Bullet Dodged

Face it, since the Patriot game the Colts have not looked sharp. Last week against the Chargers they came out flat, but rallied to make it a game at the end only to let it slip away. Yesterday in the dome it damn near happened again. The Colts beat the Cheifs 13-10 on the strength of a last second FG by Adam Vinatieri.

 

Sure I'm happy with the win, but the Colts barely beat a bad team and looked bad doing it. If you looked up winning ugly in the dictionary there would be a picture of the team yesterday.

 

I won't go over all of the game details, but there are some very bothersome things going on.

 

18. Peyton Manning had another bad day. Granted it wasn't all his fault. He had very little time and was sacked twice. He had  a couple of balls dropped , but be that as it may, 18 did not look sharp. It's hard to beleive how little respect Marvin Harrison gets when his absence is clearly missed. Without him Reggie and Dallas are doubled up on and Utecht and Moorehead have yet to earn 18's confidence. But in the end, Manning has to make more plays than he is now. He's the big boy, the high paid one, head cheese. He has to step up and make the remaining receivers step up their games. Instead we keep getting the Peyton Manning "I just stepped in doog poop" look. Come on Peyton, pick it the fuck up.

 

4. Adam Vinatieri is in a slump. Last week he missed a chip shot FG at the end of the first half. It was a rush job, but he still should have made it. He missed another easy on at the end of that game that he had a good look at and it seemed to go well. Fast forward to this week and we find him attempting a 49 yarder. He claims it was tipped, but either way it was no good and the boos were more than a little audible. A few minutes later he steppedup and missed a 29 yarder and he was booed loudly. Finally he shook it off and made a couple to seal the game. I didn't boo AV, but I admit I was holding my breath when he kicked the game winner. These kickers are a strange breed and even AV who seems as much as one of the guys as a kicker can be can be quirky. Clearly it was in his head when he missed his fourht in a row. It's too deep in the season to think about a change, but we best start scoring some TD's to keep him out of the equation for the time being.

 

Now we have a short week. We go to ATL to play on Thanksgiving night against a bad Falcon team. We're going to have to play better to keep winning these games. Pittsburgh lost yesterday which is a big help and gives us the inside track for the second seed in the AFC. Now it's time to suck it up and heve the December we all know this team is capable of having.