Indianapolis Colts President Bill Polian: "We did everything right. We just did not execute"

Indianapolis Colts WR Hank Baskett (right) dives for onside kick
(Lynn Sladky/AP Photo)

The Indianapolis Colts just didn't execute.

As Colts President Bill Polian saw it, the outcome of Super Bowl XLIV essentially came down to that one factor – that in critical plays at the most important time, the New Orleans Saints made game-turning plays, while the Colts did not.

Anything else, Polian said, is just periphery.

“There was nothing to look back upon and say, 'We didn't do this correctly, preparation'' or ''we didn't do that correctly – we didn't practice correctly, we didn't do this correctly,''' Polian said on Tuesday on his weekly radio show on Hank FM 97.1 in Indianapolis.

“We did everything right. We just did not execute in the ballgame in some critical situations.”

Polian said while many have pointed to WR Pierre Garcon's dropped pass in the first half or QB Peyton Manning's fourth-quarter interception as poorly-executed plays, he considered two plays far more indicative.

One was the inability of WR Hank Baskett and the Colts' special teams to recover an onside kick on the first play of the second half, and the other was the inability to gain one yard on 3rd-and-1 late in the first half. Those plays led to 10 points that turned a 10-3 Colts lead into a 13-10 deficit.

“You can say, 'Well, Pierre should have caught the ball,''' Polian said. “It would have been a tough catch. I don't think every receiver ought to catch every ball. They're going to drop one or two every now and then. You're going to throw an interception now and then. But when you can't gain a yard when you have to gain a yard in order to go into the locker room ahead, 10-3, with all the momentum on your side, then you didn't execute.

“When you fail to handle an onside kick when there are four positive things you can do to handle it to make it go in your favor and you don't do it, then you didn't execute. That's not a question of preparedness. That's not a question of mental acuity. It's not a question of what hotel you're staying in. It's simply a question of simply executing when the play is to be made and it's in your hands to do it. We didn't do it. It's that simple. The Saints did.”

“They made some great plays and they took two huge gambles, one of which paid off – the onside kick – and we didn't make them pay for taking those gambles, because we didn't execute. That's the way it is and it's really that simple.

“Now, how you rectify that going forward is a matter of discussion. In terms of this particularly game, we weren't outplayed. We weren't outhit. We weren't out-hustled. We weren't out-coached. The statistics – whatever statistics mean or don't mean, they mean nothing. We didn't execute in the critical times and therein lies the story of the game, nothing more, nothing less.”

Polian on Tuesday also addressed:

* The loss: “It doesn't take away from what we accomplished this season. There's a lot to be proud of in that regard and a lot to look forward to in that regard. Relative to the game, they simply out-executed us in a handful of critical situations, which in actuality changed the game. We knew that both teams would execute very, very well and make some really, really good plays and they did. We made some plays. They made some plays.”

* The failure to recover the onside kick: “That absolutely changed the game. It went from our getting the ball on their 40-yard line to having them march down for a touchdown."

* The offensive line: “The offensive line, by our standards, did not have a good game. They were outplayed by the Saints' defensive line, I thought, pretty decisively."

* The Colts' special teams: “Our special teams, in terms of handing the ball – both in the return game and on the onside kick were outplayed by the Saints. Therein lay the result. It had nothing to do with strategy or preparedness of toughness or effort. All of that was there. We just didn't execute.”

MORE COLTS NEWS

Caldwell: Nothing to be ashamed of. Here.

Saints 31, Colts 17. Here.

Reviewing the Polian show . . .

* Part One: "We just didn't execute." Here.

* Part Two: Improvement needed. Here.

* Part Three: Dwight Freeney expected to play all along. Here.

* Part Four: MLB Gary Brackett wanted back. Here.