Okay, someone has to state the obvious here:
You either win the game or you lose the game.
Your pre-scuse doesn't matter, and the Pats' personnel issues don't matter, and it doesn't matter that Peyton has better comedic timing that Tom (he does. Would much rather watch Peyton on SNL.)
What matters is what numbers are on the scoreboard at the end of the game. I don't care who doesn't have his best ______ on the field, who has the flu, what the temperature was, or anything else... Of course, the game itself has been heavily influenced by these matchups - witness the "Don't cover the colts receivers" rule emphasis... and Polian will make sure we're playing by completely different rules to address his teams deficiencies, if they lose. That's a given. We lived with it every year until the tide turned. If it turns back, we'll live with it again. We're used to it.
But the present rules are the present rules, complete with "points of emphasis," heavy fines, the "Brady Rule" that ironically became the rule right after Brady lost a year... etc.
By those rules, one team will put up more points.
I think that'll be our team this year, and again in the post-season, should we meet there.
If we don't, it doesn't matter what the excuse is. All that matters is that we prepare by correcting whatever wasn't good enough in this year's game and fix it for the next. Same goes for the Colts, though they usually do it through the "competition committee."
So - your first-rounders are expensive, but you pick em pretty well. Ours are typically cheaper, and sometimes we don't have one at all. That affords us a better-paid "middle class" of players. That should pretty much suggest how we got to the complaining Colts' excuse-fest this year (and bad performance in terms of W/L.)
Knock yourself out dude... but if you don't win, you don't win, and if you do, you do. Same for us.
And if you lose? Maybe fix your injury assumptions. They can happen to the Colts too. Welcome to reality.
PFnV
