Indianapolis Colts QB Peyton Manning (Darron Cummings/AP Photo)
Indy Football Report Editor John Oehser takes a next-day look at the Indianapolis Colts' 30-17 victory over the New York Jets in the AFC Championship Game at Lucas Oil Stadium on Sunday . . .
THE QUICK LEAD . . .
Indianapolis Colts QB Peyton Manning held the Lamar Hunt trophy aloft, for the briefest of moments, and yes, he smiled. Fast. That quick, the moment was over.
And while Manning and his Colts teammates celebrated a deserved, earned and not unmemorable celebration on Sunday night in the wake of a 30-17 victory over the New York Jets in the AFC Championship Game, it's just as true this was not the all-out, just-can't-believe-this-is-happening celebration the Saints celebrated in New Orleans hours later.
And it wasn't the celebration like they celebrated three years ago, either.
Remember? Three Januarys ago?
When the Colts beat the New England Patriots, 38-34, in the RCA Dome to win their first AFC Championship of the Manning era, there was a cathartic jubilance in the building no one there will ever forget. The Colts deserved to win that night, but there was something of a disbelief as well, the franchise having finally attained what had previously been so frustratingly, elusively, heatbreakingly unattained.
I remember then-Colts Head Coach Tony Dungy saying to me afterward that while the Colts might win more AFC Championships, there never would be one quite like that one, correctly saying there was never a time like a first time.
Those couldn't have rung truer on Sunday night.
COLTS 30, JETS 17. HERE
Because while the Colts' victory over the Jets Sunday was impressive and important, it very certainly was not the memory-maker of the Colts' victory in 2006.
And that's OK. It's a logical thing, the expected thing. In fact, for the Colts, it's a good thing.
Make no mistake:
The Colts, all the pregame talk by and about the Jets aside, were supposed to win on Sunday, and if they hadn't won it would have been the biggest disappointment of the Manning era. The Jets were a talented team, and they played impressively in the playoffs, but being a team with a rookie quarterback, they are a team of the future -- a bright future, yes, but still the future.
The Colts are a team of the present, and they were the AFC's best team this season. They have yet this season to lose a game they tried seriously to win, and aside from three-week period following their controversial decision to pull starters, their story this season has been one of a team that calmly, professionally showed week after week it knew better than any other team in the NFL how to win games whatever the scenario.
Which is exactly what they were Sunday. The title game, in fact, very much showed what the Colts have been about this season. They have not been dominant. They knew they were not dominant, that the postseason would be difficiult. That knowledge played into the late-season decision to get their roster as healthy as possible for the playoffs. They were not, those around the team know, a team with so large a margin for error as to be able to play at half speed and win difficult playoff games.
No, what the Colts were all season -- and what they have been in the postseason -- is the smartest team, the most veteran team, the most savvy team, the one best able to figure out what a given situation needs and make the plays to excel and win in that situation.
On Sunday, the Jets led 17-6 late in the first half. The Jets had hit on an 80-yard touchdown pass from rookie Mark Sanchez to veteran Braylon Edwards. They had gotten a 45-yard pass from wide receiver Brad Smith to Jerricho Cotchery to set up another touchdown.
The Colts' lone turnover led to a Jets field goal.
To those unfamiliar with the 2009 Colts, the Colts of 12-year veteran quarterback Peyton Manning -- the experienced player who unquestionably has separated himself from any other quarterback in the NFL; yes, any other -- to those unfamiliar with the Colts of this season, this may have smelled a lot like certain Indianapolis postseasons past. Often in the past, when circumstances skidded in the wrong direction -- when the pass protection broke down early, or when an early turnover led to unexpected points -- the skidding continued, or stopped too late.
Not this year. Not Sunday.
On Sunday, the Colts entered the game having played defenses coached by Jets Head Coach Red Ryan before. Often. Having played Baltimore Ravens teams coached by Ryan that blitzed and confused, they knew from experience they would get the blitzes figured out, and that once that happened, there would be big plays.
And there were.
Again and again Sunday after the Colts fell behind by 11 points, Manning made plays over a blitzing defense. He finished completing 26 of 39 passes for 377 yards and three touchdowns with no interceptions for a passer rating of 123.6. After the Jets took their 11-point lead, Manning and the Colts scored touchdowns on three of the next four possessions, and on the fifth, they drove 71 yards on a clock-killing drives that ended the Jets' hopes. It is tempting to write that this was Manning's masterpiece, the time when experience met circumstance met opportunity, and from that meeting came the moment that put to rest any doubters. Except, of course, that there always will be doubters, and that to most, to the reasonable among us, Manning proved long ago whatever there is for a quarterback to prove.
Still, if this wasn't his signature moment, it was a big moment, but it just as certainly wasn't the moment, and anyone who forget that for even a moment was reminded quickly at Lucas Oil Stadium late Sunday afternoon. As it did in the RCA Dome three years ago, confetti fell and family and friends flooded the field. Manning stood on a podium, as did Colts Head Coach Jim Caldwell, Colts CEO Jim Irsay, President Bill Polian, etc., etc., etc.
They said the right things, because they are men with a sense of history, all of them, and they know from experience AFC Championships are something to be savored, but at the same time, all were thinking what Colts DE Dwight Freeney was saying in the locker room shortly thereafter.
"There's a bigger goal," he said.
And there is. And that's why although the Colts recognized the moment, and its importance, they couldn't get as excited as they did three years ago. And that's why that's OK.
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