Vic Carucci thinks the Colts are just lucky.
Here is one article that got to my nerves, what an idiot.
For unbeaten Colts, it's better to be lucky AND good
| By Vic Carucci | NFL.com Senior Columnist |
Perhaps it was only fitting that the Indianapolis Colts' biggest victory of the season -- in the biggest game the NFL schedule has had to offer -- was decided largely by a questionable coaching decision.
By all rights, the New England Patriots should have won Sunday night's prime-time showdown at Lucas Oil Stadium. They thoroughly outplayed the Colts most of the way, yet wound up losing after Patriots coach Bill Belichick's bizarre call to go for it on fourth-and-2 from his own 28-yard line with 2:08 left.
You know the rest of the story: The Pats came up a yard short on the field, and about two minutes later, they were a point short on the scoreboard.
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| AJ Mast / Associated Press |
| Three-time MVP Peyton Manning and rookie head coach Jim Caldwell have had a few breaks along the way to 9-0, and they've taken advantage of them. |
From the Colts' perspective, it's consistent with the kind of story they've been writing on their way to a 9-0 record.
Sure, Peyton Manning has a career-best eight 300-yard passing games this season (including the 327-yard performance he had against the Patriots) and is a leading candidate to become the league's Most Valuable Player. But coach Jim Caldwell, for one, recognizes that his club is in no position to take anything for granted.
"This team has done a great job of fighting to make certain that we haven't lost one," Caldwell said. "There's been a few that have been awfully tight, so we feel good about where we are right now. But we've got a lot of work to do."
Do they ever. Consider:
» Week 1, the Colts beat Jacksonville by a mere two points at home.
» Week 2, the Colts allow Miami to control the ball for 45:07, then, while running only 13 plays in the second half, somehow hang on for a four-point victory.
» Weeks 3-7, the Colts have a stretch of four consecutive lopsided wins, but the only formidable opponent in the bunch is Arizona.
» Week 8, they edge San Francisco by four points at home.
» Week 9, they barely survive in a three-point win over Houston at home after Texans kicker Kris Brown misses a potential game-tying 42-yard field-goal as time expires.
As epic as the games between Indianapolis and New England have been, the most recent served as yet another sobering reminder to the Colts of how different their season could be if they didn't get a few lucky breaks and make enough big plays.
Although they entered Week 10 with the NFL's top passing offense, they have no running game to speak of. Their defense has outstanding pass rushers, but the secondary is banged up.
"(Beating the Patriots) makes you feel good, but it lets you know you're not as good as you think you are," second-year receiver Pierre Garcon said. "You have a lot of work to do. You have to go back to the fundamentals, go back to the basics and get back to the grind."
When you hear that, it's almost hard to believe the Colts share the distinction, along with the New Orleans Saints, of being one of only two unbeaten teams in the league.
This was my comment on the article:
Vic Carucci do you get paid to write this kind of BS article , and you consider yourself an expert? come on man, you gotta to be kidding me. First in football you have good plays and bad plays and that has nothing to do with luck. a 17 point comeback has nothing to do with luck either is the teams courage to never quit. Let go to 4 and 2 , if they've punted it and assuming no big return which could have happened, Peyton would've had to drive 40 yards from their own 29 to be in the same position they were after the 4-2 failure, do you think 40 yards in open field with 4 downs ,2 minutes and 1 timeout against a defense that was getting a beating in the 4th quarter was hard to do? dont think so and we have the same situation that ended the game , Peyton at NE 30 yard , the game wasnt over when they failed in 4th down , the Colts had to score to win which they did , there is no luck in that. 4 and 2 almost wins it , but guess what it was not an incomplete pass so again no luck ,the colts Melvin Bullit had to make a great play to save the game, how in the world is that luck? The reality is that there is such thing as a 12th round knockout , you might be winning the fight but if you get knockout in the 12th the result is the same as being knockout in the 1st. The Colts out played the Pats when it matter, 1 quarter of Colts "A" game was better than the Pats 3 quarters of "A" game. Its a shame that a so called expert try to overshadow a great team effort and superior game play ,i would 've expected that from a fan but not from a NFL columnist. Luck is what the pats had by calling that play on 4 and 2 , if they've punted the end result would've been the same except that this article would have not existed and on its place would been an article to praise on one of the biggest comebacks wins of recent times. The colts will get some of their secondary back from injury soon and Gonzalez if theyre LUCKY! Shame on you Vic Carucci.
This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of Stampede Blue's writers or editors. It does reflect the views of this particular fan though, which is as important as the views of Stampede Blue's writers or editors.
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The Patriots thoroughly outplayed the Colts for about 20 minutes on Sunday night, when they raced out to a 24-7 lead. From that point on it was the Colts who thoroughly outplayed the Patriots, and the fourth down call was just one brief moment in that stretch. Anyone who wants to pin the victory on Belichick’s call must be scratching their heads struggling to figure out how we scored our other 28 points.
They are both two fantastic teams (with weaknesses however)
who battled hard to win. A lot of skill was involved and a little luck too. Any way you slice it……that pass on 4th and two could have been called either way. Or, it could have gone another couple inches or so…. getting the first down. So, yes the Colts were lucky to get that spot and the win. They were also very skillful and talented to even put up 17 in the last quarter. I don’t know any other teams (with the offensive firepower) other than the Colts and Pats who can do that….possibly New Orleans this year. So, to some degree, he’s right, but still a prick regardless. It was a combination of skill, heart, and luck.
This guy is a piece of work.
Yeah, we’re lucky all right, Lucky to have a team that can put up 35 points on the Pats. Lucky to have Peyton and a Defense that can cause turnovers to keep the pats out of the end zone. You are who your record says you are, and We’re 9 and 0! That’s all that matters.
"You can't defend the perfect throw, what can I say?" Peyton quoting Marino
"As I grow older, the list of people who can kiss my ass grows longer"-Ancient Hoosier Proverb.
I blasted Vic with this
I stopped reading past, “the New England Patriots should have won…”. No they didn’t Vic. Manning wasn’t lucky, there were no questionable calls. The only questionable one was Belichick going for it, and you know what? He made the right call. The Colts were a tale of two halves. The first was awful, the second was great. In the first, Brady had a QB rating of over 100. In the second, he had a mesely 76.6. In the first half the Colts offense sputtered. In the second, they scored in under two minutes on two 79 yard drives and the game winner with a 30 yard drive. Your article was totally invalid by the second sentence. For shame.
Luck?
By luck do we mean the calls that allowed the Pats to beat the Ravens and maintain a perfect record in ‘07? Do we mean the “luck” the Pats got in a very soft schedule that year and the “luck” that went in to their games against two teams without their starting QBs, games that were nonetheless very, very close? Do we mean Tyree’s amazing catch in the Superbowl that year? Do we mean the Music City Miracle? C’mon man…every game has things that go one way or the other. Yes, the Colts might have been lucky that Bellicheat decided to go for it. There was no luck AT ALL in the play Bullitt made on Faulk. Hard hit, bobble, and, thus, no forward progress. Turnover on downs.
There was no luck at all in two amazing 4th quarter drives.
The Colts and other great teams understand that games in the NFL often come down to one or two plays and, sometimes, the way the ball bounces on one or two of those plays. Hacks like Carucci don’t understand that and they seem to think that NFL teams should post massive victories over other teams week in and week out to be legit. This isn’t the BCS where the top tier teams routinely feast on weak, weak competition. I remember this guy writing in ’06 that the Colts were headed to the graveyard in the playoffs. It turns out that they now all sport shiny rings and Carucci is still spouting the same blunt commentary.
What other team could have pulled out a 4th quarter come back and drawn the score so close that a 4th and 2 call in the final minutes would have given them a chance to win it anyway? Do you think Roethlisberger or Palmer would have pulled their team out of that hole? All th respect in the world for Pitt and Cincy, but it wouldn’t have happened.
And yes
Manning is most certainly in Bellicheck’s head in a way that other qbs in this league simply are not. What is the record in the last five years? 5-1 (now 6-1)?
by tenyardfight on Nov 18, 2009 10:26 AM EST up reply actions
Here’s the deal: when you’re in another team’s building and you’re up 31-14 in the 4th, you should be trotting out the run game and the backups, because that’s pretty much a butt kicking. When you choke a 17 point lead in the last fifteen minutes of regulation and lose, the question isn’t “You made a questionable call to keep the best QB of this generation, maybe ever, on the sidelines.”, it’s “All you had to do was burn off clock and trust your D to make some stops, and you couldn’t do it.”
Here’s the simple truth: the Colts, for 45 minutes, were totally outplayed by the Pats. It wasn’t even close. But that’s the difference between the Colts and a team like the Lions or Browns; when the chips are down and the deck is stacked against them, they dig deep and find that extra gear. Forcing a goal line fumble, picking off Brady in the end zone, etc. were all ENORMOUS momentum shifts, and kept the game within reach. All it took was one good quarter of heads up football for the Colts to win.
When I look at the rest of the NFL, I honestly have to wonder how many teams, given the same circumstances, would have even forced 4th and 2. If the Pats are at Cincinnati, do the Bengals make it a game from 31-14? Do the Chargers? The Broncos? The Texans? The Steelers? The Ravens? What about the Saints, Vikings, Cards, Cowboys, Eagles, or 49ers? How many of those teams even get to that point, much less force Belichick to go for it? I say none. I’m not sure any of those teams would have gotten there, and gotten in his head enough to force that play.
The Colts, when it comes to the Pats, are unique. We’re in their heads. So, let them come back to Indy in the playoffs. We’ll be ready for them.
Manning makes it Wayne on 'dem hoes! Wayne on 'dem hoes! Wayne on 'dem hoes!
http://monkeybiziu.deviantart.com
by MonkeyBusiness on Nov 18, 2009 10:36 AM EST reply actions
Agree
Yes we were outplayed for most of that game….but the thing about the Colts is you simply cannot stop this train once it gets rolling. There were some good breaks along the way, but it wasn’t luck. Luck was the Pats game against the Bills in Week 1.
However, for Carucci to imply that the Colts are a few plays here and there from being a .500 team is insane. Aside from the Pats game, at no point this season have the Colts been behind by more than 1 score. The Colts have controlled every single game they have been in and even the Dolphins game was in our hands for much of the game regardless of how you spin it with TOP.
Poor form to make judgements of an entire season based on 1/2 a game. As long as we continue to win I will continue to smile all the way to the bank.
9-0 feels oh so good. Bring on the Ravens....
yea thats the same thing that Kanye West told Taylor Swift in MTV awards
“Colts, I’m really happy for you and your good, and I’m gonna let you finish, but Billichick just gave you that game and youre 9-0 cuz you been lucky”
If you read in between the lines youll see the real motivation on writing that article he just added the word good to it to make it less obvious but read between the lines and youll get it.
by thebossuzzi on Nov 18, 2009 12:44 PM EST up reply actions
Funny!
But I don’t care enough about Carucci to read b/w the lines. 9-0 is all the reading I like to do. :)
hes just another person da clings to the patriots balls by sucking them
"You only get intercepted when you don't know what your doing, I knew what I was Doing".
Johnny Unitas
by 805 on Nov 18, 2009 9:15 PM EST reply actions

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