They took the best defense in the NFL and toyed with it, batted it around like a cat with a rubber mouse.
The Colts’ vaunted offense against the Broncos’ vaunted defense … any questions?
With Sunday’s epic 34-31 victory over Denver, the Colts became just the second team in NFL history – again, history – to start a second straight season 7-0. If they don’t win the Super Bowl this time around, that probably won’t mean a whole lot. But if you weren’t just a little bit dazzled by what this team accomplished here against the Broncos, then you’ve stopped paying attention.
Offensively, the Colts are playing the football equivalent of “the beautiful game,” completely oblivious to whoever is standing on the other side of the line.
And the Broncos, who brought in Champ Bailey and Darrent Williams and others with the idea of slowing down the Colts’ offense, were revealed Sunday as frauds whose defense built its lofty statistics against the likes of Cleveland’s Charlie Frye.
When the Colts took the football, 1:49 remaining in an epic 31-31 game, was there any question that Peyton Manning would build upon his legend?
Or that Joseph Addai – yes, the coaches have come to their senses, finally – would continue shredding the Denver defense, both running and receiving?
Or that Reggie Wayne, who toasted Williams in a way that was both cruel and unusual, would make a host of huge catches?
And when Adam Vinatieri lined up that 37-yarder with 2 seconds to go, was there any doubt his field goal would be good?
Vinatieri saw the best big- game quarterback in the league in New England, the incomparable Tom Brady. And now he gets to watch Manning, whose offense pitched a virtually perfect second half against what was supposed to be the best defense in generations.
“Those two guys (Brady and Manning) are awesome,” Vinatieri said. “They’re such great athletes, No. 1; but No. 2, they have that confidence in their ability and in the guys on their team. They’re generals who always know what’s going on on the field. They’ll say, ‘All right, if you give me this, I’ll take that and we’re going to take it down the field.’
“I just don’t think either one of them feels pressure too much.”
By now, you’ve seen the statistics: The Broncos had won 13 straight in the rarefied air here. They’d given up just two touchdowns, neither of them at Invesco Field at Mile High, both of them late in games that already were out of hand. Two touchdowns in 65 possessions. The last time a defense had been that stingy, it was the 1934 Detroit Lions.
Then came the Colts, who are a different animal altogether. Check this out: They had just nine offensive possessions all day, due in large part to their own defense’s inability to stop a soul. They punted on the first one. And then it was field goal, field goal, a kneeldown to end the half, touchdown, touchdown, field goal, touchdown, field goal.
On a day when Denver’s running game was outstanding and Jake Plummer played so well he might go one week without being eviscerated by the local media, the Broncos were still incapable of slowing the Colts.
In ’03 and ’04, they tried blitzing, and Manning tore them apart. This year, they showed up with seven new defensive starters and tried to play it safer, bringing pressure with only their front four, and Manning and Co. tore them apart again.
Now, can the Colts do it in the postseason, still months away? Ultimately, that’s the big question, the question that’s always been there with this franchise. Even as they’ve sunk draft choices and dollars into defensive additions, they remain a team that is trying to win in a way no other team has ever won. They still recall the explosive but doomed San Diego Chargers of the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Seriously, when has anybody – ever – given up 180 yards rushing in the second half and still won a football game?
The remarkable has become routine.
“Another day at the office,” Wayne said, wearing an orange-hued suit that nearly spoke as loud as his play. “That’s all it was.”
