Here was your best late game in the NFL:
Colts 34, Broncos 31
This contest absolutely lived up to the hype. What a performance by Peyton Manning and Reggie Wayne against a normally stout Denver defense. Manning connected with Wayne 10 times for 138 yards and three touchdowns. Along with the three scores to Wayne, the always clutch Manning threw for 345 yards and completed an outstanding 82 percent of his passes. Even though the Broncos looked great on offense for the first time all season, Manning and the Colts had an answer for them on virtually every turn of possession.
Mike Bell rushed 15 times for 136 yards and two touchdowns and seemed to break long gains on virtually every offensive possession for Denver. Jake Plummer actually looked good too for the most part, but he fumbled in the second half, which led to a Colts score.
Most impressed with: Manning is just amazing. The guy performs every week and despite his playoff misfortunate, he shredded a really good defense on Sunday. Joseph Addai ran well in this game too, gaining 5.5 yards a pop while rushing for 93 yards.
Least impressed with: Not taking anything away from Manning’s performance, but where was the Denver defense? The Broncos came into the game allowing about a fraction of a point per game, but couldn’t stop anything Indy threw at them. Besides another solid game by Champ Bailey, Denver was just outmatched all day by Manning and company.
Quick Shots:
I’ve got an idea for Pittsburgh. Maybe instead of worrying about what the refs are doing (Dan Rooney), or what defensive lineman are saying about your reconstructed face (Ben Roethlisberger), how about you spend your time more wisely and figure out how in the hell the Oakland Raiders beat you 20-13. Why did Roethlisberger, just six days after suffering a concussion, play in this game Bill Cowher? Terrible call and it led to another loss in a quickly sinking season for the defending champs and another atrocious performance by Big Ben. Roethlisberger flat out sucked today, period. Congrats to the Raiders for making Roethlisberger and the big bad Steel Curtain look down right silly today…I thought it was interesting that one week after losing a tight game to the Chiefs that the Chargers were nine and a half point favorites against a upstart Rams team that was coming off a bye. Now I know why as San Diego thrashed St. Louis 38-24. LaDainian Tomlinson was incredible, rushing for 183 yards and three touchdowns. The Rams just didn’t have an answer for San Diego’s offensive attack all day…There was a controversial ending in Cleveland as the Browns topped the Jets 20-13. New York thought that it tied the game with less than two minutes in the contest when TE Chris Baker caught an apparent touchdown pass. Baker, however, was crushed out of bounds by two Browns defenders and the play ended up being ruled incomplete. Cleveland was able to run out the clock on the change of possession. Jets head coach Eric Magini was furious that the play couldn’t be reviewed and although it was a tough call, it would have been impossible to decide whether or not Baker (what a catch by the way) would have come down in bounds. Regardless, Cleveland was up 20-3 in this contest and this game arguably shouldn’t have come down to that play anyhow. Reuben Droughns completely tore up the Jets run defense with 125 yards on 33 carries and a touchdown. Also, somehow Charlie Frye fit a tight pass in between two defenders to Kellen Winslow Jr. At least after one week, the move to fire offensive coordinator Maurice Carthon was the correct one.
Don’t forget to check out my NFL Random Thoughts blog on Monday.
