In the first six victories, the offense converted 15-of-22 drives in the red zone into touchdowns. In the past two games, it’s 2-of-8.
“Obviously, we’d like to score more than 20 points,” Manning said.
The Colts had the ball only once in the third quarter and went three-and-out. The offensive unit came to the bench and groaned.
Clark contributed a career-high 14 receptions and 119 yards to a 20-17 win. He tied Marvin Harrison’s single-game club record for catches and fell one shy of the NFL record for catches by a tight end shared by Kellen Winslow and Jason Witten.
“It was one of those things that you try to take advantage of things that are given us,” Clark said. “Even with getting those catches early, they still didn’t adjust . . . so we were going to try and keep attacking it.”
Quarterback Peyton Manning delivered 25 passes in the first quarter and 40 in the first half. Clark was a frequent flier. He had eight catches in the opening quarter and 11 by halftime. By game’s end, Manning had directed 16 of his 50 passes at Clark.
At the season’s midpoint, Clark leads the Colts with 60 receptions, one more than Reggie Wayne. Do the math. Clark is on pace for 120 receptions and Wayne 118.
The 100-yard game was the seventh of Clark’s career, one shy of John Mackey’s club record by a tight end.
COACHING: A
Of course, there was the challenge, which saved the Colts seven points. Now, I’m sure Jim Caldwell will get grief for calling the timeout to ice the Houston kicker, like he should have known the guy was going to kick it seven feet off the ground and get it blocked. I wish they’d legislate that play out of the game, but it’s a move every coach makes these days. Anyway, it got me to thinking: Any chance Caldwell’s failure to call a timeout before Kris Brown’s game-tying try at the end of the game messed with the kicker’s head? Brown said after the game he flat missed it, but if you’re waiting for that whistle, and it never comes . . . Just a thought.
That’s an interesting thought on Brown’s miss. Still, there is no way Caldwell deserved an A for his in game coaching yesterday. It was largely a mess.
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