Wild-Card Weekend
Saturday, January 8, 2011
In another game that ended somewhat unexpectedly, the Jets shocked the Colts in Lucas Oil Stadium.
A very sloppy first half ended with the Colts leading 7-0. Mark Sanchez couldn’t keep his passes low enough for his receivers to catch them and the Colts tried too hard to establish a running game. Indianapolis had a rough season, barely winning the AFC South. Meanwhile, the Jets were in a very close race for the AFC East until the final few weeks of the season.
The Colts had to win their final four games to lock up a birth in the postseason, and they did so by finally setting Manning up with a decent ground game to keep the defense honest and not constantly expecting the ball to be left in Peyton’s hands. However, the Colts appeared to be too set on getting their running backs rolling and forgot that Manning was ultimately the reason they had made this far to begin with. When Manning threw, he did so well, but behind a very unexpected game plan they suffered through several three-and-outs among other short-lived drives early on. The Jets didn’t do much better, though, and the Colts had the lead going into halftime, their score coming on one big play on which Pierre Garcon beat the Jets secondary for a 57-yard touchdown.
The Colts never could find the end zone in the second half, however. After the Colts defense started giving way to the Jets offensive attack, the Jets looked to be in control.
Having taken a 14-10 lead in the fourth quarter, the Jets finally began giving way to Manning’s attack, and the Colts defense held strong, forcing two three-and-outs on the same drive (a running-into-the-kicker penalty gave the Jets an automatic first down, but they again could not convert on their own). The Colts scored field goals on two drives to take the lead, 16-14.
The Colts haven’t had a particularly strong defensive unit for a few years now. Last year was their best showing since their Super Bowl run in 2006, but even last year they struggled. However, they have always seemed to perform well in one situation, when they had to get the ball back. With the lead late in the game and no need to get the ball back for Manning, they fell apart. After a dismal 4th quarter to that point, Sanchez finally began making some headway.
A controversial late time out called by Jim Caldwell gave Sanchez an opportunity to find out that Braylon Edwards had been beating his man on each of the previous three plays. Sure enough, he went to him right out of the time out for an 18-yard play (though he almost threw it too high, something he had been having trouble with all game). Nick Folk came onto the field and kicked the winning field goal as time expired.
This marked the first time that a Rex Ryan coached defense beat Peyton Manning, minus the late-season game during the 2009 season in which Curtis Painter played much of the game for the Colts.
The Jets advanced to the Divisional Round, clinching a game in Foxboro, where they lost, to say the least, to New England 45-3 as the season neared its end. In four meeting between the two teams with Rex Ryan as the head coach in New York, the home team has won every time.
The Jets looked to advance to their second consecutive AFC Championship Game while the Patriots aimed to prove correct the analysts who claimed this to be an even better team than the ’07 Patriots who went undefeated in the regular season. That story will be available Wednesday evening.
Final Score: New York Jets – 17, Indianapolis Colts – 16
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