Trey Wingo put it accurately in the midst of the the New York Jets crumbling to the Indianapolis Colts: The Colts attempted to win 14 games, and they won 14 games.
Good point Wingo.
Now with an AFC championship in tow, the Colts are headed to the Super Bowl on the heels of demolishing the hottest team in the NFL, 30-17. I should’ve been looking at all the signs of a bad pick on my part.
- I found myself becoming fond of the Jets’ team personality – It’s never a good sign when you’re picking a game and the reasons are influenced by how loose one team is over the the other.
- The deficiency of the Jets’ offensive play-calling was astounding — As I noted to my roommate, the Jets were showing their cards too soon. All of their trick plays, a wildcat fake screen pass and a some new misdirection runs, were all run in the second quarter. Subsequently, the Jets scored all 17 of their points in that period. I should’ve taken into account how the Jets would respond in later quarters, regardless of an 8 1/2 point spread.
- Peyton Manning — I used to tell people, never bet against Peyton Manning. He’s a killer quarterback and he’s a lock in most situations. But even I was skeptical with the spread.
This was one of those games that went according to script for the Colts. The Jets made their run, but were unable to sustain an offense that is junior varsity in comparison. While Mark Sanchez was crisp (17-of-30 for 257 yards and two touchdowns), there was no rabbit getting pulled out of the hat when the team fell behind. Remember, the onus of the Jets was to live up to their defensive hype and shut down the league’s most valuable player and his many weapons. While one receiver was taken out of the game (Reggie Wayne had three catches for 55 yards), two others blew up. Pierre Garcon had 11 catches for 151 yards and a touchdown while Austin Collie had seven catches for 123 yards and a touchdown. All on the one side of the field cornerback Darrelle Revis was not playing.
Apparently, the Jets didn’t understand that they needed to adjust to give their other corner, Lito Sheppard, more help.
What did I say about Manning and Revis?
And the whole scoring 17 points thing.