Saints Go Marching, Colts Limp Towards Perfection

As first Published at www.ongameday.ca

It seems to me that between the NFL’s last two undefeated teams, there isn’t a lot in common.  The Colts, for the last handful of games, have had straight up barn burners, notably against the Pats and the Fourth and Short heard round the world, and now with the Texans, their division rivals. 

This Sunday Indy looked like a team that had finally underestimated an opponent.  Texans were hitting fast and hard, and even if they were down at the half, the Colts looked worried an the Texans were taking charge.  Half way through the third, a ridiculous interception by Matt Schaus set the stage for the Colts offense to put the entire affair to bed courtesy of One Mr. Manning.  The Texans D didn’t get the memo and shut them down to set up the touchdown in the early fourth.  But eventually the Texans succumbed to death from a thousand cuts.  Offside, False Start, one huge pass interference, and another interception and finally a blown onside kick all amounted to the white and blue rally from which Huston could not recover.  The Colts with a little help from their friends in the black and white stripes, squeeze by a team that had no real business making it so close.

 

On the other end of the world, the Big Easy got to watch their home squad beat New England and the point spread like a three-legged dog in a Toronto pound.  Brees and his merry band of receivers made a monkey out of Billichek’s revered defense and made sure everybody knows the Patriots aren’t the team they used to be.  Monday night was touchdown night.  Brees gave one to everybody who wanted one, he was throwing everywhere, five different receivers, two cheerleaders, his mom, the hot dog guy, people walking by the stadium, everybody.  Especially strange was watching Bilicheck say over and over to the press what a better team New Orleans was.  I wonder if you can smell a stroke coming on? 

 

The Colts are playing a tough Titans squad next week, Vince Young’s star power and Chris Johnson’s heroics might be the toughest thing left on the Indianapolis regular season to-do list.  The proline is paying really well for anybody bold enough to take the underdogs, and I’m checking the V just because I don’t think we’re going to see two perfect seasons. 

If New Orleans can be stopped this year, it’s not by the Redskins (it’s by the Vikings).  I’m looking for the momentum from Monday to carry over and for some scoring records to be smashed this Sunday.

There’s something to be said about the grit it takes to come form behind for the win constantly.  It means a team that takes “Never say Die” seriously, a team can play the clutch and laugh in the face of defeat.  There has to be something tangibly beneficial to hard fought battles that at the very least make for better games. 

But really, how can you compare a team that squeaked by the Pats on a bizzaro gamble vs a team that dominated them, start to finish, in every aspect of the game.  Maybe we’ll all get to see on February 7^th.