What We Learned

Sunday November 4th, 2007 taught NFL fans many things about how the rest of the season is going to fill out. Peyton Manning and his Colts were about one bad throw away from sealing a victory and ruining New England’s quest for perfection. Ironic, how things like that work out, isn’t it? We at the Creatures though, won’t dwell in the past. Instead we look ahead at what Colts-Pats ’07 (round 1) taught us.

We learned that…

Come the AFC Championship game in Foxboro this year, there’ll be tons of bad blood and revenge on the minds of Indianapolis. I can’t imagine that Tony Dungy walked into that locker room last night and yelled at his men. They played too hard. But at the very same time they’ll be amped for the game and he’ll have them more than prepared in December, when it counts.

The Pats know how to face adversity if need be. Down by 10 with 9:42 left in the game, they didn’t panic, but rather excelled in the clutch. First with a strike to Welker from Brady 3 yards out, then another dump off from TB to Kevin Faulk for a 13 yard score. The New England D stifled Peyton in the late minutes, and sealed the deal with a late fumble recovery.

The Colts defense has come to play. Forcing Brady to match his number of interceptions all year in just one game, is not an easy feat. Bob Sanders, Dwight Freeny, and Robert Mathis plagued Brady and his O-line all game. This was the first time all season that I felt like a defense could shut down QB 1.

In all likelihood, if Marvin Harrison and Anthony Gonzalez had been well and fit to play in this game, it would’ve been Indy’s contest in decsisive fashion. Think about how well Manning held his own without his number one receiver and slot guy. All Peyton could do the entire game was throw slants to Clark, bombs to Wayne, and dumps to Addai. When he has all his weapons, this team is damn near impossible to take down.

The Patriots will most likely run the table. I hate to say it, but after this victory, it seems quite likely that the ’72 Dolphins will have to put the champagne away for the first time in 35 years. The only other real test that I see for New England is in week 17 against the Giants. If they are going to lose a game this regular season, it’ll be because of the G-Men.

The New England Patriots are human after all. This is certainly the most important revelation to come out of Sunday’s show down. The fact that his this supposedly "super-team" could be beaten, is monumental to the league and to Indy. The Colts proved that they have everything necessary to end the Patriots illustrious season without the Lombardi Trophy.