A lot of this info is coming from the NFL.com blog "Inside the Numbers, Week 15"
- Let's start with the hometown team. Peyton completed his 36th career game-winning drive in the 4th quarter/overtime. The pass to Reggie was a thing of beauty. He also passed Vinny Testaverde for 6th all-time in career completions, with 3,803. Vinny played for 21 seasons. Wow. He should also pass Drew Bledsoe before the end of the season, as he's only 36 behind him.
- Staying with the Colts, Marvin Harrison moved into 3rd place on the all-time receptions list, with 1095, passing (Fighting Irish Heisman Trophy Winner) Tim Brown. He only needs 6 more to pass Cris Carter for #2. I'm hoping he passes him this year, which is a good possibility. He's really got no chance of catching Rice though. Nobody ever will.
- One note on the Colts' opponent, the Lions. K Jason Hanson hit his 41st career FG over 50 yards, which is an NFL record. Hanson is an excellent kicker, that has been stuck in a bad franchise for many years. I'd trust him to make any kick for my team.
- The Dolphins guaranteed themselves a winning record, which will only be the third time since the merger (1970) that a team that won only 1 game the previous year, came back the next year to have a winning record. The others? '97 Jets, and the '92 Colts. The two leading rushers for the Colts that year? Anthony Johnson and Rodney Culver, both from the University of Notre Dame (I just had to throw that in).
- The Patriots have now won their last 40 games when they led at halftime, and last 39 when leading at the end of the 3rd. That's pretty amazing. Update: I looked it up, and the last game they lost after leading at halftime, and leading at the end of the third, was Dec. 20, 2004 against the Dolphins. It was the game immediately after Charlie Weis was named Head Coach at ND. Very Interesting. I feel dirty writing something that good about the Patriots...
- So I'll add this about how bad the Patriots Defense has been in the Red Zone this year: They starting out 1 for 3, which is very good. Since? 41 for 41. That's right, the last 41 times an opponent has been in the red zone, they've scored points. By the way, the Colts are #1 on offense (70.5% TD), and #3 on defense (38.6% TD).
- Lastly, my thoughts on the Ravens/Steelers game: I think they got it right. It was ironic, though, that I watched the replay of the "Tuck Rule" game on Saturday. Coleman got the call right there (I agree it is a stupid rule), and he got it right on Sunday. I wish they had the full rulebook online, but they don't. In what they do have, there are no words on what constitutes a touchdown. Is it "ball must cross the plane", or does having 2 feet in the endzone, with possession, count? I hope the head of officiating clarifies it this week.