You are quite right. His offensive line was banged up. His receivers were banged up. He had little knowledge, comfort and understanding of their replacements' speed and agility, throwing off the timing in his mind, habit, and practice. He had no running game to speak of at the time. The defense was playing bend but don't break without a high turnover ratio. There are many reasons he had difficulties. But from the games I watched the mistakes PEYTON made to compound the troubles inherrent in the team were that he decided BEFORE the ball was ever snapped where he was going to go. He snapped the ball, stared down the pre-determined receiver (who was determined by diagnosing the defensive alignment pre-play) and the defenders watched his eyes, allowing them to get a jump on the pass. Once he got more comfortable with his teammates' replacements, once he settled down in the pocket, once he started going back through his progression, his play improved (and a reinvigorated run game didnt hurt either). He didn't wake up one day and decide to stare the receivers down. But he knew he had to put the team on his shoulders and that altered the way he played the game, for the worse. He knew blitz was coming (because the other team knew the colts weren't going to run the ball). He also knew a variety of exotic coverages would be employed. Having no way to take that pressure off of himself, he tried to do more than QBs are intended to do (namely determine the play before he saw it). And all things considered, he did a much better job while making that mistake than any quarterback I've seen since Joe Montana played for the chiefs.