Week 17: Titans @ Colts.

huevonkiller · Dec 26, 2008

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Some notes before the game:

Colts Team Report

Yahoo! Sports 14 hours, 38 minutes ago

Inside Slant

To rest or not to rest. That’s the big question that Indianapolis Colts coach Tony Dungy has been mulling over since the end of last Thursday night’s road game with Jacksonville

Should he rest his starters and key players against the AFC South champion Tennessee Titans this week or should most everybody play in the regular-season finale for both teams?

Dungy’s decision is leaning strongly to sitting down those players who are nicked up and need some additional time to recover. He will also play several backups and rookies who haven’t gotten a chance to see much work under real game conditions.

But, with that being said, the Colts coach remains intent on winning Sunday’s matchup with Tennessee and taking a nine-game winning streak into the wild-card round of the playoffs. It just may be different faces getting the job done this time.

“It’s a nice feeling being in the playoffs and getting ready to play. We want to definitely keep that momentum going. I think it says a lot for our division that there are only three (AFC) teams that have clinched spots and we have two of them. Tennessee has done an outstanding job, and they won the division title. We were hoping this game would mean a lot more for us, but it doesn’t. That’s the way it goes, but I think you have to give them a lot of credit. Watching their tape these last two days, they’ve played outstanding football and they deserve to be where they are,” Dungy said before the start of the day’s practice session.

“With that being said, we’re going to try to see if we can keep momentum going. We are going to rest some guys that need rest. We’re going to play to win, as I’m sure they are, but we are going to rest some people. We want to do everything we can, but you also have to take into account that you may play these guys in a couple of weeks so you may not necessarily want to shoot all of your bullets in this game. But, we certainly do want to play well. We don’t ever want to lose home games, so that’s the approach that we’re going to take.”

He knows that fans would prefer that the starters play the entire game against the Titans. He’s heard and read comments concerning Indianapolis resting players in other seasons and not having any postseason success. But it’s his decision to make and Dungy intends on doing what he believes is in the best interest of his team.

“The only thing that will make (fans) feel like it’s the right way to go is if we win the Super Bowl. We know that going in. Whatever you do, if you win it’s the right thing and you were smart, and if you don’t win you did the wrong thing and you are not very smart. We are going to do what we think is best. We thought it was best then, we still think it’s best now and hopefully we win and we look smart at the end,” he said, adding that he doesn’t think resting players before had any impact on how the Colts played in those games.

“No, I really don’t. We’ve had different times coming off byes. We’ve had times when we rested everybody coming into the first regular season game and we won it. It’s always great to say momentum, but really what happens the previous week doesn’t determine anything in the game to come. I just don’t buy into that theory. As I’ve said several times, when I was playing (with the Pittsburgh Steelers) that was when I got to play. We rested up some guys who were good players and they carried us to a Super Bowl win. There’s no perfect way to do it. But having your guys rested and ready to go usually helps you.”

After getting the 2008 season off to a 3-4 start, just the idea that the Colts are discussing the playoffs and possibly resting players this week is a situation is a welcome situation in itself.

“I can (believe it). I’ve seen it done before, and it’s not new to me. We came back from a bunch of 3-4s in Tampa. It’s what we’ve always said, it’s November and December that determine how you do. Fortunately for us, we’re playing a lot better in November and December than we did in September and October,” Dungy said.

“We were watching our last game against (Tennessee), and we’re a different team and I think playing better and that’s good. It is kind of fun to be answering these questions again.”

Series History: 28th regular-season meeting. The Colts lead the series, 15-12. Tennessee, however, has posted wins in two straight games and in three of the last four meetings. The Titans erased an eight-point deficit in the second half to register a 31-21 win over Indianapolis in the first meeting this year on Oct. 27. Tennessee battled back after trailing 14-6, scoring on five consecutive possessions in gaining the victory. The Titans have a 1-0 lead in postseason meetings, taking a 19-16 win at the RCA Dome on Jan. 16, 2000 in an AFC divisional playoff game. Tennessee has a 7-9 road record against the Colts, including games when the Titans were in Houston and the Colts were located in Baltimore. Since the AFC South came into existence in 2002, Indianapolis has an 8-5 lead in the series.

Notes, Quotes

Peyton Manning will start at quarterback for the Indianapolis Colts in Sunday’s regular-season finale with the Tennessee Titans.

Just how much time Manning gets in the game, however, remains to be seen. He said this week that he’d like to get in as much work as possible.

“I want to play the whole game. We’re practicing normal this week, taking all the reps, and we’ll see what happens as the game goes on,” the Colts signal-caller said.

“Really, we want to win this game. We would like to continue our (eight-game) winning streak and go into the first week of the playoffs coming off a win and try to keep the momentum going. So, we’re going to do whatever it takes to keep that going.”

Indianapolis coach Tony Dungy, though, reserves the right to make the final call on playing for everybody, Manning included.

“Everybody would like to play, there’s no doubt about that. They get 16 opportunities a year and I think, especially when you get in Peyton’s situation where you don’t have 12 or 15 years left, you do start counting the games. I think a lot of our veterans feel that way,” Dungy said.

“A number of guys have come to me wanting to play the whole way and wanting to play more. We’ll have to gauge it and judge it. We do only have 45 guys who can play, so guys will get to play their share.”

• The Colts have a 31-10 record in AFC South play.

• Only two franchises have captured AFC South titles since the division was created in 2002, Tennessee (2002, 2008) and Indianapolis (2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007).

• The Colts have earned their seventh consecutive playoff berth and a ninth playoff appearance in the last 10 seasons.

• The Colts and the 1976-81 Dallas Cowboys are the only teams to record at least six consecutive seasons with at least 11 victories.

• Indianapolis needs a win this weekend in order to secure its sixth consecutive season with 12 or more wins.

• The Colts have made seven straight playoff appearances under head coach Tony Dungy. He has guided 10 straight teams to the postseason, a mark that sets the NFL post-merger record for consecutive playoff appearances by an NFL head coach.

• Dungy has guided 11 of the 13 teams in which he was the head coach to the postseason.

• “It’s kind of rare that you have that. I know when I got here, that was the hurdle that we had to get over. Tennessee was the reigning champions. They beat us my first year, beat us twice. Then we got where we were in front in the division, but they always played us well and it was back and forth. Now, they’ve beaten us three of the last four, and they’ve won the division this year. And, the fact that the cities are so close, I think it’s a lot of fun. Both teams play a similar style defense and play very sound football. Both teams have won a lot of games in the last eight or nine years, so it has been a great rivalry and one we enjoy.”—Dungy, on the Colts’ rivalry with Tennessee.

• “Every year is tough. We’ve had a stretch, I think New England had a stretch, where you’re winning it, but that doesn’t mean it’s not tough. A game here and a game there can be the difference. I think we have a great division. You look at what Tennessee has done. Houston is a team that despite losing last week I don’t think anybody wants to play them right now. We had two very tough games with them and they beat Tennessee. Jacksonville beat us once and took us to the wire and they’re not going to make the playoffs. We have a tough division, and any one of those four teams I think next year could win it. They have that kind of talent. I think that’s the NFL in this salary-cap era.”—Dungy, on winning the division in the NFL.

• “I’m not big on that. I think winning the division should mean something, and if you win your division you should get a home game. We had our opportunity. If we hadn’t lost to Jacksonville (on Sept. 21) we’d be playing this (week’s) game for home-field advantage. We had our chance and we didn’t get it, so I don’t think we can cry now and say we should look for different seedings. That’s the NFL, and I do think division championships, if we’re going to have divisions, they ought to mean something. If we want just the top teams, we should just have one AFC and go.”—Dungy, on the idea of re-seeding teams for the playoffs.

• “There is part of that. When you’re dealing with (San Diego TE Antonio) Gates how do you treat him? Is he going to be at the point of attack? Is he going to be flexed out? You get linebackers matched up on him when he’s out wide, you get safeties matched up on him when he’s out wide. If you substitute and go nickel and put a corner on him, they bring him in the core and run. So those guys that can do a lot of things do create some problems.”—Dungy, on creating mismatches with TE Dallas Clark.

• “There are some. Antonio Gates, (San Diego) does a lot with him and moves him around, line him up as a wide receiver and play him in a lot of different spots. (Kansas City TE Tony) Gonzalez, you have a hard time dealing with him. Philadelphia does a lot with their tight ends. We haven’t played them in a couple of years, but L.J. Smith is a guy that lined up a lot of places and caught a lot of balls. People that have those kinds of guys know how to get the ball to them.”—Dungy, on whether other teams use their tight end as much as the Colts do.

• The Colts have extended their streak of double-digit wins in a season to seven. That ties the league mark for the second longest such streak in NFL history, behind the 1983-98 San Francisco 49ers (16). Indianapolis is tied with the 1983-98 Dallas Cowboys (seven).

• Indianapolis registered its eighth straight win last week against Jacksonville. The Colts are the only franchise in NFL history to win seven or more consecutive regular-season games in five consecutive seasons (8, 2004; 13, 2005; 9, 2006; 7 and 6, 2007; and 8, 2008).

• The Colts have won 58 of their last 72 regular-season games.

• QB Peyton Manning has completed 202 of 283 passes for 2,153 yards, 16 touchdowns with just three interceptions during the Colts’ current eight-game winning streak.

• Manning needs 93 passing yards to become the first quarterback in league history to record 4,000 yards passing nine times.

• In his last three home games with the Titans, Manning has five TD passes and one interception for a 112.0 passer rating.

• Manning has completed 264 of 374 passes for 3,079 yards, 20 touchdowns and 10 interceptions in 13 previous regular-season meetings with Tennessee. He has completed 70.6 percent of his passes in those games and has a career 101.9 passer rating against Tennessee.

• Since 2007, TE Dallas Clark is tied (San Diego’s Antonio Gates) for first in the NFL tight ends with 17 touchdown catches.

By The Numbers: 3/2—Three former Colts players are now key members of the Titans roster: CB Nick Harper, LB David Thornton and OG Jake Scott. Two former Tennessee players are now with the Colts: DT Antonio Johnson and TE Jamie Petrowski.

Quote To Note: “For the most part, people want to play. That’s what you do. Unless you’re really hurting or banged up, most guys want to play. But, we have to do the prudent thing. You have to think about what’s best for the franchise, and it’s not an easy call. You’re trying to balance it and walk that fine line and still win games. We are trying to win it. I think there are a lot of guys in our locker room knowing that we could win 12 for the sixth year in a row and nobody’s ever done that. That’s something that would be important to all of us, so we do want to win it, but you have to balance those things out with your primary goal which is still to be the best team that you can be in the playoffs.”—Colts coach Tony Dungy, on his decision on who to play against the Titans this week.

Strategy And Personnel

No, the Indianapolis Colts are not channeling the San Francisco 49ers offense from the 1980s and early 1990s.

Despite a struggling running game this season, Indianapolis has not been substituting a dumpoff passing game to the running backs for a regular run offense.

“It probably looks that way, but we’ve just run our pass offense and we end up throwing a lot of short passes because of what defenses are doing. (Opposing defenses are) taking away the deep route and taking away our outside receivers, so no, we aren’t looking at it that way. We’d like to get our running game going more and hit more of those 70-yard passes,” Colts coach Tony Dungy said.

PLAYER NOTES

• RB Dominic Rhodes (chest/ribs) will not play Sunday against Tennessee. Rhodes is expected back in time to play in the wild-card round of the AFC playoffs next week. He was hurt in last Thursday’s road game with Jacksonville.

• RB Joseph Addai (shoulder) is expected to start Sunday against the Titans. Addai suited up for last week’s road game at Jacksonville but did not play.

“Joseph’s ready to go. I’m going to talk to him before the week is out just about how much (playing time) he feels like he needs and if he feels like he needs to get a few carries before next week seeing as how he missed last week. Our situation with him is really based on Dominic,” Dungy said.

“Dom is down a little bit, definitely going to be out of this game, and that’s going to influence what we do maybe more so than how Joseph feels. We’ll see how it is by Saturday, but I know he wants to play.”

• LB Freddy Keiaho (hamstring) will be sidelined for the Titans game on Sunday. Keiaho is being rested this week but should be back in the starting lineup when the playoffs begin.

• LB Gary Brackett (broken right fibula) appears to be making good progress but he will not be available to play against Tennessee this week. Brackett was hurt against Cleveland on Nov. 30. A date for his return to the lineup has yet to be determined.

“I’m coming along, slowly but surely,” Brackett said. “I’m confident for the playoff game. I don’t know what that’s going to amount to, but like I said, one day at a time. I’m getting better and that’s all I can do.”

• LB Tyjuan Hagler will probably see extensive playing time this week against Tennessee.

“Yes. We need to get Tyjuan going. He’s been anxious. He’s another guy that hasn’t played as much as he would like. He’ll get a chance to play quite a bit and we’ll get some rhythm and get him ready before the playoff game as well,” Dungy said.

“Depending on how he does and how he makes it through health-wise, he very well could (start in the playoffs). That’s one of the things we’d like to get out of this game is get him grooved a little bit.”

• QB Jim Sorgi should get plenty of work Sunday against the Titans. Sorgi will take over for starter Peyton Manning midway through the Tennessee game and go the rest of the way. Most of his playing time during his five-year NFL career has come in regular season final games. In regular-season finales, he is 44-of-79 for 443 yards and five TDs.

• Second-year DT Keyunta Dawson has played well this year despite being undersized by NFL standards (6-3, 254).

“He’s really played consistent for us. He’s undersized in there, but he fights. He has a knack for finding the ball in the running game. He’s been a very, very consistent guy and brought an element of toughness to us. He’s played very well,” Dungy said.

• WR Roy Hall has spent most of his two-year NFL career on the sidelines with injuries. But Hall—a 6-foot-4, 230-pounder—has seen limited work on offense. That will probably change this week as he is expected to get a little bit of playing time against the Titans.

Game Plan: While most of the Colts starters and key players will begin the game, look for a lot of backups and rookies to get the majority of work on both sides of the ball this week.

Consistency will remain the watchword for the Tennessee game. Even with reserves expected to get the bulk of work, the Colts want to get their 12th win of the season. And with the idea that Indianapolis and the Titans could meet up again in a couple of weeks in an AFC divisional playoff game, getting a win this week is important.

Most of the Colts’ starters will go for about a half, although some positions could see more work than others.

Matchups To Watch: Colts RDE Dwight Freeney vs. Titans LT Michael Roos. Freeney has 10 career sacks and four forced fumbles against the Titans. Roos, though, did a pretty good job against Freeney in the first meeting of the two teams this season. The Colts did not record a sack against Tennessee in that game.

Titans LDT Tony Brown vs. Colts RG Mike Pollak. Brown has played well as the primary backup to Pro Bowler Albert Haynesworth. Pollak, a rookie, has done a good job in pass protection but has struggled a bit in his run blocking.

Colts RB Joseph Addai vs. Titans RLB Keith Bulluck. Addai is coming back after sitting out last week’s game with a sore shoulder. Bulluck loves to face the Colts, especially on the road.

Injury Impact: RB Dominic Rhodes (chest/ribs) did not practice Wednesday and won’t play this week against Tennessee. He was banged up in last week’s game with Jacksonville.

• LB Freddy Keiaho (hamstring) is not expected to play this week against the Titans. Keiaho will be given the game off in order to rest up for the postseason. He did not practice Wednesday.

• S Melvin Bullitt (shoulder) did not practice Wednesday. He is expected to see some playing time this week.

• RB Chad Simpson (ankle) did not practice on Wednesday. Simpson may split time at running back Sunday against the Titans.

• LB Gary Brackett (broken right fibula) has not played since he was hurt against Cleveland on Nov. 30. He hopes to be back in time for the postseason, but no definite schedule for his possible return has been announced.
Click to expand...

Source: Yahoo! Sports

Analysis:
This game will depend on how much time our starters get. It could be up to three quarters if things are going very well though a half seems more likely. This is a pointless game so any questionable guys will be given rest, and the offense will be out there simply to stay sharp; although even that may not be necessary.

huevonkiller · Dec 28, 2008

Nice win, Tenn's backups really were awful today. Manning started a perfect drive and was then taken out after he reached 4002 yards for the season and threw a TD.

Hudge · Dec 29, 2008

I'm pretty sure Peyton Manning isn't the Colts' badge

huevonkiller · Dec 29, 2008

I could have sworn. :O

Master Shake · Dec 29, 2008

huevonkiller said: ↑

I could have sworn. :O
Click to expand...

I thought it was Peyton too...

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Week 17: Titans @ Colts.

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Week 17: Titans @ Colts.

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