Coffee with the Colts: How good are the Indianapolis Colts? After two weeks, we still don't know

Indianapolis Colts WR Pierre Garcon (AP Photo)

Indy Football Report Editor John Oehser takes a next-morning look at the Indianapolis Colts' 27-23 victory over the Miami Dolphins Monday night at Land Shark Stadium in the final game of Week 2 of the 2009 NFL season . . .

THE QUICK LEAD . . .

Here's what we do know after the Indianapolis Colts' 27-23 victory over the Miami Dolphins Monday night at Land Shark Stadium:

1) TE Dallas Clark is a premiere tight end.

2) QB Peyton Manning is still very much at the height of his career.

3) The Colts' offense, even without WR Anthony Gonzalez, is capable of scoring enough points to win.

Here's what we don't know:

1) Just how good the Colts really are . . .

And we won't list a No. 2 or 3 in the second category, because in the wake of a dramatic, memorable, come-from-behind victory on Monday Night Football -- and is there any doubt television executives love putting Manning on prime time? -- that's the key question, and one that's unanswerable.

Yes, the Colts are 2-0 and they lead the AFC South by a game over Houston and two over the Tennessee Titans and Jacksonville Jaguars. Yes, 2-0 looks a lot better than 1-1 did last season and there are many teams who would switch places with the Colts. Yes, Manning looks like a Most Valuable Player contender, Clark looks like a(n overdue) Pro Bowl selection and young players such as RB Donald Brown and Pierre Garcon look at the very least like solid contributors and perhaps standout players in the development stages.

“That’s what matters," Colts DE Dwight Freeney said of the whatever-way-you-get-it victory afterward. "Numbers weren’t there. Obviously we would have liked to stop them a little bit more, maybe we would like to score some more points but that doesn’t matter, what matters is what happened at the end. Championship teams and teams that go deep into the playoffs, they have to find a way to pull it off in a hostile environment on Monday night and we did that.”

But at the same time, the two main preseason questions remain unanswered.

Can the Colts run consistently? Can they stop the run? They have yet to do either this season. They did rush fot 5.5 yards a carry against the Dolphins, and that was a solid sign, as was a 15-yard touchdown run by rookie Donald Brown. But the Colts rushed just 11 times against Miami, so it's probably not enough to judge either way.

The big question is stopping the run. The thought was that the return of DT Ed Johnson would be a significant improvement in the area, and perhaps it still will be, but in the first game with Johnson Monday, the Colts allowed 239 yards on 49 carries. A lot may have been because of the Dolphins' Wildcat formation. Some may have been because of the South Florida heat. Whatever, it looked familar for Colts fans and too familiar to a franchise that talked throughout the offseason aboout controlling the line of scrimmage.

"We couldn’t get them stopped enough and that’s something that we’re going to have to go to work on and certainly improve upon,” Colts Head Coach Jim Caldwell said.

Let's say this before we conclude this thought. This is not unfixable. That's what Caldwell almost certainly will say Tuesday, and history shows he's right. The Colts often in the last decade have had subpar showings against the run at times and recovered to win division titles and, of course, Super Bowl titles.

Still, the Colts spent the offseason talking about aggressiveness on defense, and in particular, about getting off the field on third down. On Monday, the Dolphins converted 15 of 21 third-down opportunities, making it pretty clear that while there is plenty good we know about the Colts after two games, there are some things we don't know that are pretty crucial, too.

LINKIN'

* An old colleague of mine from my Florida Times-Union days, Ray McNulty, columnizes from a Dolphins perspective here.

* Five things about the Colts' victory from ESPN AFC South blogger Paul Kuharsky here.

* The Miami Herald grades the Dolphins here.

* Jeff Darlington's game story from the Miami Herald here.

* Some clown from Examiner.com writes the game story here.

* Phil Richards of the Indianapolis Star's game story here.

* Bob Kravitz of the Star says Johnny Unitas would have loved this one here. I agree. He also makes the point that Dolphins coach Tony Sparano made a critical error late when he went conservative and played for a field goal to go up, 23-20. You don't beat Manning kicking field goals.

* Phil B. Wilson of the Star on Dallas Clark's career-high night here.

* Mike Chappell of the Star on Pierre Garcon's game-winner here.

HOW THE COLTS STAND . . .

1. Indianapolis (2-0). The Colts never led the South last season after winning five consecutive titles from 2003-2007. They now lead by two games over Tennessee and Jacksonville and a game over Houston.

2. Houston (1-1). There were those around Houston who called the victory over Tennessee the biggest victory in franchise history. Is there any other even close?

3. Tennessee (0-2). The Titans are talented, and they're going to win a lot of games. But history shows the Colts are very, very hard to catch with a lead.

4. Jacksonville (0-2). The Jaguars are starting to build the foundation of what will be a solid team in a few years. But this already is looking like a rough year.

WHAT WE LEARNED (ASIDE FROM THE AFOREMENTIONED) . . .

1. DT Ed Johnson isn't the cure-all. Much was made of the return of Johnson, and the Colts were indeed better in 2007 with him than they were last season without him. But his return didn't help the Colts much Monday.

2. The Colts weren't kidding . . . when they talked about WR Pierre Garcon's speed all offseason. Garcon dropped two inside screens in the preseason and that caused concern among fans over his hands. He held on to the one in the fourth quarter Monday, and 48 yards later,he had a play that those same fans will remember a lot longer than the drops. "It was great to see him show it out there on the field on game day," Caldwell said. "He’s been doing it in practice, we’ve certainly seen his promise and I think that we’ve talked about him during that last few months. He had a great camp and you can see what he can do when he gets that ball. He’s big, strong, fast and a very physical guy.”

3. Dallas Clark is going to the Pro Bowl. OK, it's premature, but Clark probably should have made it at least one of the past two years. Now, Tony Gonzalez is out of the AFC and Clark had the biggest yardage game of his career on a memorable, early-season Monday Night Football Game. He's a guy at the peak of his career and with WR Anthony Gonzalez out for what is likely at least a month, it's hard to see how Clark won't put up huge numbers.

WHAT WE DON'T KNOW . . .

1. Can the Colts get off the field on third down? Well, on Monday night they couldn't. Not often enough. The Dolphins convered 15 of 21 third-down opportunities. "Just like we always talk about, we have to get off the field on third down and that hurt us tonight," S Antoine Bethea said. "We want to get off the field on third down and get our offense back on the field. So we got to get back out there and still focus on third down.”

QUOTABLES AND NOTABLES . . .

* Caldwell: "That was a battle royal right there. You certainly have got to give a lot of credit to our opponent because they did a tremendous job. They ran the ball extremely well. They did a great job in terms of controlling the time of possession. They had 80 something plays and I think we had 35 and they did a heck of a job and kept us off balance. Our guys did a great job of fighting and hanging in there. We took advantage of the possessions that we had and that’s how it is in this league. This week is probably no different than any other week that we’ll face and our guys did a tremendous job. We are certainly happy to get out of here with a win.”

* Bethea on the Wildcat formation: “We pretty much knew what they were going to try to do when we came in, it was just us stopping it and obviously we didn’t really do a good job, but like I said we keep on fighting till the end and see what happens.”

THE LAST WORD . . .

. . . goes to QB Peyton Manning . . . We’ve had some games before when we sat on the sideline but I’ve never seen a third quarter like that. You feel like you really didn’t letter out there in the second half. You can kind of get away with it in the first and second quarter but then it’s time to get something going in the fourth quarter.

*** A PRE-GAME LOOK AROUND THE WEB HERE

*** PREVIEWING THE COLTS-DOLPHINS GAME HERE

*** WHY IS DE DWIGHT FREENEY SMILING THIS WEEK? HERE

*** WHAT DO THE COLTS HAVE TO DO TO WIN THE AFC SOUTH? READ IFR EDITOR JOHN OEHSER'S FIVE KEYS HERE ***

*** WHY THE COLTS WON'T -- AND SHOULDN'T -- RE-SIGN WR MARVIN HARRISON HERE ***

RECENT COLTS NEWS

* Colts S Bob Sanders will play sooner rather than later

* WR Anthony Gonzalez out 2-to-6 weeks

* Colts sign WR Hank Baskett

* Colts QB Peyton Manning likes the Hank Baskett signing

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