Post Mortem

Sometimes it’s difficult to enumerate all of the things that suck, but I’ll give it a try:

• I can’t believe that the game got preempted on ESPNI for a World Series game that only went 6 innings. Then they never switched to the game even during the rain delay.
• I can’t believe I was constantly as many as 5 minutes behind on the chat last night. I eventually gave up.
• I can’t believe that I woke up 6 hours after going to bed when I could have slept in
• I can’t believe we lost to that Titans team

And that’s the one that really sticks with me. I watched most of that game thinking: ‘Tennessee isn’t very good’, and ‘This is exactly the type of team we used to beat’.
Ultimately, last night revealed nothing we didn’t already know. This Colts team is painfully average on both sides of the ball. On offense, Indy got into Titan territory 4 times (and to the 50 another) with no points to show for it. On defense, they had Kerry Collins in 3rd and 8, 9, and 10 in the third and fourth quarter. The defense gave up 51 passing yards on those three plays, and two different drives ended in touchdowns. That’s the game.
Random thoughts from someone who didn’t get enough sleep:

• I take it back about Marvin. If he was truly ok, he wouldn’t be blanketed by likes of Nick Harper. I never thought I’d see the day. He and Reggie Wayne have become completely invisible. Marvin is still drawing coverage, but he’s also still drawing throws…which aren’t being completed. I’m sick over it.
• The line showed signs of life last night, but for the second time this season, the Colts ran a huge fourth down play at midfield, only to see Dom get swallowed for a loss. That’s not acceptable. I liked the decision to go for it there, because it felt like the defense was broken by the previous drive in which the Titans held the ball for nearly 8 minutes and went 4-4 on third down. The game was tied, but the Colts HAD to answer. The offense had four possessions in the second half, scored two touch downs and failed on two fourth down conversions. In other words, they were right there. The defense saw the field four times giving up 3 touchdowns and a field goal.
• We never had a hero last night. Manning didn’t come through, and I felt like he played one of his worst games. The defense never forced a turnover despite having at least four balls right on their finger tips.
• This was exactly the kind of loss I was dreading yesterday. The in-between loss. This is the kind of loss that says, “the season isn’t over, but it might be soon”. Now we face a weird Patriots team that isn’t good at anything and is 5-2.

I’ll have to watch the tape before saying anything else. I expected to be ready to jump off the bridge after that game. I never expected the bridge to collapse right out from underneath me.

Links:

ESPN breaks down Manning’s night by distance. Basically, they couldn’t hit the deep ball.