Quick Recap: Jets 29 - Colts 15; we're not booing you Curtis Painter

is that Caldwell/Polian decided to intentionally throw away the game to get the players angry. Remind them how much it sucks to lose.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

CALDWELL

And Caldwell just made the criticism he will recieve that much worse when that time comes

Sad day in Indy

They players are great. Let me repeat that……the players are great! The coaches intervention totally screwed up a historic opportunity for them. How fucking pathetic! To intentionally throw a game is inexcusable. Even if they win the superbowl, they intentionally lost a major opportunity tonight to go down as the greatest. Everyone at the sports bar I was in in Tampa booed the coaches of the Colts. I’ve lost respect in Polian and Caldwell forever. What a couple of buffoons. This day will go down as one of my worst memories of Colts games. Someone needs to tell Caldwell to grow a pair!

I buy tickets to games and spend a lot of Colts merchendise, but that’s in the past. Why should I spend money on a team that just spit on me by phoning one in when they could have been the best of all time?

colts are chumps,theres no f_in way there going to win one game in the playoffs with the bigest chump coaches in football

And am currently standing outside, clearing my car of Ice, and braving the snowy roads to get home after attending this game

I am ENRAGED AT CALDWELL/POLIAN RIGHT NOW

BOOOOOOOOO

We were cheering for you to win. The Texans lost nail biting games to the colts two times and get screwed one last time when they decide to give a freebie to another team in the playoff hunt.
Damn your coaching staff!!!

Hell we’ve seen players go down at Practice all over this year

better have him sit at home playing Madden to get his reps and review tape all week

Caldwell said he was going to do this. Someone should give him his walking papers tomorrow.

I’d teach them that fear of injury should control their lives.

I guess there is no reason to even pay attention. Guess I should become a fan of some other team. I can never root for this team ever again that I have always rooted for.

Go …Packers.

/sarcasm

way to go coach…this maybe our only chance to go undefeated and you stole that from us you, loser We want Dungy back at least he has more class than you…sad you are sad…coward

I live in NY, so I built my whole week around actually seeing a game and was excited they actually played the whole game last week, then this. Definition of insanity: Repitition of the same actions with the expectation of different results. All the coaches are insane. Polian is insane. Irsay’s just a druggie.

what a poor choice you suck Irsay should fire your a@# NOW

is to being playing for coaches and mangers like this. They do everything right all season only to have the plug pulled as they’re making history. Excuse me while I find my barf bag.

Irrespective of whether we win a SB or not….With one stroke the heart of this team has been ripped out.

I am sorry Peyton you have once again been robbed of your hard work based on the fears of an old fool.

What more should the players play for ? What is the guarantee in the future we will have a 14-0 and then not rest starters.

If we lose the SB …it will rest squarely on the shoulders of Polian and Caldwell Period.

I no longer can face any other fan and refute the allegation the Colts are wussies….

Losing to the Patriots in row did not hurt so much…
Losing to the chargers did not hurt so much….

This just rips the fans hearts out….If we the fans are going through this…What to talk of poor guy Peyton…The poor guy his face said it all….

Screw you Caldwell and Polian.

fuckin loooooosers

but I am extremely pissed. The organization just said its ok to quit, that is ok to lose. Every player from the beginning of there playing time is taught it is not ok to lose and you want to win every game no matter what. Also you can guarantee this game gave the MVP to Philip Rivers as much as I hate that douchebag.

go Horseshoe_Tsunami go tell it brother

So, how is it different when the Colts put in their reserves to basically give up the game, then if a team were tanking games to get the number one pick? If I had went to this game, I’d be bitching about a refund. Polian can talk all the pompus crap he wants about how its about winning the super bowl and that’s it, but the team exist to win games and win for its fans, without us, there are no Colts. Way to spit in the face of your fans again this year Colt’s brass. This better bring a Super Bowl since they are SO focused on it.

But the main point I ask is, how is this different thank tanking for a draft pick?

fuckin looooooosers

But goddammit, the way this was handled sucks in so many ways. I could see sitting down after two TD’s up. But what they did today screws up guys who bet money on these games. Hell I never bet against the Colts, ever. In the future, including the Buffalo game, I will never bet again after home field is clinched. I don’t think Caldwell and Polian are cowards, but I do think they took money out of my pocket. I knew something was up when they put that no name QB on the roster. Oh crap, I guess 14 – 2 ain’t bad. God help em if we don’t have our Super Bowl this year. I hope Miami chokes on their champaign.

I want to know what caldwell has to say abot this

Go find another team to piss on…dumb ass

caldwell is a fuckin looooooooooooooooooosssssssssser

who cares what he has to say…flipping dick

fuckin loser fuckin loser fuckin loser

but before I go, the fans and the players got totally robbed tonight. It’s amazing how a couple of guys can make the most idiotic decision ever and cause this much pain to everybody. Even if they win the superbowl, it’s not even close to the achievement of winning the superbowl at 19-0. That was a chance at immortality and it was totally within reach…..that’s the sad part. And, Caldwell/Polian said (for God know’s what reason)……na…..we don’t want or need that. Ditka is going to have a field day with this…..and rightly so. With ownership and coaches this unbelievably stupid, Peyton is fighting an uphill battle for the rest of his career.

Wheres Belicheck….hell atleast he would have ran up the score….Caldwell you suck

fuckin looser

Killer Instinct, a coach with Balls

ok and videotapes………

how can he say that winning the Super Bowl is his priority?

Of course it is easy to throw caldwell under the bus the first time we lose a game. THat ignores the the coaches have been saying for weeks that 16-0 doesn’t matter.. The players knew this. They wanted to keep playing, but that’s what players do. Coaches jobs are to tell the players what to do. Their job is to OVERRULE the players for the big picture.

I have not seen one person actually give a rational reason why this will affect our future performance.

Here are the complaints that we have seen:
1) caldwell did a disservice to the fans by not playing the starters.
NO. Any fan who didn’t think that there was a significant chance manning wouldn’t play doesn’t cover the team at all. We all knew this would/could happen. If you paid for the ticket, you accepted that risk.

2) Going for the loss breaks our team’s spirit.
Bullshit. Yes, the team now knows that a game that doesn’t matter, doesn’t matter to the coaching staff. How is that going to change our desire to win a playoff game? This is a team of winners. They know how to win. They aren’t going to forget hot to win bc they were forced out of a game. There is no difference between playing part of a game and watching the 2nd string lose it, and not playing at all.

3) we should play for 16-0

I think that injury to peyton is FAR worse than 16-0.

Did anyone else see the hit that almost got placed on manning? You know, the amazing block by Brown that saved a ferocious hit. If brown misses that block, manning might have dislocated his shoulder, gotten a concussion, or sprained a pinky. Risking him for the short term reward of 16-0 is misguided. These were not the cleveland browns. They were a motivated, agressive defense whose explicit plan was to HIT manning. Yes, a perfect season would have been great. But, I’ll take a super bowl.

4) Why start and not finish? I mean if injury’s are bad just finish the game.

The point of playing part of the game is to maintain the offensive rythym, get some plays in, and score some points. Not to win the game. Once the rythym was there, then we can pull them out.

My main problem with this, is that this will now give almost 21 days before Peyton Manning or anyone else that matters plays a significant game. So while they can say all the want about momentum doesn’t matter, maybe Mr Polian will remember how rusty Peyton was because he couldnt play the pre season to keep himself sharp.

Because we could have gotten out from underneath that gaod damn dark cloud of the Patriots…reagradless of beating them the last five times in a row…

living in Western New York – with no ties to the Colts, let me say I was disgusted with what Indy did. Giving the game to the Jets – which is basically what they did -reflects on the integrity of the NFL. You play to win, especially when you have a chance to make history, and what you do affects other team’s chances for the playoffs.

Why would any Buffalo fan come out this week in the snow to watch a second-string Colts team. Our team is bad enough, but figuring the Colts will play nothing but second-stringers it is in insult to our fans, too.

All of this has a bad odor to it.

Peyton, Clark, and Wayne all looked very pissed

caldwell you dick

This decision makes me sick, like many Colts fans. My biggest problem is the excuse that this was done to make sure that the players are healthy. Who says that they can’t get hurt in the first half when they were out there. I seem to remember Tom Brady getting hurt in the first quarter last year. So, that excuse is just a joke. If you’re going to try and use that, you can’t play them for any part of the game. Secondly, I heard a great point on ESPN by Merril Hoge: “you have some young receivers on this team, such as rookie Austin Collie, who could still use some work with Manning.” Couldn’t have said it better myself. Finally, we just got Adam Vinatieri back. Wouldn’t it have been nice to at least leave Manning in to get this team into field goal range a few more times for Adam to get some work in? Just a thought

Here is my take on what happened today, with the memory painfully fresh of the LAST time the Colts “rested their starters”…against Tennessee at the end of ‘07, letting the Titans “win” and knocking the Browns from the playoffs…first off, it may not matter in the grand scheme of things, but there HAVE TO BE a lot of pissed off 8-7 and maybe also 7-8 teams in the AFC right now, with another team in the mix and sitting pretty at 8-7 thanks to the Colts’ coach, and SECOND of all, though this may sound odd: do future fans who buy Colts tickets for their final home game have to now hope the Colts LOSE more during the season so that the game their tickets are for actually is a “meaningful game” to the coach and owner?

One more note, of course, right after “resting their starters” against the Titans in ’07…the Colts lost their first playoff game to the Chargers.

Indy is a good town, and its fans are good and loyal fans…I feel badly for you, even with my team 4-11…we did try today.

So in one day the motto goes from “in Polian we trust” to he’s a coward.
Caldwell becomes a bum for deciding to play it safe in a game that means nothing more than keeping players warmed up.
If Manning had stayed in, been sacked, and suffered a season ending injury, the howls would be deafing with calls to fire Caldwell and Polian.
Same goes for other key starters.
Painter had no experience and needed some.
The real frustration I feel is for the anemic running game that will be sorely need to get to the Super Bowl.
Field goal kicking is another question mark.
There were some defensive problems as well.
The ultimate goal of any season is to get to the Super Bowl, and risking injury just to go 15-0 is myopic.
If Manning is a team player, he should have no problem giving Painter the chance to gain experience that will help the team down the road.
This team cannot rely on Manning 100% of the time.
If the running game doesn’t get better, the Colts may not get to the Super Bowl anyway.

Coach Caldwell made a decision to take away from his players an opportunity to achieve
greatness or from beoming elite out of fear. All of the hard work and milestones end
not from being outplayed or an injury by a key player(s) But out of fear. I hope his lack of
 faith won’t have an affect in the play-offs. But I think it will. You just by one decision out of FEAR, divided a solid cohisive team and fans, and may have stolen his team’s
competetive edge. It is almost Al Davisesqe to get in the way of successful competetors…His own Team and especially #18.

That should be the sole focus of this team. We are spoiled everyone, you guys are upset about a team not going unbeaten, many fans teams never even sniff the playoffs.

My parting words as I leave you today: the season is NOT over yet.

STILL PISSED

In my opinion Jim Caldwell just completely screwed himself. If he was going to do something like this, it should have been done earlier in the season. You don’t let a team be 14-0, then refuse to let them play and see what they could really do. And the Superbowl doesn’t mean shit when you screw your players on the opportunity of a lifetime. The fans and players just lost a lot of respect for a man they were still forming an opinion about. Caldwell just showed everyone that is was acceptable to give up on a team.

The player’s psyche and ‘expectation to win’ is very important. That criteria was severely damaged this evening as well as the undefeated season.

It takes guts knowing folks like you are going to eat them alive if they take a chance. But if we leave the comments of those outside the team and think about the team for a moment, it may seem more practicable. If there were injuries, say to manning, then who whould fill his position? Yes, probably Painter. Now how does Painter get experience playing? Do the coaches know how the 2nd string players play? They probably even have other reasons for putting in the 2nd string that even the Colts players don’t know. Enough said.

I hate paying fullprice for preseason tickets. Now I go to the game hoping to see history being made and I get cheated. I feel I paid full price to see the best the Colts have to offer. Why didn’t they try to win this home (and go 15 -0 in front of their fans) and then if they want to rest players in Buffalo go for it. Now I won’t even watch the next game. I won’t renew my season tickets.

If you plan on tanking the game this week? Someone please give me a logical explanation for that even if you don’t believe it yourself

How much worse will it be that management pissed away a shot at 19-0?

If you don’t like to compete and win each game, then lobby for less games if you don’t
think your players are up to it. Understanding the Superbowl is the big prize, but trying
to lose a reular season game when you are on the cusp of another great acheivement
is just nuts. If the Colts players can get past this then they will be beyond super.
Head coach and GM need to re-think this one. They owe the players and fans big time.
Again if they had lost 1 or 2 games and were in the same driver seat, different story and strategy

at half-time, it was 9-3 with the Colts 1st string playing. Could the Jets win the game if the Colts 1st string played second half? Hmmm……

I am a Season Ticket Holder and I have paid good $ to see the Colts WIN and lose. Save Peyton, save Reggie, save Dallas? Sure, that’s all well and good, but they get PAID well to take a risk and we FANS deserve to see a 15-0 in the LAST HOME GAME OF 2009 in our warm Stadium! Polain, Caldwell and Moore screwed us all! What a disappointment! Sad day in the History of the Indpls Colts.

and I am stick to my stomach. I was rooting for Manning all year, and I wanted to see history. I can only imagine, how you all feel.

Any perceived advantage from resting those players just evaporated. Does it hurt the team in the playoffs? no, it really shouldnt. But, 2 quarters of rest was completely canceled out by telling the team its okay to quit in a tough close battle.

who doesn’t really give a shit about this? I wasn’t surprised in the least. I was actually surprised Manning came out in the 3rd quarter at all. If Manning, Wayne, Collie, or anyone else got hurt, people would be bitching about Caldwell gaming away our post-season chances on a game that had nothing at stake.

This will all be a distant memory come playoff time. They played enough to stay sharp and all the starters came out without injuries (that we know of). Mission accomplished.

and that strategy is so not the way to go through football or life, scared of taking a chance, scared of reaching your true potential, being the best

its just one of those things…you don’t take out a pitcher throwing a perfect game in the bottom of the 9th because hes thrown 110 pitches.

Before giving anyone a world-class, unbeaten, regular season team with the will-be all- time best nfl quarterback, maybe the colts management should ask (faced with an unbeaten season, are you capable with going all the way?) It’s obvious, Caldwell is not. This coach is just as much as rookie as the quarterback he put on the field. But, he will be famous as the coach that led a superbowl team and gave up a perfect record top let a few players rest. He is a loser thinking he’s dreaming.

the NFL should take action to this kind of decision. i really dont understand the reason why teams have to give weekly injury report for the honor of the game but the colts dont hv to be held accounted for this. i think its unfair to all the other 31 teams[especially in those division/conference who is fighting for their live] to hv a game handed to the jets like that. i think the colts should be fine for the love of the game.

i was for resting players but we are too close. how many times are we going to have the opportunity for a perfect season? we pretty much had it won if we won today considering that we are playing the bills next week. this is peyton’s team and caldwell should recognize that and do what peyton says. caldwell sucks.

this just speaks to calwell pedigree. why would u deny your self and your players a chance at history…. the super bowl is not guaranteed, u fool. i thought u fight all this way to get home field advantage. thus getting a bye week. if u wanted to rest players, that would be the time to do it….

The reason why people are SO upset is the fact that the offense was clicking on all cylinder, shit our RUN game was tearing the jets up and they have the #1 rated defense in the NFL. The reason why people are so upset is that it appears that even though Polian calls the shots, he basically said fuck you to every Colts fan in the world by telling his starters to sit down and let the second stringers lose a game that we should have blown out of the water. Whether or not you believe in momentum, it was essential to get everyone who will be playing in the playoffs playing in a game that does mean sometime, and fuck yes it meant something. This game meant being one step closer to being 16-0 and possibly going 19-0. It meant cementing a legacy that is the Colts of this decade and shoving a dagger right into the heart of every Patriots fanboy at ESPN. The Colts accomplished everything they had this year and in years past by working hard and being consistent, not cheating and doping their way to Super bowl rings. I don’t care how you argue it, but today’s game really hurt me as a fan and Polian basically said it is alright to lay down and kick the bucket. Someone may get hurt, sure, but that is true in EVERY football game, whether you are 0-0 or 14-0. The fact of the matter is Polian let something truly magical slip away and ripped it away from the die hard fans in Indianapolis. We deserved to have that 16-0 season and possibly 19-0 season just to show everyone just how talented this football team is and to shut the mouths of some of the most ignorant, annoying sportscasters in the world. I will continue to root for my boys in blue, but this really hurts.

I have watched football since 1958, have seen dozens of teams play meaningless games with and without starters. However, this was first time that I can state that a team actually conceded a game. I would have respected Colts more, if Manning was in for just one quarter, with the rest of starters at least being used on occasion. Polian said on his radio show last week,,it was Colts goal to be 15-0 and winning was extremely important.
My biggest objection was the timing,,Colts with 5 point lead and ball on their own 9 yard line,,to pull all the starters in skill positions, and place a qb with no game experience.
One could easily see the difference in intensity of the defense, once this was done. The players knew management has conceded the game. This especially bothers me because its a home game,,the fans deserve better. At the very least, they should have had Manning direct the team to near midfield. Also once Jets took the lead,,,Manning should have had a chance to recapture it

A cynical part of me wants to think that the Colts management screwed the fans who showed up at the game. They played for a meaningless win last week…if they rested their starters and lost, no one would have showed up for the game today! So they got the fans to brave the snow and cold to fill up the stadium for the last home game, got some food and beer in them and merch on them, then pulled the starters.

If the Colts were in starter resting mode, they should have just played them enough to keep the game under control, and then rest them next week. Most of the backups I think could have held down the fort against the Bills.

I’m tired of the team resting the starters and then watching them show up for a humiliating early playoff loss because they’re rusty. The Colts somehow managed to win a Super Bowl being forced to play through. I don’t think it would have been a bad thing to go for it.

And I for one WAS booing Curtis Painter. I know there’s a lot of Sorgi hate on this blog, and that even if Sorgi was healthy that Painter should be the #2 guy, but I don’t recall Sorgi staring at his target a solid 3 seconds before throwing on every passing down.

I hope you dicks get bounced in the second round.

I am totally disgusted by so called professional football. It was blatantly obvious that the Colts Coach threw the game not only to protect his precious asset (Manning) but to NOT go into the Playoffs unbeaten because he is superstitous that no other team has done it since the 73 Dolphins. To me, this guy should be cut loose and replaced by a Winner. I wouldn’t even care if they won the Superbowl, in my eyes they would still be losers. solely because of their fearful coach. It was obvious that Manning and they rest of the team wanted to play and win. NFL Football has OFFICIALLY become nothing but a MONEY MAKING tool instead of what it was created to be, a wonderful game that pitted two opponents with the sole purpose of seeing who was better(for that Sunday).I remember when it was fun to play and watch. I loved seeing the players continue to play even when they were still injured, all because of the will to win. Nowadays penalties are thrown because one player looked at another player the wrong way. I played 12 years and that display today has made me give up watching so call Professional Football ever again. Good Luck to everyone. I am done with it.

I meant
 the 72 Dolphins.

this is one of those moment when i dont believe sports. it makes u cant help in thinking there was foul play…. what was the real reason to throw this game because this doesnt make sense to me… maybe im just angry and not thinking rationally but this suck to the 100 power..

This game was completely fixed. The credibility of this sport ended today with this Colts loss. I should have known something was up when the line for this game dropped almost two points shortly before the start of this game. The Jets players were not even that excited that they won. They knew they were going to win because that is where all the money was being bet. Peyton should feel complete disgust for this organization because they sold him out!!!!!

Management Polian specifically & ownership need to be ashamed of themselves.Caldwell has to do what his bosses tell him.I still love the players & will always support them but mgmt can choke on it. Every year they’ve rested the starters they get bounced 1 & done style.A team with a winning percentage as high as theirs only has 1 SB ring.That yr they had to play every week.Polian was 0-4 in Buffalo & we’re supposed to believe his strategy works.A player can be hurt reg. season or the 1st snap of the playoffs i.e. Carson Palmer.I’ve saw a lot of corporations state they are not renewing their suites or season tix. because of this.Fans paid hard earned $ & this is what they get not to mention a slap in the face to Peyton as they didn’t give him the opportunity to play for the record.Say what you want about the Pats but I’ve always respected the fact they have b.a.l.l.s. & truth be told if they played during the ’72 Dolphin era technically they beat their record.