At halftime, half of this community was ready to shoot themselves as the Colts entered halftime down 14-9. The San Francisco 49ers, using exotic blitzes, were confusing Peyton Manning and the Colts offense in the first half. For much of the entire game, it was a field position battle. But, in the end, the Colts managed to scrape together a few clutch plays near the end to scratch out the win.
The first half saw the 49ers capitalize on poor tackling, with Frank Gore scoring a 64 yard rushing TD. However, the rest of Frank Gore's carries (12) went for 27 yards. The Colts defense was stellar, save two series: The Gore TD and the drive before halftime, which resulted in a 8 yard TD play from Alex Smith to Vernon Davis. Aside from those two series, the Colts dominated the 49ers offense. Smith threw for only 198 yards. He was sacked 4 times and threw a costly INT in the first half.
The key play of the game was the score that gave Indy the lead for the first time, which was a 22 yard TD pass from... wait for it... Joseph Addai to Reggie Wayne. That's right! The only TD pass the Colts scored in this game did NOT feature Peyton Manning. Addai threw a very good lob to Wayne, who tied a career high with 12 receptions for 143 yards and a TD. Dwight Freeney also recorded a HUGE fourth quarter sack, which gives him a sack in 8 consecutive games. Matt Stover was also 4-4 on FGs, and Pat McAfee was outstanding punting the ball.
BTW, Matt Stover in post-game interviews was awesome. He kept talking about how impressed he was with the Colts defense.
One more thing: Mike Singletary is a bum. A total and complete bum of a coach. As Bob Lamey and Will Wolford noted during the Colts radio broadcast, the 49ers were doing their best New England Patriots impersonation by faking injuries in order to slow Indy's no-huddle offense. The radio announcers noted players were receiving signals from 49ers coaches to "go down" when the Colts tried to go hurry-up. It was disgusting. It was vomit-inducing.
It didn't work.
So, congrats Mike! Your team is 3-4. You've lost three in a row, and when the chips were down, you tried to cheat. Oh, and all those defensive changes you did this past week? Yeah, they didn't work either. Manning threw for 347 yards, completed 64% of his passes, and the Colts won. Utter and complete tool = Mike Singetary. 49ers fans deserve better than this dirty schmuck. I hope they don't think my disgust at Singletary is disgust for the 49ers. Nothing but respect for the 49ers as an organization, and I love the community at Niners Nation. But Singletary's coaching today was both vile and un-becoming an NFL coach.
The Colts are 7-0, sans attempts to cheat, and did so in a scrappy, hard fought game. Go Colts!