This season has been interesting, I felt as though no team could beat the Colts prior to the start of this season, and in my opinion that could have happened, but the injury bug hit Indy hard this year. The official injury count is 17 players on IR (minus some pre-season IR players) and the Colts still managed to put up 10 wins. With everyone that missed due to injury, whether it be a player placed on IR or simply a player out for any game there were over 150 games missed by Colts players this year due to injury.
Peyton Manning, Dwight Freeney, Robert Mathis, and Reggie Wayne used their veteran presence to keep this inexperienced team focused on the goal. The team kept clawing and fighting in order to make the playoffs. Manning, like I said in a previous post, has put up MVP caliber numbers. His final stat line reads as follows:
Comp: 450 Att: 679 Pct: 66.3 Yds: 4,700 TD: 33 Int: 17 Sack: 16 Rate: 91.9
Staggering numbers considering he lost some of his favorite targets such as Collie, Clark, and Gonzalez. Staggering also because the Colts lead the league in drops this season. Manning set the completion record on a day (season) with, from what I saw, 5-10 drops/bobbles/and receivers with butter fingers.
This team just showed what it meant to be consistent, pushing through adversity, and making the playoffs despite injuries and after many had counted the team out.
I sat through some incredibly painful games, such as Eagles, Texans, Bengals, Chargers, and Cowboys. But at the end of the day 18 found a way to get this team to the playoffs. And right now, like I wrote about previously, the Colts are out rushing teams. The playoff formula is set. Colts will face the Jets on Saturday night, setting up a rematch of last years AFC Championship game. This team has gotten to the dance, anything can happen, and like I've said many times this year, "Any team can beat any team by any amount on any given week." Anything can happen.