Tough break

I don’t want to to tell you I told you so, but… I didn’t. Well, I did if you talked to me in person, but I never wrote it up here. People told me frequently how they though the Colts would not only win, but would do so convincingly in the Super Bowl tonight. They would be stunned when I told them that I didn’t think so. The Colts might win, but it certainly wouldn’t be a blow out.
As it turned out, the Saints ended up winning outright. The various flaws that any analytical Colts fan saw with every game they played was still there. They couldn’t play defense when they played an elite quarterback. They were lucky enough to avoid playing any really good  quarterbacks for most of the year. The best they have played, namely Tom Brady and Kurt Warner, were played at home or didn’t have an elite ground game to go with them.
The Saints were able to exploit the Colts crappy defense, because they actually had an offense. When the nerves settled, they were able to pick apart the coverage linebackers (Clint Sessions was atrocious) and the cornerbacks struggled to wrap up on tackles. The offense was kept off the field for about two straight quarters because the Saints were completely able to dominate ball control.
Peyton Manning, no doubt, is the only thing keeping the Colts from being a 6-10 team. Unfortunately, this year, limited by less skilled wideouts, he has been forced to to throw into heavier coverages. That has meant a lot of interceptions, and that was the ultimate undoing tonight. Playing against an opportunistic defense only compounded the problem.
It was a wake up call to many people who thought the Colts were invincible going into the game. Hopefully it didn’t give teams the blueprint for beating them the next couple of years. Oh well. I still have Purdue and the Twins. I’ll get ’em eventually.