COLTS

[OZZIEOHIO]

They were winning in the 3rd and took Manning out, now there losing and there perfect seaon is going down.

Would have you kept him in or did what the coach did???

[Steely Dan]

OZ - I guess my only comment would be had Peyton been left in, and then suffered a season ending injury, the Colt's coaches would have been villified by the media ad nauseum.

The Colts have home field throughout the playoffs, so in terms of the post season, the game today was pretty much meaningless to the Colts.

No one likes to lose, but in the grand scheme of things, I can certainly understand the Colts sitting Manning in the second half. Much rather have him available when you are playing lose one and done once the playoffs start.

[dazed&confused]

72 Dolphins are popping the corks!

[OZZIEOHIO]

OZ - I guess my only comment would be had Peyton been left in, and then suffered a season ending injury, the Colt's coaches would have been villified by the media ad nauseum.

The Colts have home field throughout the playoffs, so in terms of the post season, the game today was pretty much meaningless to the Colts.

No one likes to lose, but in the grand scheme of things, I can certainly understand the Colts sitting Manning in the second half. Much rather have him available when you are playing lose one and done once the playoffs start.

I agree, I was just wondering what everyone else thought. The main goal is to get to and win the super bowl.

[Steely Dan]

On the flipside, the NFL is a big business, and frankly, had Manning played the entire game and the Colts went undefeated through the Superbowl, to be the only 19-0 team in the history of the NFL, the financial windfall for the Colts and the league would have been huge, from a merchandising and advertising standpoint.

But, I still think the coaches did the right thing by resting him and having him there to "win the war".

[fuzzhead]

I wanted the Colts to win just because it would've put New York out of the hunt and given my Steelers a better shot. As it stands, I couldn't care less about the perfect season being ruined; there are plausible reasons for them to try to go unbeaten or for them to take Manning out like they did.
As it stands, they have the best record in the NFL and will have home-field advantage throughout the playoffs. Nearly every team in the NFL would love to be in their position right now.

[Tartanblue]

Love the jokes Manning and Wayne threw out bout how there was no Coach vs QB argument on the sidelines

[OZZIEOHIO]

Yeah, but if Manning got hurt in the 4th quarter everyone would be calling the coach an idiotfor having him in the game.

[ace63]

Colts fans are real upset at this game. They are wanting there money back. They just might get it too.
They paid to see a game. Colts might refund tickets. Member of city council wants tickets refunded.

[Orange and Brown]

I just want to see any team go 19-0 so Mercury Morris will shut up!!!!!

[OZZIEOHIO]

Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press


Caldwell defends decision to sit startersComment Email Print Share Associated Press

INDIANAPOLIS -- Colts coach Jim Caldwell will not second-guess the decision to rest his starters Sunday.

He'll let everybody else do it for him.

One day after Indianapolis pulled the plug on its perfect season by sitting Peyton Manning and others with 5:36 left in the third quarter of a 15-10 game, the great debate raged in Indianapolis.


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Mike Ditka joins Erik Kuselias and Adam Schefter to react to the Colts' decision to rest their stars in the loss to the Jets. He says the players deserved the chance to play for a perfect season.

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NFL purists expressed disappointment that the Colts sidestepped their shot at perfection. Other analysts suggested the Colts had an obligation to play it straight, and hometown fans expressed their anger with strong critiques on local radio shows.

None of it fazed Caldwell.

"I'm one of those guys, it's probably my greatest strength and my greatest weakness, I can focus in, I can narrow my scope, and once you make a decision you have to live with it," he said. "Certainly you weigh all the options before. You take a look at all the things that could occur, but once that decision is done you just keep moving."

Indy fans aren't ready to move on just yet.

After celebrating record after record during an unprecedented 23-game winning streak and feeling like they had a personal stake in the pursuit of perfection, they showered Lucas Oil Stadium with boos over the final 20 minutes Sunday. Pro Bowl receiver Reggie Wayne joked to a local television station that Indy might be the first 14-1 team to get booed at home.


AFC South blog
ESPN.com's Paul Kuharsky writes about all things AFC South in his division blog.

• Blog network: NFL Nation


In time, fans will likely calm down, and if the Colts win the Super Bowl, all will be forgiven.

"Ultimately, what matters the most is what happens in the postseason," Denver coach Josh McDaniels said. "So, I think their season is going to be determined by what they do once the playoffs start, not what happened yesterday."

The controversy has stoked passions among Indy sports fans and on the national stage unlike anything this community has seen since the firing of Bob Knight in 2000 or The Brawl in Detroit in 2004.

Yes, everybody has an opinion, but the only ones that really matter are voiced in the locker room -- and they support Caldwell.

"You get people who think you should have gone for it and people who think we did a disservice to the NFL by not playing our guys," said left tackle Charlie Johnson, who was deactivated for Sunday's game because of a foot injury. "But I think you have to look at the decisions coach Caldwell has made up to this point and trust him."

The decision also could have ramifications on the playoff race.

The Jets now have control, thanks to Sunday's victory, and teams such as Pittsburgh or Houston could end up missing the postseason because the Colts rested key players.

"Obviously I would have loved to have seen them win that game," Houston coach Gary Kubiak said. "But for us it really doesn't matter. We have to worry about taking care of our business. ... They've got to do what they think they got to do. But we've got to worry about ourselves."

Caldwell and team president Bill Polian, the architect of the Colts, insist they did what was best for the team. Their goal, Polian and Caldwell continue to insist, is to win the Super Bowl -- not go 16-0. And the best way to accomplish that, they believe, is to be healthy.

So they sat the starters for the final 20 minutes, allowing the Jets to rally for a 29-15 victory. They're likely to sit even longer this weekend in Buffalo.

"The perfect season was never an issue with us," Polian said after the game. "We've said it time and time and time again. It's somebody else's issue, but not ours. That was of no concern. Football logic has to come into play, and that logic is it makes no sense to have guys out there with the potential for injuries."

Fans didn't buy Polian's contention.

Callers to radio shows repeatedly questioned Indy's tack. Some asked for refunds. Others described Polian as "arrogant" and one fan said the team "spit in our face." One talk show host read an e-mail on the air that said the Colts didn't lose Sunday's game, they forfeited it, and many brought up the Colts' previous postseason failures.

In three of the last four years, Indianapolis has not won a playoff game. The other time, the Colts won the Lombardi Trophy.

It's a tricky question.

Oakland defensive lineman Richard Seymour, who played on the perfect Patriots in 2007, and Titans coach Jeff Fisher, who had the last team to lose a game in 2008, believe organizations have to make the decision that is best for them, even though Fisher said he would play his starters if he were 14-0.

So will Caldwell's decision be worth it? Maybe.

"I think everybody really had the sense that if they played their players they would win the next two games. They didn't," Fisher said. "But I think we have to wait and see and then go back and ask yourself that question. Just wait and see what happens in the playoffs."

You really cant blame the fans but the coach did say the starters wouldnt play the whole game.

[bigtimehitter]

I just want to see any team go 19-0 so Mercury Morris will shut up!!!!!

NO FREAKIN KIDDIN!

[Orange and Brown]

I just want to see any team go 19-0 so Mercury Morris will shut up!!!!!

NO FREAKIN KIDDIN!

YES!!!!!!

Someone else who thinks he is a loud mouth idiot!!!!!!!!!!!

[bigtimehitter]

I remeber watching the post game of the Super Bowl when the Pats lost to the Giants, and Mercury Morris gets on there and talkin all kinds of ignorant and irrelevant "stats", and even broke some kind book or something and started reading out of it, could not stand the cock peice of shat since then!