Anyone Else Think the Colts Made a Tactical Error by Not Going for the Win?

PatsDeb said:

I don't know. I go back to my original thought that the team the Colts would most like NOT to play in the 1st round is SD - they already lost to them when SD was not playing at the top of its game.

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It seems the Chargers have found their rushing attack the last half of the season however Philip Rivers has seriously regressed this year. I wonder if the Chargers have enough offense to compete with the Indianapolis Colts. However, Marvin Harrison will be rusty his first game back in quite some time and Anthony Gonzalez is not 100%. Meanwhile, Joseph Addai has slowed down the second half of the season and the Colts rushing attack has not impressed me lately.

Honestly, I believe the Colts are just happy to get through the end of the regular season with nobody else hurt. I wouldn't matter who came to town if Haynesworth bulldozed Manning playing for the win. Every team in the AFC playoffs is dangerous, and they probably feel need to be as healthy as possible going in no matter who they play. How many AFC #1 seeds in the last decade have made it to the Superbowl? I think your team did it in 2004, but besides that one?

Time for the Colts to try to heal a little, the AFC is tough again this year. They will need to be healthy to have a chance against whoever comes to town, and if they are fortunate enough to win at home, there is probably going to be a cold reception waiting for them in Foxboro against a team with destiny written all over them.

I'd think SD would have a good upset chance with the Colts, since they do seem to play Indy well. The problem I have with that is Rivers, who is just so far off where I think most thought he would be by now.

I'm sure that Romeo was pissed that the Colts tanked that game. Doesn't matter much to the Pats as Colts, if they make it, will have to come to Foxborough and hope to win. Fat effen chance.

speed said:

I don't think its arrogance as was suggested, but I don't think they do care. I would guess this discussion NEVER happen in the organization and I agree with them. You can only control what you can do and how you can prepare, you focus your energy on that, not on trying to manipulate the external bye week match ups. I'm not being a jerk, I just think the whole supposition isn't reality.



I am curious of the details that BB loss a game on purpose against Miami?? Is that true or just speculation.

I have really hard time believe BB loss on purpose or any coach or organization for that matter, unless maybe it was for like draft position in the NBA back in the day.

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They had a very competitive game where they didn't play many starters. They had a chance to win at the end and some here have speculated Cassel deliberately missed his receiver for what would have been the wining score (going by memory, please correct me if I'm wrong).

Playing very competitive games with backups is different than just "shutting it down".

There's a fine line, but letting your team lose going into the playoffs can definitely be worse than an injury IMO.

RayClay said:

They had a very competitive game where they didn't play many starters. They had a chance to win at the end and some here have speculated Cassel deliberately missed his receiver for what would have been the wining score (going by memory, please correct me if I'm wrong).

Playing very competitive games with backups is different than just "shutting it down".

There's a fine line, but letting your team lose going into the playoffs can definitely be worse than an injury IMO.

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Thanks for the details, that puts a different perspective on it, I thought it was some obvious common knowledge thing I missed.

PatsDeb said:

The Titans, IMHO, are just awful. They should not be in the playoffs. If the Colts just played their starters at 1/2 speed they should have won. Yet, they take a loss to rest players, ensuring that the Titans will go to SD and most assuredly get knocked out, forcing Indy to play a pumped up SD for the 2nd time this year, where Indy lost the 1st meeting. At least Cleveland, with its high powered offense, may have had a shot at beating SD, in SD. If they did, they'd have to travel across the country to play Indy on little rest, thus probably ensuring a pretty easy win for Indy.

I wondered why Indy didn't put much stock in this? Do they think the Titans, even though the have a 99% chance of losing, will beat up SD more? What do you think?

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I think you make an excellent point.

I can't speak to specific Indy/SD matchups, but generally speaking, if I'm an Indy fan I much prefer to play the winner of the Jax/Steeler game than SD especially seeing as they lost to them earlier this season.

As such, if I were them I'd be looking at giving SD the toughest matchup possible in the playoffs, and I think that would likely be the Browns rather than the Titans.

But instead the Colts pull their starters and hand the game to the Titans - and likely hand themselves a matchup with the Chargers... as opposed to a potential Jags game who they beat twice or the Steelers who don't have a starting RB anymore.

As Belichick has demonstrated, you can lose by winning a game, as I think we all feel he purposely lost to Miami last year to face the Jags, a team he knew well and knew he matched up well against. By the same token the Colts had an interest in creating the best matchup for themselves and needed to win to do it. Strategic error on their part, I agree.

You might want to consider applying for the Colts coaching job!

5 Rings for Brady!! said:

When you own the refs and play indoors, why not be arrogant? You control everything.

The Colts have become a team that cheats on every play, and until the refs put an end to it, the Colts will be arrogant.

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I know you said this with all seriousness but that just made me literally laugh out loud!

PatsDeb said:

The Titans, IMHO, are just awful. They should not be in the playoffs. If the Colts just played their starters at 1/2 speed they should have won. Yet, they take a loss to rest players, ensuring that the Titans will go to SD and most assuredly get knocked out, forcing Indy to play a pumped up SD for the 2nd time this year, where Indy lost the 1st meeting. At least Cleveland, with its high powered offense, may have had a shot at beating SD, in SD. If they did, they'd have to travel across the country to play Indy on little rest, thus probably ensuring a pretty easy win for Indy.

I wondered why Indy didn't put much stock in this? Do they think the Titans, even though the have a 99% chance of losing, will beat up SD more? What do you think?

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Yeah they probably did tank the game, but your other assumptions are incorrect. If the colts won, and put the browns into the playoffs, it would have been as the 6 seed. If the browns beat the chargers, the browns would face the Pats in the next round, not the colts. The colts would get the winner of the steelers/ jags game. The Pats face the lowest remaining seed, so if either the titans (or the browns) beat the chargers, they (titans) would have to face the Pats, not the Colts. If the chargers win, then they have to play the colts.

I tend to think that the Colts can't count on anybody beating anybody else to go messing with things like that.

I think they pulled starters for the traditional and obvious reasons.

No, the players, coaches and the GM all do not, unlike your team, so get your head and your ass wired together before you post here again...................

BradyManny2344 said:

As bad as the Colts played - it goes both ways, the Chargers played horribly in that game as well. Don't get me wrong, the Colts are a much, much better TEAM than the Chargers, but SD is a group of players that is scary simply b/c of all their talent.

Granted, that talent likely will never turn into anything b/c it also happens to be one of the biggest group of losers ever assembled on a sporting field, but the point remains.

It's sort of all moot, b/c if it's not Colts-Pats in the AFCCG, I think it would be a shock and I think everyone will feel let down. It's like when Tiger Woods and or Phil Mickelson aren't in the hunt on Sunday of a major championship - no one watches and everyone feels cheated.

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I don't know about all that. We all know the game is about match ups and it should be clear to all that SD matches up pretty well with the Colts. SD has won the last 2 games against the Colts and they haven't had a problem going into the RCA dome to do it. If SD had managed to get by NE last season you know I believe they could have beaten the Colts in SD.

If the Chargers get the op to go to the dome this season, like always it'll be about which team is there to play and who wants it more. We'll see.

This is the question I have been asking myself: who has the better chance to beat, or at least beat up, the dolts - Jax or SD? As of today, I'm leaning towards Jax. They should have defeated the dolts at Indy last month, they shredded the dolts defense last year at Jax, and they are playing really, really well now.

It's too bad that the SD - Tenn game isn't being scheduled ahead of Pit - Jax. If SD wins, then I could root for Pit; if Tenn wins, then I could root for Jax.

I do think that Tenn has a better chance of defeating SD than Cleveland would have, though. The Browns' passing offense and return game are more explosive than the Titans', but the Titans' running offense is more versatile than the Browns', and their defense is much better. If their WRs can catch the football, then I think that they have a decent chance to stage the upset. Go Titans!