Whining about it won’t help. Heavy drinking probably won’t either. The Colts are headed west to play San Diego. Normally, Colts fans would be dancing a jig over playing an 8-8 team in good weather in the playoffs. This year, most of us know better. Still, keeping in mind that there is plenty of negative (which I’ll save for tomorrow) here’s what’s making me happy this morning:
- Manning surely wrapped up his third MVP award yesterday. None of the other contenders did anything particularly spectacular, and Manning got the win and a perfect rating (on one drive). Unless the voters decide they just love the QB of an 8-8 team, Manning is the only choice that makes any sense.
- The best things about playing the Chargers are good weather and a crappy coach.
- The Colts finished with the second best record in football and a 5-1 record against the playoff field. That’s amazing considering the fact that there are still major questions about how good this team really is.
- This playoff field is very similar to 2006 when the only team that really scared me matchup-wise is the first team we have to play. If the Colts can survive the Chargers on Saturday, I’ll feel great about their chances of making it to Tampa.
- After watching Roethlisberger get carted off the field in Cleveland, does anyone want to argue with me about resting players? No? Didn’t think so.
- I love how hard this team plays. I love their make up and chemistry. They seem like they are on a mission. I swear, if I knew for sure we’d have Brackett, I’d be feeling really good right now.
- The Colts (God-willing) will have Jeff Saturday for the WHOLE game this week. That should make a huge difference.
- As off as the run game has been all year, it wouldn’t surprise me to see it rebound in a big way in the playoffs. The Colts ran the ball effectively on the rare occasions when the line and Addai were healthy at the same time. That was like 2 or three games this year.
Demond will post the MVP Watch later today.
Links:
Kravitz says there’s nothing to worry about (and that’s what worries him). Oh my, Bob. I could give you a list of worries about six pages long. I’ll start with just one: The Colts gave up only 6 TD passes all season. They gave up two to Rivers.
Here is ESPN’s page for the game on Saturday night
Kuharsky has plenty of stuff about yesterday’s game, including the fact that it was the fastest since 1996. Wow.
Peter King gives the whole run down on Manning’s season, from the knee injury to the surgeries to the rehab to the 9 straight wins. He rightly says Manning is the MVP and the Colts would win about 4 games without him.
Manning is the MVP in LA and Green Bay as well. He gets a vote from AOL. The award will announced on Saturday. Other than Terry Bradshaw hilariously naming Matt Ryan yesterday, I haven’t seen anyone argue for anyone else.
Indy tops the Quality Standings
ESPN lists MVP moments for each contender. They blew Peyton’s. His was either the sick throw against Minnesota to win it, or amazing look off throw to Wayne against Jville.
ESPN lists some games we might want to see
Whitlock is still on the bandwagon. He thinks Manning should be the unanimous MVP.
Doyle says that VY was horrible. No kidding.
As I guessed last week, 18 finished on top of DVOA for the season. That means that on a per-play basis, he was the most valuable QB in football. He was 2nd in total value behind Brees. The Colts finished at 6 in weighted DVOA. Their season numbers are almost identical to San Diego’s. In fact, the numbers say these two teams are almost dead even. Great. Just great.
Indy’s opponents are out for 2009. We get 11 dome games, two games in Florida, and only three possible bad weather games (@ Buff, Tenn, and Baltimore). I like how that sets up.
Quick Reads recaps the best and worst. Clark was a top 5 TE, AG was third in DVOA, and 18 was the best DVOA QB on the year.
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