Key miscues by the offense left the Colts unable to compensate for very poor protection and run defense. Early drops by Pierre Garcon forced the Colts to punt from midfield and kick a short FG, a 3rd and long sack took the Colts out of FG position, confusion on the O-line forced the Colts to burn two of their 2nd half TOs early, allowing the Texans to run out the clock much more easily, and an Austin Collie fumble inside the 10 ended another big scoring opportunity. Those miscues kept the Colts from covering up major struggles in run D and pass protection. 

Peyton lived on checkdowns most of the game and was sacked twice as the Texans were able to apply pressure all game. Meanwhile Texans backs Arian Foster and Steve Slaton ground out yardage and drained the clock with over 250 yards on the ground.

The Texans threw only 19 passes, but the threat of a potent passing game kept the Colts safeties back, opening up extra room for the Texans run game.

The Colts need to pass protect and defend the run better, but the miscues on offense put the Colts into a death spiral. Trailing all game tipped both teams playcalling away from the Colts ideal. The Texans were able to use a run heavy attack with 40 runs to 19 passes, while the Colts were forced to abandon any semblance of balance, running just 10 times vs 58 passes. The Colts are built to play close and with a lead.

The Colts can compete with sub-par protection and run D, but they can't afford any mistakes on offense when those units struggle to this extent.

I still have high hopes for this team, but the offense needs to execute to their usual high standard while the offensive line and run D need to give them some margin for error.

Normally I'd post a gameball poll, but I can't think of anyone but Joseph Addai who impressed me today turning shaky run blocking and checkdown passes into 73 yards of offense with 4.4 YPC.

I've got a ton of notes from this game, and while many in the comments are bemoaning the final score, most of the notes are good. Obviously, the person who is most certainly going to 'hear it' in the film room tomorrow is Curtis Painter. He was awful. Three INTs and a fumble led to 34 unanswered points by the 49ers. This picture above says a thousand words about Painter's afternoon.

The silver-lining though is this is preseason. The game doesn't count. So, relax. Chat amongst yourselves while I try and make sense of all my notes.

Special thanks to David Fucillo at Niner's Nation.

For the first time this season, we have to look at a legitimate Colts loss.  I really wasn't looking forward to doing this, but after I ran the numbers, it showed me something so glaring, I'm going to be pounding the same drum until the draft.  More on that later, but first a couple notes from the game:

• From Elias:  Peyton Manning had thrown 1071 passes since the last time he threw an INT for a touchdown.  It sucks it had to come at that point in the game.
• Another from Elias:  There were 3 lead changes in the game, and nine in the previous three Super Bowls.  That equals the number of lead changes in the previous 10 Super Bowls.  Three good games in a row, although I wish this one would have been one sided in the Colts favor.
• From our fearless leader (via Joel Thorman): The Colts 96 yard drive, capped off by a Pierre Garçon TD, tied the longest drive in Super Bowl history.  Super Bowl XX also saw the Bears go 96 yards against the Patriots.
• From Pro Football Weekly: Peyton Manning's total of 333 passing yards in Super Bowl XLIV increased his career postseason total to 5,164 yards, and he became the third player to reach 5,000 postseason passing yards. The others: Brett Favre (5,855) and Joe Montana (5,772).
• Also from PFW: Dallas Clark increased his career postseason totals to 64 receptions and 847 receiving yards, breaking the previous records for tight ends: 62 receptions by Jay Novacek and Shannon Sharpe, and 834 receiving yards by Keith Jackson (Whoa Nelly).

Follow me after the jump, where you'll have all the ammunition you'll ever need when a moron claims Peyton Manning "choked" this game away...

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More: Super Bowl 2012 coverage.

It's a very bitter pill to swallow, but the facts are that the Saints were better. Despite the Colts out-rushing and out-gaining the Saints, the Saints made the plays to win and the Colts didn't. It's easy to place the blame on Peyton Manning, and Manning-haters will likely do so.

Ignore them.

Manning did all he could, throwing for over 333 yards and a score. However, in the end, the Saints offense simply could not be stopped in the second half. Because the Saints offense was so dominant in the second half, this forced Manning to take chances in the fourth quarter, down 24-17 with a little over 5:00 left. And with chances come turnovers. Thus, the pick six, which was really a great play by Indiana University alum Tracy Porter, who has had one helluva playoff run. Porter jumped Wayne's route, and the gamble paid off. As shake n bake so accurately put it, most of the Saints gambles paid off.

Can't give enough respect and props to Purdue alum Drew Brees. His running game was totally shut down, and without any truly big plays, he was able to carve up the Colts secondary for 288 yards and 2 TDs. Also, the fake kick called by Saints head coach Sean Payton was tremendous.

In the end, the Saints were just a bit better. The score does not give justice to how close and how exciting this game was. I give major props to Joseph Addai and the running game. They came to play. The defense contained Reggie Bush and the Saints running game. Dwight Freeney was able to make an impact, getting a key sack.

But, again, it just was not enough. Hats off to the Saints. If a "good guy" team beat us, it was them. It's a wonderful story that they won. Dave of Canal Street Chronicles is next to me, and he's damn near crying. I know for many of you this does not comfort you, but I must admit that it is a little overwhelming to see the fans here reacting to the Saints winning. This stadium was so loud for them, it might as well have been a home game for them.

I want to thank all of you posters and readers for contributing today and all throughout the week. We will have more fallout throughout the evening, including our own post game quotes and photos from the locker rooms.

Chin up, Colts fans. This was a helluva season; a season no one expected our guys to have. No shame in losing to the Saints. As always, keep the haters at bay.

Go Colts!

As is their style, the Saints played an aggressive risky gameplan. As with the previous 18 games their gambles paid off. Calling the Saints gamblers is not a slap at their talent. A team that isn't elite doesn't make it to the Super Bowl, let alone be close enough to put the game on the line.

The Saints went for it on 4th down on the goal line, they opened the 2nd half with a surprise onside attempt, and Tracy Porter put the exclamation point on the game in a style that perfectly reflects the Saints attitude. Up just a score the Saints stayed aggressive. Porter jumped Reggie Wayne's route, risking the tying TD, but his success ended the game on the spot.

The Saints made it to the Super Bowl and were in position to win because they are a Championship worthy team, they won because their gambling style succeeded more than it failed them.

When Mark Sanchez found Dustin Keller to go up 14-6, I let out a few choice expletives.  I really though the Jets had just stolen 4 points.  Then they stole 3 more after the fumbled handoff and Jay Feely FG, making it 17-6.  I wasn't around in the open threads, but I'm guessing it wasn't pretty.  For a split second, a sense of doubt entered my mind.  The Jets had played 28 perfect minutes, and looked in total control.

Then I took a deep breath, and remembered I was rooting for the team with Peyton Manning.  He was going to figure out this defense.  Plus he was getting ready to run the 2 minute offense, where he's the best there ever was.

As it turns out, I was right, of course.  Manning clearly figured out the defense, scoring a TD in under a minute, then 2 more touchdowns on the first 3 drives of the 2nd half.  The rest is history.

It was an all-out assault of the league's #1 defense, and here's some records to prove it:

• From Elias: It was the fourth playoff game in the last seven seasons in which Manning's yardage total (377) was at least that high. All other NFL quarterbacks have combined for only three such games during that time (two by Kurt Warner, one by Aaron Rodgers).  Both of these QBs did it this year in their Wild Card shootout.
  
• From Elias: Pierre Garçon gained 151 receiving yards and Austin Collie gained 123 in the Colts' victory. It was the first NFL postseason game in which teammates in their first or second season in the NFL posted 100-yard receiving games. Their performances also mark only the fourth time in playoff history that two Colts receivers have gone over 100 yards in the same game (Colts.com).
• Staying with Garçon, he set an AFC Championship record in both Catches and Receiving Yards (11 - 151).  It was 3rd all time in Colts playoff history in terms of Yards, behind Reggie Wayne (221) and Raymond Berry (178), and 2nd all time in Colts playoff history for Receptions, behind Berry's 12 catches in the Greatest Game Ever Played.
• From Elias: Austin Collie was only the second rookie to gain at least 100 yards receiving in a conference title game. The first was Reggie Bush (7 receptions for 132 yards) in the Saints' loss to the Bears three years ago.
• One more from Elias: The Colts trailed, 17-6, before scoring 24 consecutive points against a Jets team that allowed the fewest points in the NFL during the regular season (14.8 per game). Only one other team overcame a deficit at least that large to win a playoff game against the league's stingiest team: the Eagles trailed the Saints, 20-7, before rallying for a 36-20 Wild Card victory in January 1993.

Long Exhale.  Want to get to the numbers?  Jump on over...

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There was a lot of talk by the opponent this week leading up to the game. Some of that talk bordered on the line between being confident and disrespecting the other team. There was also big media, who were clearly rooting for the Jets in the hopes of having someone they like (Rex Ryan) chew the fat with them on media day. And then there was the NY Jets Pro Shop offering pre-sale deals on "Jets AFC Champs" gear, featuring the stuff prominently on the frontpage of the site.

In the end, the play on the field did all the talking, and that play took the form of the Colts giving the Jets and their supporters the back hand across their collective faces using their Super Bowl ring hand.

"It's great to win this championship here at home in front of the best fans in the world. We have a bunch of guys that have worked hard all season and been very humble. We were very humble this week.

"We just kept our mouth shut this and went to work this week and came out and won the game."

All season long, this team has answered the call time and time again, proving critics and skeptics wrong. It started in training camp, where folks like me questioned the decision to bench Tony Ugoh in favor of Charlie Johnson. The result was Peyton Manning being sacked fewer than any other starting QB in the league. Then, there was the fallout after the decision to bench starters in Week Sixteen against these same NY Jets. The decision was greeted with boos from the fans and the Colts themselves (namely, Bill Polian) reacted by lashing out and providing illogical excuses that neither the fans nor the players saw as credible.

However, after watching the Colts absolutely dominate the AFC Divisional and AFC Championship rounds, especially on defense, the question on whether to rest starters has now been forever answered. Both teams in the Super Bowl sat their starters in Week Seventeen. The teams who played through to the end of the regular season (the Ravens, Jets, and Cowboys) are all at home, pondering next season. With the Saints and Colts facing each other in Super Bowl 44, we have all learned the following:

Momentum is indeed over-rated.

Health is paramount over anything else.

We also learned that when you have a player like Peyton Manning, a guy who likely will go down as the best of all time, it doesn't matter what is written about, spoken behind the scenes, or shouted in a loud stadium. In the AFCCG, it's all about execution, execution, and execution. It's about making plays at the right place, right time. It's about all the silly cliches we sometimes laugh at because they've simply grown stale on us, but the reality is that being healthy and focused in the playoffs gives you the best chance to get to that February game over the teams that talk big, puff out the chests, and scream about the importance of momentum.

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The Colts O had too many weapons and the Colts D showed yet again that the finesse, "can't stop the run" label is hopelessly outdated.

With Reggie Wayne slowed to a mere 3 for 55 by Darrelle Revis, Pierre Garçon and Austin Collie combined for 18 receptions (including a AFCCG record 11 from Garçon) for 274 yards with a TD each. The Colts put up the first 350+ yard passing game against the Jets D and racked up a QB rating of 123. They were supplemented by the Colts ground game emerging to pick up 4.6 a carry and...

outgain the Jets vaunted ground game 101 to to 85.

That 85 yards by the Jets came on 27 carries for a pitiful 3.1 average. The Colts paid early for their run focused D giving up TDs on drives built around 45 and 80 yard passes, but even against fronts stacked against the Jets passing game was unable to keep pace with the Colts O once it adjusted to the Jets blitz heavy strategy.

The Colts were not beaten down by the Jets physical run game, the leagues top Pass D was unable to contain them for more than a couple drives to start the game.

Thanks to that refutation of the popular narrative...

The Colts are going to the Superbowl!