Eric Conner Posts

Few more observations from yesterday's game:

*Offensive Lines were great on both sides of the ball. QBs seemed to never get touched for the most part. Pats brought the blitz but the Colts adapted.
*Both QBs were great when the game was all said and done. Peyton was bad in the first half but couldn't have been better in the second. The Brady-Manning hype didn't disappoint.
*Colts weren't afraid to go deep down the the field. Marvin, Reggie came so close on so many deep plays but could never connect on a deep bomb. Fletcher, Clark and Moorehead all came up with big deep plays. Good to see the Colts not afraid to throw it deep.
*Dallas Clark continues to be a big part of the offense. His 137 yards once again lead the Colts in receiving yards.
*Dominic was great yesterday as well. Him and Addai both had 14 carries each, but Dominic had 13 more yards, and also had 38 receiving yards.
*Peyton will be fine, don't worry.
*Only one sack for the Colts (Brock), kind of disappointing at home but the Pats have a good O-Line.
*Brackett lead the team in tackles and played very well all game long.
*If you didn't believe me when I talked about how underrated Harper is, believe it now. Hayden was not nearly as good as Harper and it showed. We need him badly for the Super Bowl.
*Sanders, Harper, Brackett, Freeney, Utecht, Peyton and Marvin were all banged up at some point during the game. They will all most likely play (maybe not Harper), and the extra week will help a ton, this is when I realize that I like having a week off before the Super Bowl.
*Kick coverage was terrible. The 80 yarder to Hobbs right after our touchdown was unacceptable. They had been doing good at kick coverage and it was bad again yesterday.
*Peyton won this game for us, and was just better than Brady.

Still shocked at the finish to this game! One more task: XLI

I meant to write something right after the game, but I was speechless.

I challenge all Colts fans to find a greater game in Colts history, because I can't. The most exciting game I had ever seen was when we came from behind a few years ago to beat the Bucs in dramatic fashion.

There isn't anything better than what just happened. Down by 15 at halftime and Peyton gets his boys rolling to score 32 points in the second half. Tom Brady has a drive going with a minute left and Marlin Jackson picks it off. Ha ha! Are you serious? I really can't believe the ending to that game. Can anyone write a better ending to the game that gets us to the Super Bowl? I'm still in shock.

The reason the Colts won was because Peyton outplayed Brady and came up more "clutch" than Mr. Pretty Boy (Gosh, it feels nice to have the right to call Tom Brady a Pretty Boy.)

Forget about the Bears, Colts fans. Who cares right now? I sure don't, because I'm still soaking in this win. Enjoy the win, and worry about the Bears later! The Colts have won three in a row against the Pats now, and this is becoming the best rivalry in the NFL by far.

We do know one thing for sure, Tom Brady is the biggest choker in NFL History! :-)

You couldn't script it any better. At home in the dome vs. the hated New England Patriots with 55,000 sceaming Colts fans smelling a trip to their first ever Super Bowl since the team has been in Indianapolis. Rodney Harrison is out. The Colts are the healthiest they have been all season, and the defense is playing better than ever.

The point is, this is the Colts time to shine. This is time for Peyton to pick up the slack, and get the job done. There's no more excuses, there's no tomorrow, and there's no second chances. The time in now, and if the Colts don't win this game, they may never get a better chance in the Peyton Manning era. They beat the #2 team last week and proved they can win on the road. Now they get redemption against their hated foes, and if they do advance on to the Super Bowl, and win, there will be no but's, and there won't be any question to who the best team in the NFL is.

Playing New England is never fun, but if the Colts do go all the way this year, no one wants to hear "The Colts won, but the Chargers did their dirty work by beating the Pats."

We're healthy, they're not, we're at home, they're on the road, they've done it before, and we haven't.

There's no tomorrow, there's no second chances. It's time for Peyton and the Colts to win, right now!

You just can't script it any better.

No, the Colts haven't decided to make this game an outdoor game.

I'm saying this because the RCA dome is going to be the loudest it has ever been this Sunday and is probably going to be the loudest thing ever recorded on this earth.

The Colts D feeds off of crowd noise, especially Dwight Freeney and the pass rush.

The crowd should be all over Brady, who isn't exactly known to give into pressure, but the RCA dome will most likely be the loudest crowd Brady has ever heard (yes, it will be) and hopefully the Colts can build on that.

If the Colts players can't get pumped for this game, in this circumstance, with this crowd, none of them deserve to be in the NFL. But, I have a stange feeling that the Colts will come out ready to play some football.

Deep down in side, I almost feel sad for the Patriots that they won't have their safety this week for the AFC Championship game vs. the Colts.

Oh wait, no I don't, that was just me realizing how much of an advantage this creates for the Colts, and how much I will love not watching Rodney "cheap shot" Harrison this week vs. the Colts.

Rodney Harrison, the 2-time Sports Illustrated dirtiest player of the year, will not be playing this week vs. the Colts, according to a late night report on ESPNEWS.

Rodney Harrison is a great football player, and you have to respect what he has done against the Colts, particularly against Peyton Manning in the playoffs, but I really have no respect for this guy, and have no sympothy for anyone that he and his dirty play will not be present in the AFC Championship game.

As much as I don't like Rodney Harrison, I do want to see a fair game, and never wish injury upon anybody. However, the evil grimlin inside of me is laughing hysterically at the fact that the Pats will have two starting safties Peyton should go to town on.

T-minus 39 hours, Colts fans!

Colts defensive players just don't get much credit these days. Most of it is for obvious reasons, but there is one guy everyone is just missing. His name is Nick Harper and he is one of the best cornerbacks in the league. Don't believe me? Look at these numbers that every teams number 1 receiver put up against the Colts this year (therefore, the guy Harper was mainly guarding.)

Plaxico Burress- 4 catches, 80 yards (touchdown)
Andre Johnson- 4 catches, 56 yards (touchdown)
Reggie Williams- 2 catches, 8 yards
Laveraneus Coles- 6 catches, 81 yards
Drew Bennett- 0 catches, 0 yards
Santana Moss- 3 catches, 20 yards
Javon Walker- 4 catches, 40 yards (touchdown)
Troy Brown- 5 catches, 37 yards
Lee Evans- 5 catches, 70 yards
Terrell Owens- 4 catches, 70 yards
Dante Stallworth- 2 catches, 9 yards
Drew Bennett- 1 catch, 20 yards
Reggie Williams- 3 catches, 16 yards
Chad Johnson- 3 catches, 37 yards
Andre Johnson- 4 catches, 48 yards
Chris Chambers- 3 catches, 39 yards

The playoffs? In the first round vs. Kansas City, the Chiefs had no receptions from their starting receivers, and Derrick Mason had 2 catches and 16 yards last week, while Harper had an interception and caused a fumble!

Sure, a lot of stuff goes into these numbers. A Cover 2 defense helps and so does good pass rush, and sometimes the corners switch which receivers they guard. A terrible rush defense didn't hurt either, because teams loved to run the ball on the Colts. However, these numbers are downright stunning, and the main factor to these amazing numbers are due to the performance of Nick Harper. Even if teams ran the ball on us more than any team in the NFL, you still have to give Harper huge credit for never giving up one big game to a number one target this season. No matter what the circumstances are, Harper was shutting down every great receiver he was matched up against this year, and gets no credit for it.

Nick Harper is the most underrated player on the Colts, and one of the better cornerbacks in the NFL. Sign this guy to a long-term contract, NOW!

Here you go, Peyton.

The biggest game of your career is against Tom Brady and the New England Patriots...

Again.

But for only the second time, the winner of this game will go to the Super Bowl.

The Indianapolis Colts will play host to the New England Patriots this week in by far the biggest game in the NFL this season. The Colts can erase all the bad memories the Pats have given the Colts over the past few years, or they can double the pain and continue to be absolutely owned by the Patriots.

The Colts won in Foxboro this year and seemed to be far superior to the Patriots, but the playoffs are a different story, especially for Peyton and the offense.

So buckle in fans, and get ready for the most exciting, miserable, and most stressful experience of your lives!

Lets...go....Colts!

Speechless.

What just happened?

Peyton was going to throw for 500 yards. Larry Johnson was going to run for 500 yards.

It was going to be a shootout.

Peyton throws 3 interceptions. Larry Johnson runs for 32 yards.

Final score: 23-8, in the most unpredictable game in Colts history, and I truly mean that. I was completely shocked the entire game and couldn't figure out what was going on. I don't know how to explain it.

The Colts were sending approximately one player extra to the line to stop Larry Johnson on early running downs, and it worked. The Colts held Larry Johnson to 32 yards, his second lowest total of the season, and by FAR the least amount of rush yards the Colts gave up from their opponents starting running back.

You can say this about a lot of teams in the NFL, but it's more true for the Colts than anybody...If the Colts click on ALL cylinders, they can beat ANYBODY in the NFL by about 30 points. The Bears, Saints, Eagles, Chargers, Pats and Ravens don't stand a chance against the Colts if they can play great in every aspect of the game.

By the way, how about that kick coverage? Besides a bad rush D, there really wasn't anything worse than the bad kick coverage, and other than the one time Adam kicked it out of bounds, the Chiefs never returned it past the 20 yards line.

1 down, 3 to go!

Rush Defense, Smush defense. I don't know anything about a soft defense anymore, all I know is that it's playoff time and time to get PUMPED UP!

All I can read about is how bad our defense is and how bad Larry Johnson is going to tear us alive. I'm sick of it, and I know I've contributed to it as well.

I'm done with being negative, for one reason...I'M READY FOR SOME FOOTBALL!

The Colts will be expected to put some "fire power" on kick coverage tomorrow and might even have some tricks up their sleeves on defense. Something new on defense would be nice, to say the least.

So, Colts fans, get a good nights sleep, dream of Bob Sanders knocking some heads off, and wake up tomorrow morning with nothing but positive thoughts.

GO COLTS!!

PS-What's the over/under on punts tomorrow?

Uh-oh, Chiefs fans. The Colts soft and brutal defense might not be as bad as they have looked in the previous weeks, afterall. The Colts will be blessed to have their best defensive player, Bob Sanders, back on the field this week vs. the Chiefs. Bob Sanders has missed all but 4 games this season with a knee injury and will be starting for the first time since week 13. The home fans have only seen Sanders one time this year at home, so you can expect for them to be siked up about their hard-hitting safety returning to the lineup.

Sanders practiced full on Tuesday and Wednesday, and rested a little bit on Thursday, but is still expected to play at full strength.

Don't get me wrong, Sanders isn't going to turn around the Colts defense all by himself, but any Colts fan will tell you Sanders impact on the field will make a huge difference in the pass, and rush defense. Sanders will most likely be rushing for Larry Johnson at the line of scrimmage a bunch of times during this game and can hopefully make some big plays to shut down LJ.

The defense still has a bunch of holes, but hearing that Sanders is going to play is great news, and I speak for all Colts fans when I say: It's about time.