Seriously Gregg, stop it! Just stop!
It's not enough that you look like a total and complete douchebag, or that you have the insufferable arrogance to have three gs in the name "Greg," but after last week's article, where you all but insulted the Colts for dominating the Ravens in the AFC Divisional Round, you one-up yourself by posting this online homage to stupidity.
Gregg's article is less about him apologizing for his idiocy from last week, where he wrote:
Saturday night was more of the same. Wayne caught eight passes for 63 yards. Clark caught seven for 59 yards. Garcon had five for 34. The Colts' longest play of the game was 20 yards on a pass from Manning to receiver Austin Collie, who had three more catches for 32 more yards.Weighed down by all those nickels and dimes, the Colts simply couldn't -- and can't -- throw it downfield.
Flash forward to the AFCCG, and you saw Austin Collie and Pierre Garçon catching bombs left and right. The game was pretty much a solid kick to Doyel's tiny jewels. But, in typical Doyel fashion, instead of writing a "hey, looks like I was blatantly and totally wrong about the Colts, he writes another article bashing the Colts.
This time, he does what other many other writers with no football IQ are swearing by: That the Colts intentionally threw away from Darrelle Revis, aka "Revis Island," because they were afraid of him. Forget for a moment that Darrelle Revis did not play a very good football game. Focus instead on Doyel's flawed logic when discussing Ravis' supposed dominance in the AFCCG:
Manning literally got aggravated when he was asked if the Colts had purposely stayed away from Wayne because of Revis, whose dominance this season has led to a nickname for the barren offensive area around him: "Revis Island."
"I'm so sick of that," Manning said. "No, we didn't stay away from Revis."
It sure looked that way.
Um, Gregg. Listen, I know you have a reputation as a clueless pundit, and that the only reason CBS bothers paying you is because you write "controversial" crap that gets linked to by blogs like mine. But, seriously Gregg, this is pretty elementary. It's so elementary even you should be able to pick it up.
Manning threw the ball five times to Reggie Wayne. He caught three of them for 55 yards, one of the being a very key first down in the fourth quarter on the drive that lead to the dagger (Dallas Clark's 15 yard TD). The reason why Peyton Manning did not throw the ball more to Wayne was not because Darrelle Revis was blanketing him. Fire up your Tivos or your cable boxes and watch the game again. Focus on Reggie v. Darrelle. Reggie is open. A lot!
However, as open as Reggie was, he was not as open as Pierre Garçon or Austin Collie. One of the reasons Garçon was so wide open all game, which saw him set an AFCCG record with 11 catches, was because the Jets decided to bench regular starter Lito Sheppard and start Dwight Lowery. Manning noticed this change and attacked it all. game. long.
I mean, why throw to Reggie Wayne when Pierre Garcon is streaking wide open towards the endzone? This isn't Dallas circa 2007, where every ball had to go to Terrell Owens. This isn't New England, where Randy Moss gets bored and dogs it on plays unless he gets the ball early. This is Indy, and the ball goes to the guy who poses the best match-up, and Garcon on Lowery was a HUGE match-up advantage for the Colts.
"When a guy's hot like Pierre, you go to him," Manning said before acknowledging -- finally -- that maybe, just maybe, the Colts had better places to visit Sunday than Revis Island.
"Well," Manning said of Lowery, "when a guy's making his first start all season -- in the AFC title game -- you have to check that out a little bit."
Doyel notes that Garçon and Collie were indeed "hot" and warranted getting the ball, but in the end he goes back to the silly notion that everyone but Revis played poorly for the Jets on defense. Again, Reggie Wayne caught passes of 25 yards, 13 yards, and 17 yards on Revis. On one catch, Wayne shook Revis nearly out of his sneakers to gain extra yardage. I can only recall one pass to Wayne where Revis' coverage forced the incompletion. Everything else: Revis was beat.
I have loads of respect for Revis and I think he is a very good player. However, Gregg Doyel simply does not know anything about football, proving that he is the douchiest douchbag in a nest of big media douchebags.