SAN DIEGO -- Another 12-victory season . . . and nothing.
Another Peyton Manning MVP season . . . and nothing.
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Another Tony Dungy playoff appearance, his record 10th straight . . . and nothing.
Another glorious chance to advance to a Super Bowl, their second in three years, with the New England Patriots out of the way and the AFC unfettered by the existence of a dominant team . . . and nothing.
Let's just say it how it is: The Colts are the ultimate paper tigers. And if you don't like the Atlanta Braves comparison -- multiple postseason appearances, one championship -- feel free to come up with your own. But how can a franchise be so routinely dominant year after year, and yet be found so routinely lacking when the brightest lights are shining?
Saturday night's 23-17 overtime loss to the short-handed San Diego Chargers was all too typical of the Colts' recent postseason history.
It happens year after year after frustrating and infuriating year. And it's always
something. The weather in New England. The officiating in New England. The long layoff before Pittsburgh. The Dwight Freeney injury against San Diego.
It's always something.
And yet teams like last year's Giants march on despite losing Jeremy Shockey, or the Chargers win this game without their top running back.
If it happens once, it's an anomaly. But this happens time and time again. It's a trend, and it's something Jim Irsay and Bill Polian have got to address. The nagging problem this year was that running game, the one Polian kept insisting was just fine, despite ample statistical evidence to the contrary.
It wasn't fine.
It was never fine.
And now the Colts are going on vacation way before a team with this talent, this pedigree, ought to be hitting the links.
These were not just the 8-8 San Diego Chargers. These were the 8-8 Chargers without a reasonable facsimile of LaDainian Tomlinson, who didn't even play in the second half because of a serious groin injury. These were the 8-8 Chargers with Antonio Gates struggling with a high ankle sprain. And yet, there was Gates, maybe the toughest guy on the field, riding Antoine Bethea downfield for a monster first down on San Diego's game-winning drive in overtime.
Last year, the Chargers beat the Colts with backup quarterback Billy Volek, or as we came to call him, Billy Freaking Volek. This year, the Chargers beat the Colts with Mike Scifres, a punter, and a magical elf named Darren Sproles, who merely filled in for Tomlinson and produced 328 all-purpose yards.
And, oh yes, there was the San Diego defense, which held the Colts' underperforming offense in check, as is often the case in the playoffs. For all of Manning's greatness, for all the weapons the Colts have on that side of the football, the fact is, Manning is sub-.500 in the playoffs, along with his head coach. The running game was a cipher. Marvin Harrison was invisible, as he usually is during the playoffs. Still think Harrison is coming back next season?
Predictably, the Colts defense will get pounded this morning and for the rest of the week, and those three defensive penalties on the game-winning drive don't speak well of their discipline down the stretch, but they did force two San Diego turnovers in the end zone on potential game-tying or go-ahead drives.
They played well enough to win.
Bottom line is, when the Colts needed a third-and-short conversion, they couldn't get it. You can't win in the playoffs if you can't run the football.
It's pretty elemental stuff. The Colts couldn't run it. Couldn't run it all season, couldn't run it all night, couldn't run it when one conversion on third-and-2 with 2:30 left in regulation and San Diego out of timeouts could have put this game away.
One and done.
Or, should we say, one and Dungy.
If (when) Tony Dungy decides to retire sometime next week, will there be a great hue and cry for him to come back and give it another shot? As much as this town loves and reveres him and appreciates him for everything he's done on and off the field, isn't it time for a new face, a new voice, something different?
At this point, it's going to be tough selling fans on Jim Caldwell who, at least from a distance, promises to bring more of the same.
Overtime?
Of course it went overtime.
Because they're the Colts and the Chargers. Because they don't know how to play football games that don't end on the final drive, the final play, the final gasp. Because they've developed as good of a rivalry as you will ever see between two teams who aren't in the same division.
It took more than 60 minutes to decide, but the deserving team won.
There's no nice way of saying what has to be said:
Paper tigers.
Folding again.
01-07-2009, 01:18 AM
