INDIANAPOLIS – The Indianapolis Colts survived a long, grinding journey to earn a playoff spot. Reaching the Super Bowl will be far more difficult.
The Colts open the postseason Saturday on the road against an old nemesis, San Diego, and a victory would mean a return trip to Tennessee or Pittsburgh. If things go well, the Colts could play in all three venues.
It isn’t how the Colts envisioned chasing another Super Bowl title – or how 12-4 teams are typically rewarded. But after two consecutive months of must-win games, the Colts believe they’re ready.
“I think maybe that grind of having to win seven or eight in a row to stay in the race maybe made it feel that way,” coach Tony Dungy said Monday. “But it’s been rewarding, I’ll say that. I like where we are.”
Dungy and the Colts know perhaps better than any team in the playoffs what it takes to win.
Over the past decade, they have faced virtually every possible playoff scenario with the usually mixed results.
yes – and lost its first game all three times.
-In 2003, they needed two wins, including a shootout at Kansas City in which neither team punted, to reach the AFC title game before losing at New England.
-In 2006, they had to win four times, including a game at Baltimore in which they did not score a touchdown and a 15-point second-half comeback against the Patriots, to give Peyton Manning his first Super Bowl title.
-The last two times they were a wild-card team, 2000 and 2002, they lost at Miami in overtime and 41-0 at the New York Jets.
But this generation of Colts has never gone into the playoffs like this.
After an uncharacteristic 3-4 start, they closed the regular season with nine straight wins – something the franchise hadn’t done since 1975, when it was still in Baltimore. The Colts lost that season at Pittsburgh in the first round.
But there are indications this season could be different.
Manning’s remarkable closing flourish has put him back in contention for a record-tying third MVP award. He’s completed more than 70 percent of his passes in each of the last six games, has thrown 17 touchdowns and only three interceptions and has virtually willed the Colts to victory during the second half of the season.
offs. “We had the same situation and just didn’t play good as a team (against the Titans).”
That wasn’t this past Sunday’s season finale, when Manning was a perfect 7-of-7 for 95 yards with a TD in a 23-0 victory of the Titans.
The defense looks better, too.
Touchdown returns at Cleveland and Jacksonville produced the decisive margin in those victories, and the Colts’ backups produced the franchise’s first shutout since 1997. Meanwhile, the secondary allowed an NFL-record low six TD passes in 16 games.
That combination has rejuvenated the Colts’ confidence.
“We’ve found ways to win,” Dungy said. “We’ve won in tough venues. It’s going to be tougher in the playoffs. But I like the way it’s developed.”
Clearly, the Colts have flaws.
Most point to the two areas that usually create playoff success or failure – running the ball and stopping the run.
Joseph Addai, who played one series Sunday after missing two straight games with a right shoulder injury, produced the team’s only 100-yard day back in early October.
“I guess it probably doesn’t matter because we’ve won nine in a row the way it is,” Dungy said of the ground game.
Critics contend the Colts’ run defense is a problem, too, although it has allowed a respectable 3.9 yards per carry over the last three months.
Plus, the Colts are getting healthy.
ve captain Gary Brackett will play. Brackett has missed four straight games with a cracked bone in his lower right leg, and although Brackett said he hopes to be ready for the first-round game, Dungy said Monday he probably wouldn’t practice this week.
But the biggest difference is how the Colts have performed in what they considered a stretch of elimination games.
“I think the biggest key during our winning streak is that we’ve had good preparation,” Manning said. “So the main focus right now is having a good week of practice.”
The Colts hope that will be good enough.
“The healthy teams, the hot teams going in, have a chance to win it. San Diego, I think, is just as dangerous as anybody in this tournament right now,” Dungy said. “They’ve played well down the stretch, very much like us, where it’s kind of been must-win all the way through.”
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