Those who tuned in to last night’s broadcast of Monday Night Football saw the Indianapolis Colts give the New York Jets the business. They saw the Jets give up. They saw security guards give drunk idiots concussions. December is truly the season for giving.
The Colts played their best football in years Monday night, drubbing the Jets 41-10. Chuck Pagano’s Colts are no strangers to blowouts, but this was the first time they’ve been on right side of one since beating the Jacksonville Jaguars by 31 points in 2013.
Unless you count, “yeah, but the Jets suck,” it’s hard to find anything negative to say about last night’s performance.
Andrew Luck posted a staggering 147.6 passer rating, the best single-game rating of his career. He threw four touchdown passes and was just a Jack Doyle endzone-fumble away from matching his single game record. At one point the Colts quarterback had as many touchdowns as incompletions. According to Pro Football Focus, Luck had the second highest rating behind Giselle Bundchen’s husband.
Frank Gore, who moved up to 8th place on the all-time rushing list, averaged four yards per carry. Dwayne Allen, who couldn’t catch a cold most of the season, had three touchdown receptions. Donte Moncrief caught a touchdown pass, making it five consecutive games in which he’s scored. T.Y. Hilton all but signed Darrell Revis’ retirement papers for him.
Even the defense joined in on the party. Yes, the same defense ranked 30th in the league and was without its second leading tackler, held the Jets to just 36 rushing yards and a 27 percent third down conversion rate. Edwin Jackson laid down maybe the hardest hit of the Pagano era.
Make no mistake about it, the Jets are not good. Anyone with eyes could see that they were a team that didn’t want to be there and had quit on their coach. That said, they are the same team that took the New England Patriots to the wire last week. As bad as they are offensively, the Jets’ defense is the real deal.
No, last nights win doesn’t make the Colts world beaters. Lucky for them, however, they don’t have to beat the world. They just have to beat the rest of the AFC South. Locked in a three-way tie for first in the division, the Colts now find themselves poised to do battle with the Houston Texans next Sunday in a game that will go a long way to decide the playoff fate of both teams.
Will the Colts make the playoffs? I think so. Why? There’s one reason why and he’s got an impressive neckbeard.
Report Card:
Offense: A
Defense: A-
Special Teams: A
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