Then there wouldn't be all this nonsense about going 16-0, which I am convinced took its toll yesterday in the Colts' 21-18 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers in an AFC Divisional game. That, and the fact that the Horseshoes hadn't played a meaningful game in about a month, which led to an extremely rusty offense. Peyton Manning and the gang made Oz's Tin Man look positively lithe in the early going.
If you think, as a Lions fan, that you can't possibly comprehend what Colts fans must be going through today, I ask you to toss aside your football helmet and put on your hockey version.
Remember the 1995-96 Red Wings? They went through the regular season like a hot knife through butter, setting league marks with a mind-boggling 62-13-7 record. All season the talk was whether the team could best the 1977 Canadiens' record of 60 wins. Kind of like hockey's Roger Maris. Or this season's Indy Colts.
Anyhow, the '96 Wings were most people's prohibitive favorites to at least reach the Stanley Cup Finals. But they struggled the entire postseason. They needed six games to eliminate a far inferior Winnipeg Jets team. They barely survived the St. Louis Blues, needing to come back from a 3-2 series deficit, including the famous double overtime win in Game 7, courtesy Steve Yzerman's mega blast from the blue line.
Then came the Colorado Avalanche.
The Avs bumped the Wings out in six games, winning the first two in Detroit and cruising to the upset. The Red Wings, possessors of those 62 regular season wins against 13 losses, were sent to the golf courses with a very pedestrian 10-9 playoff record.
You remember that lousy feeling, don't you?
High hopes, a feeling of invincibility, chasing a league record?
So you see? You CAN relate to Colts fans today.
But this feeling of emptiness, this rotten, another-year-wasted feeling, would have been secondary to the awful taste in the mouths of Jerome Bettis and his legions of fans had it not been for Ben Roethlisberger.
Bettis lives for one more game -- at least
It was the Steeler quarterback's tackle on Colts DB Nick Harper, just when it appeared he was racing to the game-winning touchdown after scooping up Bettis' fumble near the goal line, that most likely saved not only the Steelers' season, but Jerome Bettis' legacy. Who in the football world would want to see his great career remembered for a fumble that ruined his and his team's chances for a possible championship? What must he have been thinking when he saw Harper running away with his fumble -- his first bobble since December 2003? He may have been the Bill Buckner of pro football, at least for a time.
Now a word about Manning. Seems he is already taking some flak, from talking heads like Sean Salisbury to the folks who play at journalism via the Internet, about his postgame comments, specifically about his offensive line.
"I'm....trying to be a good teammate here," Peyton said, choosing his words carefully. "But...we had some protection problems." He spoke the truth, folks. The Steelers sacked Manning five times, and harrassed him all day.
Funny how the media will ask asinine questions, like "What happened?," when they all just saw the very same game. And when a player doesn't answer candidly, he's dismissed as being a double-talker or -- gasp! -- boring. Yet when the player actually says what everyone knows to be true -- in this case, the fact that the Colts' pass protection stunk -- he's vilified and called out. Salisbury of ESPN actually said Peyton Manning would have to "correct that" this offseason.
What a lot of hooey.
If you don't want your silly little questions answered, then don't ask them. Believe me, having attended those postgame press conferences, I can say that you -- the reader -- would not be missing much if those questions were disposed of. Most of the time they are formulaic and as tasty as dried cardboard. But they will be asked, of course. It's the media's job, you know.
What was Peyton Manning supposed to have said?
"We were pass protection challenged"?
"Five sacks aren't THAT many"?
"It was my fault -- I kept hitting their defensive linemen in the arms with my body"?
Mama mia!
Manning was taken to task for honest answers to stupid questions
So the Colts' season is over, as is that of the defending champion Patriots. Two teams who were supposed to meet in the AFC Championship game -- Dynasty Current and Dynasty Next. But here's the difference: New England QB Tom Brady's playoff record fell to 10-1 with his loss, while Manning's tumbled to 3-7 in the postseason.
In the end, after the dust settles following a chasing of immortality (read: a perfect season), here it is: Peyton Manning is just another quarterback who will be watching the Super Bowl on television. See what lousy pass protection can do?
I can say that, you see.
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