Childress about play-calling responsibility. Favre, as you would expect, wants the freedom to call audibles at the line of scrimmage and have input into the game-planning during the week. Meanwhile, Childress does not want his quarterback to usurp his “power” and has taken to complaining about Favre’s free-lancing and ignoring his star player during the week. This internal dispute came to a head during the Carolina Panthers game when Childress attempted to remove Favre from the game and the two men had a heated conversation in full view of the public. I don’t fault Favre for wanting more input leading up the game and more control between the white lines. My concern is that he decided to publicly talk about the situation instead of handling it behind closed doors with Childress. This is the reason why Favre has a well-deserved reputation as a diva. The diva syndrome causes people to draw attention to themselves in any way that they can and deflect blame to others at every turn. Favre is a master at doing both. Let me be clear, I still think that Childress bears some responsibility for this mess as well. He is the one that decided to bring in Favre to begin with. His decision communicated that one man is bigger than the entire team. Frankly, I think he is getting his just desserts. The other problem that I have with Childress’ behavior is that he is acting like a control freak. For heaven’s sake, he has a Hall of Fame quarterback on his roster and he needs to realize that Favre probably has a better understanding of the offense than he does. I can understand the control aspect if Tarvaris Jackson or Sage Rosenfels were playing, but it seems a bit excessive when it relates to Favre. In the end, I think that the Vikings are going to rue the day that they signed a devil’s pact with Brett Favre.

(5) I’m not going to spend too much time on the Christmas Massacre in Green Bay or the Seahawks in general. I’m just going to let the following bulleted list do the talking:

• It was the second time in two seasons that Seattle has been beaten by 38 points, which means that two of the four largest losses in franchise history have occurred in the last 14 months.

• Seattle has scored 24 points in three consecutive losses, which is its lowest total during any span since 1992.

• The Hawks have been outscored by 82 points over the last three games.

• The Seattle defense allowed the Packers to score on six consecutive possessions.

• During the Packers’ run of 34 unanswered points, Seattle gained a total of four first downs, threw two interceptions and crossed mid-field only once.

• The Seahawks have gone more than two years without winning a road game outside of the NFC West.

• Of Seattle’s 10 losses this season, nine have been by more than 10 points.

• Seattle is 9-22 since its last playoff appearance and 16 of those losses have been by 10 or more points. That is as many double-digit losses as Seattle suffered in six seasons between 2002 and 2007.

• Only once in his first 10 seasons did Matt Hasselbeck throw four interceptions in a game. He has done twice in the past two weeks.

• The Packers’ 48 points were the most scored by any Seattle opponent since November 1983.

• Packers’ running back Brandon Jackson had never scored more than a single touchdown in a game in his three NFL seasons. He scored three times against Seattle. Even 32-year old Ahman Green scored a touchdown.