MVN - Most Valuable Network

What the Game of the Year Taught Us

As the second half of the 2007 season is set to begin, it’s time to determine what we know so far. Probably not coincidentally, the biggest regular season game this year happens to have just taken place, and now that we’ve had time to let it all sink in, we know what we’re dealing with.

The Patriots can be beaten.
That’s not to say that they will, or that anyone but the Colts could actually do it, but Indy showed last Sunday that it is indeed possible. Sad as it is to admit, that’s a big change from the previous week, when the Pats had yet to face a single challenge in their manhandling of eight straight opponents. Had the Pats continued their dominance, we’d all be dreading what would potentially seem to be the most lopsided and utterly boring post-season in ages. Thankfully now we know they’ll at least face one challenge if and when these two meet again come January.

Randy Moss isn’t fair.
Which is the toughest concept to grasp, that New England of all teams somehow ended up signing, in addition to all their other blockbuster deals this off-season, the best wide receiver in football, that it only cost them a fourth round draft pick to obtain him, or that Oakland was so incompetent when they had him they couldn’t even find a quarterback capable of throwing a ball in his general direction? This guy is good for one spectacular catch and one incredibly easy touchdown every single game. This is not to take anything away from Brady, who is obviously a great quarterback, but how in the world is a defense supposed to stop this guy? Everyone who thought signing him was a bad move for any organization, myself included, has been proven dead wrong week after week and unless someone figures out what to do about Randy Moss, Super Bowl 42 belongs to New England.

Joseph Addai can be as explosive as any player in the league.
While he’s been a consistent performer ever since entering the league, Joseph Addai really showed up Sunday in the biggest game he’s been involved in since the Super Bowl. You can tell Bill Polian saw in him the same quality he saw in Edgerrin James: he’s a smart runner. He doesn’t have to be bigger, stronger, or faster than anyone as long as he’s smart enough to follow his blocks, see the holes, and stay one step ahead of his defenders. It’s the same way Edge used to run and it’s surprisingly rare to find. If the Colts and Pats do meet again down the road in what will surely be the biggest game in NFL history up to that point in time, you know they’re going to have to place more emphasis on containing Addai. That emphasis just might be what it takes to free up the receivers downfield and could be the slight difference-maker it apparently takes to secure the victory every time these two meet.

Marvin Harrison still makes a huge difference.
Although it seems his skills are starting to deteriorate at least to some degree, Marvin Harrison has so many of them he can afford to lose a step here or there and still make you pay. Not having him on Sunday hurt, really bad. Manning was forced into slinging tight throws to bobble-handed receivers too many times and it cost them the game. Indy could not convert its third downs without the threat of Harrison, nor could they capitalize in the red zone. Having Ugoh out also hurt, but not as much as playing without Marvin. If there’s a bright side to this loss, and believe me, there is, it’s that a healthy Indianapolis team would’ve won that game and that an unhealthy one damn near did. There’s no question about that.

The Indianapolis defense is no laughing matter anymore.
If it wasn’t already clear through their first seven games, the Colts’ D put an exclamation point on the fact that they are not the same football equivalent of a folding chair they were late in ’06 by pounding the snot out of what may go down as the best offense in NFL history through three bruising quarters last week. You have to figure several things after their performance: first, they held the Pats to 10 less points than the fewest they’d scored against any team all season, second, they doubled Tom Brady’s season-long interception statistic in a single game, and third, two of the four scores they allowed can be directly attributed to the freak of nature known as Randy Moss. You can’t ask for much more out of any defensive unit than what the Colts’ D did on Sunday.

All in all, this was as positive an experience as losing can be, and as much as it hurts to know the Colts had the Patriots right where they wanted them and let it slip away, it’s equally encouraging to think there were probably ten or more plays where if you’d had changed the outcome even ever so slightly, Indy would’ve wound up on top.

For now, all we can do is wait for January, when the hype will surely grow even larger than it did for this epic battle and we’ll do the whole thing all over again.

It’s sure going to be cold.

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 8th, 2007 at 11:10 pm and is filed under Colts Chat, Colts, Super Bowl. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.