[Wild Card]: #6 New York Jets (11-5) @ #3 Indianapolis Colts (10-6)

[Bear Pand]

Ryan Diem has yet to practice this week and may not play tomorrow.

Diem leads the league in false starts and will likely have one whether he plays or not.

 

[dave]

Aso and Dave tipping the Colts to win?

We're fucked now.

I'll groan this post if Colts win or give it thanks if Jets win.

 

[Maynard]

ok.....

Out of the 12 teams in the post-season, who is a 'SB team'?

out of the 12 i think a few stand out as elite teams
Pat, Ravens, Steelers, Packers, Eagles, Falcons

Then there are these teams that have a chance because of who they are and who they have.
colts, saints

then there are these teams that basically backdoored there way in. by that i mean they tweaked out some games that had they lost would make them be watching instead of playing
chiefs, jets, bears, seahawks

these are the 4 worst teams in the playoffs. the jets and bears deserve to be there but they are not going anywhere. way to inconsistent to win it all. Mark Sanchez hasnt proven anything other than the coaches dont have confidence in him to lead the team and the bears are just retards who played their starters when they didnt have anything to play for, but still came out to show GB how bad they really are....total retards

the chiefs and hawks play in pathetic divisions and only made it in because of dumb luck. Nobody can tell me the hawks deserve to be in. And nobody can tell me the Chiefs are better than the chargers.

 

[EmpireWF]

I don't know how you can say NYJ and CHI backed in.

Chicago locked up a bye, put 30+ points on the Jets and lost a meaningless game on the road.

New York upset Pittsburgh on the road, nearly pulled off a win on the road in Chicago and had their back-ups manhandle the Bills.

Eli also didn't prove "anything" until the 2007 post-season when he was as perfect as you could want. Just saying, Sanchez has shown he can lead his team from behind and has playoff wins under his belt.

At the same time, this is a game where the defense will lead either team to win.

IMO, any team except for Seattle and Kansas City can make a legit run to a super bowl.

The two teams that do will need momentum on their side.

The 'good' teams that have backed in: Philly & New Orleans.

 

[Mogriffjr]

yeah that stupid the Jets backed in garbage needs to stop.

They clinched a spot in week 16 not 17...last year they "backed in", I feel the win on the road to take out the Steelers was a big win...besides I seem to have more confidence in the Jets on the road then at home.

 

[Gonzo]

I'm actually with Empire here. There's only 2 teams in my eyes who really don't have a shot this year - Kansas City and Seattle.

I'm stunned you don't think Indianapolis is "good". They won the South again, yet this time they did with key, key, key players missing. We put like, what, 17-18 people on the IR this year?

Don't really understand how the Jets aren't a viable pick, but the Eagles are. Like Empire said, I think the Eagles [and probably the Jets, though to a lesser degree] are going to need a lot of momentum to carry through late in the postseason.

 

[SethMode]

yeah that stupid the Jets backed in garbage needs to stop.

They clinched a spot in week 16 not 17...last year they "backed in", I feel the win on the road to take out the Steelers was a big win...besides I seem to have more confidence in the Jets on the road then at home.

This is somewhat true, they didn't really "back" in, but they aren't exactly a scary matchup. Far too inconsistent. They almost lost to the Steelers in that upset, when they really should have won easily after the safety. Thankfully for them, the refs stopped calling pass interference on the last drive and both Revis and Cromartie got away with blatant PI/Holding calls respectively.

That kind of stuff (hopefully) won't happen in the playoffs...and I don't think the Jets are strong enough overall to keep up without getting extremely lucky. I see the Colts winning, by 6 or so.

 

[SethMode]

I'm stunned you don't think Indianapolis is "good". They won the South again, yet this time they did with key, key, key players missing. We put like, what, 17-18 people on the IR this year?

Why is it that fans feel the need to defend stuff like this? The Colts just aren't very good, and the reason you listed above is exactly WHY. It's a miracle that they DID win the South with the injuries that they have. Why is it "stunning" to say that a team that lost so many key players isn't that good?

 

[ThunderHorse]

should be interesting to see how Indianapolis "attacks" the middle of the field with Tamme/White and how effective the run game will be.

Donald Brown hasn't seen any legitimate amount of time lately and I'm curious as to why.

I can understand Dominic Rhodes probably bit into his playing time a little bit, and deservedly so because aside from the Fumble in crunch time against Tennessee the guy has arguably been the best runningback on the roster for the past 3 weeks.

The analysts and writers who have noted Indianapolis seems to have to go all or nothing to stop one phase of an offensive gameplan will receiver no argument from me. Indianapolis has always had issues with the run and even though they've been defending it A LOT better this last month we've also seen Indianapolis put 8 guys in the box and completely sell out to stop it.

3/4 th's of the secondary missing, and 2 rookie linebackers spells problems for the secondary but Mark Sanchez hasn't exactly proved to be the next great pocket passer so we'll see what happens.

My expectations are low for Indianapolis and for the first time in a long time I'll go into these playoffs less afraid of the chance of losing and more excited about the outcome of winning.

The only edge Indianapolis has in this game is the fact it's in Indianapolis, they aren't as Talented as New York (arguably on either side of the ball). If the run game doesn't show up for Indianapolis and the defense can't get to Sanchez it could get late early for Indianapolis if they have to put everything on Manning again.

Manning can win by himself, but not every game, that stretch in the middle of the season (and arguably the start of the season too) where manning was looking pretty rough the entire weight of the team was put on his shoulders (Minus New England - He lost that one).

In the end, This is a team that went into Foxboro and lost by 3 to the already crowned super bowl champion Patriots. so I feel the ceiling is high on this team but the basement is pretty damn low and you never know which Colts team is going to show up.

Should be an interesting game tomorrow night.

 

[Gonzo]

Why is it that fans feel the need to defend stuff like this? The Colts just aren't very good, and the reason you listed above is exactly WHY. It's a miracle that they DID win the South with the injuries that they have. Why is it "stunning" to say that a team that lost so many key players isn't that good?

As you just alluded to, the Colts made the playoffs in a year where they lacked SEVERAL players for most of the season.

Yet, they prevailed.

Does that not make a team good?

 

[SethMode]

As you just alluded to, the Colts made the playoffs in a year where they lacked SEVERAL players for most of the season.

Yet, they prevailed.

Does that not make a team good?

Not necessarily. In my opinion, it makes them overachievers. In today's NFL, sometimes that's all you need. Doesn't make them good though.

Fans seem to always get so caught up in labels that the media loses, when really all that matters is whether you win or you don't. There's nothing wrong with saying that the Colts overachieved, considering they did. If I told you going into the season that the Colts would make the playoffs putting half the team on IR, would you believe me?

It's not a knock, it just is what it is. They were a good to great team last year, this year they're a brutalized team that is overachieving.

 

[Houston]

I like how people are acting like The Colts are a joke this year. They finished 10-6..

 

[SethMode]

I like how people are acting like The Colts are a joke this year. They finished 10-6..

I hope that you're not referring to me. In the brief parts that I skimmed in this thread I don't think anyone acted like they're a joke. Just not as good as in years past and in many ways fortunate to have made the playoffs.

 

[Houston]

Nobody specific in this thread, just all throughout the season whenever I heard something about The Colts on TV people were talking like they aren't dangerous.

 

[ThunderHorse]

Nobody specific in this thread, just all throughout the season whenever I heard something about The Colts on TV people were talking like they aren't dangerous.

Like I said earlier you never know which Indianapolis team is going to show up.

You don't know if they are going to come out with Manning lighting the defense up or if they'll come out and look like they did against San Diego.

Seriously, if I'm not a Colts fan this year I'm not worried about Indianapolis like I am about Baltimore, New England, Pittsburgh, and even to an extent New York.

 

[Mogriffjr]

A healthy colts team i'd be hella worried here...i'm not really worriede right now.

We got someone to cover Garcon who destroyed us...and Collie isn't available. I have confidence that we can somewhat cover Tamme and White, who really aren't agile type slot guys/TE.

 

[Archer]

Ryan Diem has yet to practice this week and may not play tomorrow.

Ryan Diem is the worst starting o-lineman on a team with 4 awful starting o-lineman who probably couldn't start for 90% of the NFL.

 

[jeffx]

A healthy colts team i'd be hella worried here...i'm not really worriede right now.

We got someone to cover Garcon who destroyed us...and Collie isn't available. I have confidence that we can somewhat cover Tamme and White, who really aren't agile type slot guys/TE.

But they still own the match-up at quarterback, Mo.

 

[Archer]

Why is it that fans feel the need to defend stuff like this? The Colts just aren't very good, and the reason you listed above is exactly WHY. It's a miracle that they DID win the South with the injuries that they have. Why is it "stunning" to say that a team that lost so many key players isn't that good?

I actually agree with this

We are a BADLY flawed team thanks to injuries and bad lines (dt's and o-line). For once in the last 10+ years, I'm just happy to be in the playoffs and any win from this stage out is a nice win

It would take a near perfect post-season run from Manning to give us any shot at a superbowl (which is nearly impossible with Blair White and Jacob fucking Tamme starting)

 

[Archer]

This game has a 06 Steelers @ Colts playoff feel to me except I don't think the Jets are capable for winning the SB. I hope I'm wrong but I'm not nearly as confident as I was last season.

I think Indy's offense is going to struggle to put up a ton of points, the Jet's D is very capable of slowing down them down. Indy's offensive scheme has been really conservative and at times trash. I hope to Whoa God they don't run the fucking flanker screen and little 3-5 yard passes all game. Tamme/White will both need to have good games.

If Indy can do their job on D, and run the ball at all they'll be fine though.

Expecting a low scoring game like 20-17, 23-16 ish.

Ahh yes, I'm not normally an armchair coach but flanker screens and d-line stunts have me screaming at the TV every sunday