| Anthony Holds. 1st January, 2009 - 5:33 pm
 During their run to Super Bowl XLI in January and February of 2007, the Indianapolis Colts continually spoke of it being "our time".
Center Jeff Saturday used the phrase as a rallying cry in the locker room of the RCA Dome during a speech that preceded the AFC Championship game that year. Tony Dungy walked up-and-down the sideline when the Colts fell behind 21-3 in the first half of that same game, exhorting his players not to lose heart and saying to them over and over, "it's our time".
As it turned out, it was. Those two words ended up engraved on the team's championship rings.
The big question two years later is whether the 2008 edition of the Colts can make it their time once again.
They certainly have the experience and talent to make it happen. But standing in their way are three almost certain road games against the best teams in their conference.
And so it goes ... We have finally arrived at the time of year that represents the absolute best -- and the absolute worst -- that the NFL has to offer its fans.
Throughout the offseason, all NFL teams harbor some hope. The draft brings excitement, and training camp brings the promise of improved prospects.
Once the regular season starts, teams begin to separate ... the playoff contenders rising and the losers slowly realizing their fate. The truly bad teams begin resigning themselves and dreaming of coaching changes and more draft picks at about the halfway point of the season.
But for many teams, hope lives deep into the campaign. Indianapolis certainly proved this year that a rocky start does not mean anything if a team can stay together and make a run, rocketing from 3-4 to 12-4 during an improbable and exhilarating nine-game winning streak to finish the season.
The Chargers made an even more unbelievable comeback, rising from the ashes of an embarrassing 4-8 start to win their last four and steal the AFC West crown from the collapsed Broncos, who led by three games with three games to go.
Now those two teams, the Colts and the Chargers, meet on the most meaningful, and most potentially devastating, stage of the season.
In the playoffs, there is no hope for next week. There is only what happens on the field for three-plus hours. The Colts can watch their status as the hottest team in the league dissolve in less than 200 minutes into a bitter ending and an ultimately disappointing season.
The Chargers can watch their phoenix-like rise rendered completely irrelevant by a rival in front of their home crowd. There is only one unquestionable certainty: one of these two white-hot teams will be cleaning out their lockers come Sunday.
So, the stakes are incredibly high: Win and elation ensues, and then the stakes crank up even more. Lose and feel the cavernous emptiness of almost a year of hope and expectation die with a whimper.
So what is a fan to do this time of year?
It's truly the best of times and the worst of times. We fight our fears and grasp for something to assure us that everything will be all right. For Colts' fans, there is the comfort of the winning streak. There is the comfort of a recent 24-20 road win in Qualcomm Stadium. But there is also the worry of knowing that San Diego has matched up incredibly well with the Colts over the last several years.
Better, in fact, than any team not named the Patriots. They've won three times in four meetings, with all of the games close, hard-fought contests. And 51 weeks ago, they sent the Colts home for the year, coming into the RCA Dome in the stadium's final game and destroying Indy's hopes of repeating as Super Bowl champs.
They did so with quarterback Philip Rivers, tight end Antonio Gates, and running back LaDainian Tomlinson nursing injuries. There's real reason for an Indianapolis fan to feel concern.
But all in all, focusing on the opposition is less helpful than looking at what the Colts have achieved and can control in giving themselves their best chance this Saturday evening. They finished the season off in fine fashion. For any Colts' fan that has agonized over the perennial end-of-year, rest-starters-or-maintain-momentum debate, it seemed the team finally found a happy medium.
In a rousing, if ultimately meaningless, 23-0 shutout victory over the Titans (the first blanking they'd suffered since 1999), the Colts were able to get their key players some inspiring action and then put in their backups to finish the job.
Peyton Manning and the first team offense only played the first series of the game, but one has to feel as if their rhythm is firmly intact. On a masterful drive, Manning went 7-for-7 for 95 yards and an electrifying 55-yard catch-and-run pass to Joseph Addai. Having surpassed 4,000 yards for the ninth time (best in league history), he took a seat and rested for the remainder of the contest.
Over the next couple of quarters, the Colts managed to get Dallas Clark up to 848 yards receiving on the year, a new record for a Colts' tight end, eclipsing Hall-of-Famer John Mackey's old mark. Adam Vinatieri got over 100 points for the 13th straight year, good for third all-time. Marvin Harrison caught seven passes to push himself past Cris Carter into second on the all-time receptions list behind Jerry Rice. And perhaps, most importantly, on a team level, the outcome allowed the Colts to win at least 12 games for the sixth straight year, the first time in NFL history that a team has done that.
Injured players like Bob Sanders and Dominic Rhodes got much needed days off. It's hard to imagine a better way to end what was ultimately an unforgettable season of triumph over adversity for the team.
And yet ... that brings us back to this week.
All of the good feeling of that game, and of the season in general, can be erased by a less-than-stellar performance on Saturday night in San Diego. There are plenty of worries to keep fans up at night.
--Can the Colts run the ball on the Chargers, particularly in short yardage third and fourth down situations?
--Can they keep a somewhat healthy L.T. and Darren Sproles under wraps?
--Can they avoid a special teams' meltdown (the one troubling sign in the Tennessee finale was that the Titans consistently returned kicks for over 30 yards ... give that much room to Sproles, and he may go all the way)?
--Can Manning avoid the interceptions that have plagued him at times against San Diego?
--Will the defense be able to limit San Diego's time of possession and give the offense enough time to do sufficient damage on the scoreboard?
--Can the Colts force the turnover or two that will undoubtedly be necessary for a victory?
The angst-and-elation inspiring beauty of the NFL playoffs, though, is this: none of these questions can be answered in any way but on the field.
If the Colts fail the test, a whole season of hopes and dreams will end in a moment. If they can answer the questions satisfactorily, though, they will live to play another game and keep alive the possibility that this year will, again, be "our time". |
