Coffee with the Colts: A next-day look at the Indianapolis Colts' 35-34 victory over New England

Indianapolis Colts S Melvin Bullitt makes key late-game stop
Darron Cummings/AP Photo

Indy Football Report Editor John Oehser takes a next-morning look at the Indianapolis Colts' 35-34 victory over the New England Patriots at Lucas Oil Stadium in downtown Indianapolis in Week 10 of the 2009 NFL season . . .

THE QUICK LEAD . . .

Ryan Lilja struggled for words. Standing by his locker in Lucas Oil Stadium late Sunday night, the veteran offensive guard tried to put in perspective a heart-stopping, dramatic, come-from-behind 35-34 victory over the New England Patriots. Finally, he settled on one word.

Pride.

"I'm just proud," Lilja said. "I'm proud of this team. I'm proud to be on this team. I'm proud of the moxie in this locker room. Nobody quit. Nobody quit."

COLTS, 35, PATRIOTS 34: GAME STORY. HERE

That, as much anything, was what Colts players said defined their ninth consecutive victory to start the season Sunday, and their franchise-record 18th consecutive victory overall. They trailed by 17 points in the first half and trailed by that many in the fourth quarter.

With less than three minutes remaining, they still trailed, 34-21. Everything had to go perfectly for them to win, but they had been in that situation before. Tampa in 2003, when they rallied from 35-14 down with less than four minutes remaining to win 38-35 in overtime. Houston last season, when they trailed 27-10 before winning, 31-27, in regulation.

And, of course, against New England in the AFC Championship Game following the 2006 season. Lilja said it reminded him of that game. S Antoine Bethea did, too.

"I think the one thing it says about our team is that there is no quit in these guys," Colts C Jeff Saturday said. "Guys are going to keep fighting no matter of what it looks like and what the circumstances show. We just kept telling each other on the sideline, ‘Just one more. One more stop on defense, one more touchdown on offense. Let’s see if we can get back in this thing and make a run.’

Said DE Robert Mathis, "This is Pats-Colts. That's enough said. You've got to expect [an] instant classic every time we face off. It was just a blessing to come out with a victory because it looked bleak."

QUOTING THE COLTS: FOR MORE OF WHAT THEY WERE SAYING AFTER COLTS-PATRIOTS, CLICK HERE

A FEW QUICK THOUGHTS . . .

* If it's rare around the Colts for someone to disagree with QB Peyton Manning, no one minded when WR Reggie Wayne did it Sunday. Manning had called for a fade route on the game-winning touchdown pass. Wayne shook the play off at the line of scrimmage and ran a slant. "I gave him my C.C. Sabathia shake off," Wayne said. "We had just run the fade the last series and it was unsuccessful. I wanted to do the same thing, show fade and just come with the slant and it worked." Said Manning, "Reggie called the last play. We threw a fade route to him earlier and they defended it well. I was going to throw the fade again, but he wanted the slant. . . He kept fighting through and made a great extended catch. It is hard for me to say it was his best catch ever because he has made so many, but it was timely."

* The Colts won their 18th consecutive regular-season game, becoming the third team in NFL history with a streak so long. The Patriots have done it twice, winning 21 consecutive regular-season games from 2006-2008 and 18 from 2003-2004. The Colts have started 9-0 three of the past five seasons, starting 13-0 in 2005 and 9-0 in 2006. They also started 5-0 in 2003 and 7-0 in 2007. "It certainly feels good," Colts Head Coach Caldwell said. "This team has done a great job of fighting to make certain that we haven’t lost one. There’s been a few that have been awfully tight. So we feel good about where we are right now. But we’ve got a lot of work to do. Just over the halfway point and we have to keep playing.”

* Caldwell became the first coach in NFL history to win his first nine games.

*Such was the emotional, back-and-fourth nature of the game that even in the celebration players around the Colts locker room were as upset about early mistakes as they were happy with the late-game result. S Antoine Bethea said he was motivated on his second-half interception because he gave up what he said was an inexcusable 63-yard first-half touchdown pass to Patriots WR Randy Moss. "I was telling my teammates on the sideline after giving up that touchdown, 'I'm going to get one back for y'all,'" Bethea said. WR Pierre Garcon caught a critical 29-yard touchdown pass in the fourth quarter, but said even as big as that play was, it didn't make up for an earlier drop of a long pass. "It feels good, but I don't feel totally redeemed," Garcon said. "You can't let an easy one get away like that, and I'll always want it back. I'm going to see it on tape, and I'm going to be upset all over again."

* The Colts' defensive players weren't crazy about the Patriots' decision to go for it on 4th-and-2 from the New England 28 late in the game. "We were like, 'Look man, they don't respect us,'" Bethea said. "Like a reporter said, they might want to covert because our offense was clicking at the time and they wanted to keep our offense off the field, but as a defense, that's kind of disrespectful and that's how we took it." Said DE Robert Mathis, "Wow. All you can say is, 'Wow.' They were going to do it like that so we had to step up and fortunately we did. That's a lot of disrespect." Said LB Clint Session, "Total disrespect. They disrespected us and got what they deserved. They fought hard throughout the game but they disrespected us at the end and they got what they deserved." DE Dwight Freeney said the decision showed perhaps New England was thinking "they couldn't stop our offense so no matter if they go for it or they don't, we're going to win maybe. As a defense, we take a lot of pride. When you go for it on fourth down in that situation, we have to make a play and that's what we did. We stepped up." And was it disrespectful? "To be honest with you, that's how we take it," Freeney said. "Any defense should take it the same way. Whenever you go for it on fourth down in that situation, we've got to make a play. It even happens in video games. You go for it on fourth down when you're not supposed to and something bad happens."

HOW THE COLTS STAND . . .

1. Indianapolis (9-0). For much of the night, it looked like this would be 8-1. The Colts now lead Cincinnati by two games in the chase for home-field advantage and have a three-game lead on Pittsburgh, Denver and New England. More and more, it looks like the Colts will really have to collapse not to be playing at home as long as they're playing in January.

2. Houston (5-4). The Texans were idle this week, but given their results in the first nine games, you get a feeling they're going to be a factor down the stretch.

3. Jacksonville (5-4). There may be few bigger surprises in the NFL this season than the Jaguars being over .500. Their schedule is favorable enough in the coming weeks that they could push for a postseason appearance.

4. Tennessee (3-6). The Titans are 3-0 with QB Vince Young in the lineup. It remains to be seen if it's too little way too late, but they have a lot of ground to make up.

WHAT WE LEARNED SUNDAY . . .

1) The Patriots are good.  These teams have reached a point where one measures itself by the other, and the Patriots on Sunday looked a bit more talented than the Colts. As you thought about this game in the early hours of Monday morning, it was hard to figure how the Colts won.

2) Patriots Head Coach Bill Belichick isn't perfect. And on Sunday night, he wasn't even a genius. The decision to go for it on 4th-and-2 late in the fourth quarter is a decision that could get coaches with lesser reputations and resumes on the hot seat. One of the oddest decisions I've seen in 15 years covering the NFL.

3) The Colts are very, very resilient. You could make the argument the Colts didn't deserve to win. You could make the argument that had the Patriots not fumbled into the end zone and made a strange decision late the Colts wouldn't have won. What you can't argue is that the Colts over the last half-decade have turned into the NFL's best come-from-behind team. They rallied four times from double-digit deficits for road victories last season, and rallied from 18 points behind in the AFC Championship Game following the 2006 regular season. They also rallied from 21 points down in the fourth quarter in Tampa in 2003. Manning obviously is a huge reason, but the Colts as a team remain poised and composed in late-game situations and that gives them a chance in otherwise bleak situations.

WHAT WE DON'T KNOW . . .

1) Just how good the Colts are. They're good. Very good, because you don't get to 9-0 without being good. But the victory over the Patriots revealed some flaws that need to get fixed. They were vulnerable against the pass on Sunday, and if these teams play again, the Patriots will enter the game very confident and with reason. I just keep watching this team lately and thinking it really, really misses WR Anthony Gonzalez and CB Kelvin Hayden. The bad news for the Colts is they're out. The good news is there's a chance each could return by the postseason. The best news for the Colts is that they have a chance to that postseason with home-field advantage.

THE LAST WORD . . .

Goes to Manning: "It certainly is as much adversity as we have seen all year. . . We just sort of weathered the storm and knew it would be a sixty minute game and it sure feels good to come out on top. . . . We have been in a lot of these situations. This was a unique game no question about it because it was so kind of up and down throughout the entire game. We have some guys that have been in these tough situations and guys were able to stay calm and do their jobs in high pressure situations."

PREVIEWING COLTS-PATRIOTS. HERE

AROUND THE COLTS BLOGOSPHERE. HERE.

SAVOR THE COLTS-PATRIOTS RIVALRY WHILE IT LASTS. HERE.

WANT TO BE THE FIRST TO KNOW ABOUT THE COLTS. SUBSCRIBE TO JOHN OEHSER'S EXAMINER STORIES BY CLICKING ABOVE

MAGNIFICENT SEVEN XIV (PART ONE): ON COLTS DE DWIGHT FREENEY AND THE WEEK'S KEY MATCHUP. HERE

MAGNIFICENT SEVEN XIV (PART TWO): ON COLTS TE DALLAS CLARK AND HEAD COACH JIM CALDWELL. HERE.

PEYTON MANNING: PATRIOTS IN 2009 AS GOOD AS EVER. HERE.

COLTS 2009 MIDSEASON REPORT: PART ONE. HERE.

COLTS 2009 MIDSEASON REPORT: PART TWO. HERE.

Reviewing Bill Polian’s Weekly radio show:

 Part 1: Bob Sanders likely to return. Here

Part 2: “We are always going to want the football”  Here

Part 3: Matchup with New England Patriots “One of 16″  Here

Part 4: Jerraud Powers Rookie of the Year? Here

*** CATCH UP WITH ALL THINGS COLTS ON INDY FOOTBALL REPORT. HERE

*** READ JOHN OEHSER'S INDIANA PACERS COVERAGE. HERE.

*** COFFEE WITH THE COLTS: NEXT DAY LOOK AT COLTS-TEXANS. HERE

*** TEXANS-COLTS GAME STORY. HERE (INCLUDES PHOTO GALLERY)

*** QUOTING THE COLTS. WHAT THEY WERE SAYING AFTER HOUSTON. HERE

*** IFR EDITOR JOHN OEHSER ON COLTS DE DWIGHT FREENEY: HERE

MAGNIFICENT SEVENS: WEEKLY COLTS THOUGHTS . . .

Magnificent Seven I: Seven training camp thoughts and observations

Magnificent Seven II: On the Colts' defensive tackle position and WR Reggie Wayne

Magnificent Seven III: On the Colts' running backs and offensive line

Magnificent Seven IV: On the Colts' offense, OG Ryan Lilja and WR Anthony Gonzalez

Magnificent Seven V: On S Melvin Bullitt and QB Peyton Manning

Magnificent Seven VI: On RB Donald Brown and the start of the season . . . at last

Magnificent Seven VII: On WR Reggie Wayne, the OL and blitzing

Magnificent Seven VIII: On WR Reggie Wayne, QB Peyton Manning and DE Dwight Freeney 

Magnificent Seven IX: On DE Robert Mathis, S Bob Sanders and DE Dwight Freeney

Magnificent Seven X: On QB Peyton Manning's start and life without DT Ed Johnson

Magnificent Seven XI: On RB rotation, DE Dwight Freeney and S Bob Sanders

Magnificent Seven XII: On WR Reggie Wayne, TE Dallas Clark and running game

Magnificent Seven XIII: On offensive balance and resting QB Peyton Manning