It’s pretty chic these days for people to attack Jim Caldwell and second guess his decisions in the Super Bowl, but the reality is the people bashing him simply don’t know what they are talking about. Caldwell had the Colts focused and prepared for the Super Bowl. Hell, he had them focused and prepared all season. If Hank Baskett fields that onside kick; if Dwight Freeney’s ankle isn’t injured; if the Colts defense gets the Saints off the field on third down, Caldwell would have completed one of the greatest rookie head coaching jobs in NFL history. So please, Caldwell bashers need to pull their heads out of their collective anal cavities.

Amen.

Both teams played extremely well. It could have gone to either team. It is what you want and expect from a Superbowl. The two top ranked teams from each conference playing against each other. One team wins, one team loses. People can trash talk your coach or your D. But face facts. Both teams, and let me reiterate, BOTH TEAMS were playing against phenomenal Offenses. I think that both teams D’s held up very well. The pick was the difference. Kudo’s to the Colts for ball security. The Saint’s were able to force so many turnovers, keeping it to one is noteworthy.

Hold your heads high Colts fans. We are looking forward to a rematch hopefully next season.

Think of just how damn down in the dumps you are right now. Think of just how depressed you are. Are any of you all replaying the pick-6 in your minds? The dropped Garçon pass? The last incomplete Manning threw near the end zone? Well, think about just how hard all of that is hitting us fans, who only let part of our lives orbit around the colts.

Then think about this: As hard as we’re taking it as fans, I guarantee you every single veteran – Reggie, Freeney, Brackett, Clark, and especially Manning – is taking it at least two orders of magnitude harder than we are. It’s eating them. They’re not sleeping, they’re chewing their liver over this loss. So why is this a silver lining? Think about just how driven they’re going to be next year because of this. And the year after. Look at what they accomplished with merely the motivation they had this year, which was intense, but not driven by a gnawing hunger to right a wrong. Then, extrapolate to just how hard Peyton’s going to work in the offseason and training camp, how hard Reggie’s going to work in the weight room and on his hands, how hard everybody’s going to work to get back. And then stop and think about the fact that Gonzo on offense and Sanders plus Jackson on defense will be back. Add that to the almost always bright side of the Colts ability to find gems in later rounds in the draft, and you don’t have a situation like Arizona where they were peaking merely on emotion and the strength of Warner’s will. You have a situation where the entire freakin’ team is going to be hungry. But, this team is going to be hungry with a coach like Caldwell, and a group of guys who don’t show their will by salivating like a pack of hungry wolves, but rather demonstrate it by raising their level of execution even higher and higher. Or in short, they don’t shoot their emotional wads by going nuts all over the place like an out-of-control fire hose, they channel their will towards pure work and effort.

Think about that.

I hate having to look for “silver linings”. It means you’re trying to salvage a small good from a large bad. But, in this case, the bad has happened. There’s no getting around it. We have to live with it. Yet, as far as silver linings go, this is one hell of a good one. The future is damn bright. And there’s zero – ZERO – chance any of them are going to feel complacent next year. This silver lining is a portent and promise of the possibilities next year. And if there’s ever a team built to not fall prey to the “What happened to last year’s runner ups?” curse, does anyone not agree that it’s this one?

It’s a bright future. Damn bright.

My love and admiration for this team grew exponentially during the 2009 season. I began watching the team full time during the 2000 season. My dad taught me the ins and outs of football and ever since then I’ve been dedicated to the Indianapolis Colts.

Now I took this same approach with my 11 year old son, whom wants to play football. I taught him the ins and outs of football. He now is as good as Tim Tebow, he can read Cover 2 and Cover 3 defenses…. and can throw a better ball than he can despite having smaller hands.

The Super Bowl was a great game that were simply were out executed in. But my faith in this team is even stronger. The Colts have taught me to take the season a game at a time and not get to high or low about a win or a loss. The Super Bowl is no different.

This team is at the top of the mountain in talent and is better than 29 other teams at almost every skill position.

Now here is to the Colts getting to Super Bowl XLV….

GO COLTS!

I cant stand that jim caldwell is getting bashed just like peyton. kudos for giving props to jim! to blame jim is cowardly just like it is to rip on peyton. comparing him to dungy is cowardly too because dungy was part of teams that they associate us with choking too.

nobody can tell me any different but this is a superbowl the colts werent going to be allowed to win no matter what. the circumstances and everything we cant say outloud were against them

there is no preferred team I would rather to lose to other than jax and that will be a nonexisting issue because they will be off to LA LA land soon. losing a superbowl. personally Id rather have kurt warner retire as a winner because hes just as class as any saint and they have never won one. how they lost against the steerlers was antagonizing. warner is a very giving guy and he do gets bashed alot undeservedly. so I dont agree with the if there was any other team…but the rest of your points were excellent

and Im glad you mentioned bob. everytime i saw that in print about not missing bob sanders during the year I rolled my eyes. it was like not missing freeney last year until the end and then we knew how much we really missed him and deep down we knew it would effect this superbowl as well. having bob back is going to be huge!

didn’t have the team around him to win a superbowl until the last two years of his career… Peyton is already ahead there, and if caldwell and others really pull this team together in the direction we saw them going this year I hope over the next few years in the latter half of his career Peyton can do even better.

Remember … Peyton didn’t get his ass handed to him 55-10.. this was a close one that could have gone either way.

To next year in TEXAS…

And I look forward to next season. I think it’s gonna be a good one!

In many ways, I disagree with 18to88 on their ideas for improving the team. Adam Vinatieri is the kicker for this club, like it or not. He can get the job done and has performed well in the clutch when healthy. If Vinny were OK last Sunday, he would have drilled that 51-yarder. Count on it. If he is healthy for 2010, and all signs I saw at the Super Bowl suggested he would be, the Colts are fine at kicker. Vinny is 37, which is still a fine age for a kicker. I trust a 37-year-old Adam Vinatieri kicking my FGs over some unproven 22-year-old rookie.

From what I have seen on 18to88.com, they will be quite happy going into the 2011 season with Vinny if someone can guarantee his health.

Vinny has been injured much in the last few season, so that is quite a stretch. It’s not so much his age, it’s the injuries catching up on him.

I believe he’ll be healthy next season and think he’s still a solid kicker, but saying “Count on” him drilling a 51-yarder when the guy’s only made two from 50+ (and missed 7) since the 2002 season seems overly optimistic.

is that this team goes into next season SO brimming with focus and hunger that they forget to play loose. If they don’t play loose, they are more likely to over-commit on plays, dinosaur arm catches, force throws into triple coverage. I loved the workman attitude throughout the year and think it really got the team through the season, but the other thing they need to bring back and remember is to put the past behind them and move forward. You can’t dwell on the successes or failures of the past.