American Football: Can the Colts go undefeated?

It's time to seriously ask this question. They are 11-0 after trouncing the Steelers last night on Monday Night Football. The remaining games in the regular season include games against Tennessee, A Byron Leftwitch-less Jaguars team, and Arizona.

The only games that appear difficult are against San Diego (at home, where the Colts are the next best thing to undeatable over the past few years) and at Seattle. That Seattle game is the next to last week of the season. Seattle will already have thier division, and more than likely home field advantage, wrapped up. Stephen Alexander will be sitting by halftime. It's not worth getting him banged up.

So, does anyone else think they can pull this off?

Of course they CAN. But how seriously will they apply themselves to that task? By all accounts, they would be foolish to bust their tails to go 16-0, at the risk of finishing the season all spent and having far less than 100% to give in the playoffs.

That sure makes sense to me. I looked at the rest of their schedule last night, after the game. They've got 2 or 3 more tough teams left. When they sew up the #1 seed, and they find themselves opposing teams who are playing like hell and whom they're apt to see in the playoffs, just how hard are the Colts supposed to play?

Y'all know by now that I know 1,000 times as much about baseball as I do about football, but it seems to me Dungy should be loath to spend too much energy after the #1 spot is clinched, if all he's doing is seeking 16-0. That will require fighting like hell in, say, 3 or 4 more games that they might otherwise play halftime. And I know it's not good to take December off, but it sure as hell can't be good to play the month of December like it's January--especially when January is already a foregone conclusion. Can you imagine losing two or three big players in the process?

Baseball History Nut

hell yes

Sure they can. And would it really be wise to sit guys through the last few games? Maybe towards the end of a blowout. They'll probably get a first round bye in the playoffs, anyway. I think you run the risk of getting rusty by sitting too much. Anybody remember Philly tanking the last couple of games last year? They made it to the Super Bowl, but the goal is to win it.

I hope they are smart enough to do what they've continued to do to avoid getting stale. I think sitting healthy guys for any significant length of time is a big mistake.

The rest of the season sure favors 'em. No cold weather outdoor games. They could very well run the table, and I don't see anyone stopping them, as long as they play their regulars. I'd rather see them press on business as usual. Play your best guys and play to win. [Of course, anybody remember now that they lost all their pre season games? So I could be wrong].

Ya gotta point there, Dude.

The 1980 Raiders won the Super Bowl as a wild card team, beating a Vermeil-coached Philadelphia team which I THINK started the year 11-1, or even 12-1. That team pretty much took the final month off, slumbered through the playoffs and, as a result, barely made it to the SB.

The Raiders crept into the playoffs as a wild card, were taken seriously by nobody, but kicked Houston's tails in the wild-card game. The next week, the Raiders beat Cleveland--by a score of 14 to 12, I believe--in a real icefest and on a pair of Jim Plunkett bombs, while San Diego's incredible offense won one of the most famous games in NFL history, in 2 OT, against Miami, 41-38. Then in the AFC Title game, before anyone knew what was happening, the Raiders jumped to a huge lead over San Diego and barely hung on, with Jim Plunkett taking the Raiders on a clock-killing drive in the last half of the fourth quarter.

Philly was favored by 3.5 in the SB, as I recall. The Raiders beat the hell out of them, worse than the score will show, and the score ain't that close.

The historical wisdom about that Philly team, however, is NOT that they were improperly allowed to take the last four games off, but rather that they were "burned out" after 12 games because of the intensity with which Vermeil had coached them.

I've always found that a little hard to believe. We all see how intense Jaworski is even now, as a commentator, and Wilbert Montgomery was no less so. So maybe your theory explains that team. Maybe they slumbered the final month of the season, could never recover the magic, and for that reason lost to a team who, throughout the season, was nowhere near their equal.

I don't see that happening to Indi this year, a quarter of a century later, but what do I know? Perhaps they DO have to try to win every game for the rest of the year.

B.H.N.

The rest of the season sure favors 'em. No cold weather outdoor games. They could very well run the table

they play in seattle on dec 24th, not only could it very well be cold/windy/rainy/icy. they will be in the loudest stadium in the NFL. Last weekend the crowd noise caused the Giants to be flagged 11 times for false start penalties!!! It has been a long time since there was a BIG game in Seattle and the northwest fans will be ready, hopefully after fine seasons both teams will remain healthy down the stretch and into the playoffs

Originally posted by BaseballHistoryNut
Ya gotta point there, Dude.



, while San Diego's incredible offense won one of the most famous games in NFL history, in 2 OT, against Miami, 41-38. Then in the AFC Title game, before anyone knew what was happening, the Raiders jumped to a huge lead over San Diego and barely hung on, with Jim Plunkett taking the Raiders on a clock-killing drive in the last half of the fourth quarter.
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nah, that happened in '81. Miami didn't make the playoffs in '80 trust me.

If both the Colts and the Seahawks have every reason to not duke it out in week 16, will they bench the starters after halftime? This would keep them fresh enough, but not exhaust them. If so, who has the deeper team?

Originally posted by Gibbs Baby!!!
If both the Colts and the Seahawks have every reason to not duke it out in week 16, will they bench the starters after halftime? This would keep them fresh enough, but not exhaust them. If so, who has the deeper team?

Dear Redwolf,

Oops. I stand corrected. You are right about when that historic game happened. If I weren't so stubborn, I would look this up on the Net, but now that I think about it, I believe the 1980 Chargers "juggernaut" played Buffalo in the first round, didn't play nearly as well as they should have, and damn near lost at home to a spirited Bills' defense and QB Joe Ferguson. Then the next week, in the AFC Title Game, they got snuffed by that Raiders team which jumped way out ahead of them (something like 24-0). held on for dear life, and won the game something like 31-24 when Plunkett killed the clock with a 7- or 8-minute drive in the second half of the fourth quarter.

Did I get it right this time?

I will NEVER understand how those Chargers teams underachieved so terribly in the playoffs. In 1979, they murdered the Steelers something like 35-7 in the regular season and were rewarded with the #1 seed throughout the playoffs in the AFC. EVERYONE was waiting for the rematch, again in San Diego. That went out the door in their first playoff game, when a Houston team which was without its starting QB and without the then-best player in the NFL, great RB Earl Campbell, beat SD because of some unholy number of interceptions Fouts threw. I don't think I've ever been so surprised by the outcome of a playoff game.

I've mentioned above what the 1980 Chargers did, and this time I even got it right.

Then in 1981, the Chargers' offense was arguably at its greatest, but its defense was a shadow of its former self and frankly stunk. I believe DE Fred Dean was gone, and Kelcher looked like he'd gained, oh, about 500 pounds. THAT was the year of the incredible 41-38 double OT game with Miamia, in which the Dolphins came back from what I believe was a 24-0 deficit on their homefield, aided by the great relief play of QB Don Strock (who should have been the starter) and a brilliant hook and lateral play to end the first half and close it, I think, to 24-14 (maybe 24-17).

By the mid-fourth quarter, the Dolphins were ahead 38-31 and were fixing to score again, effectively putting the game away. But they failed to do so--I believe because of a running back's fumble--and then Fouts rallied the Chargers on a do-or-die TD drive. The first overtime featured two blown chipshot FG's, the San Diego one being a real shocker because their kicker, Rolf Benirschke (sp.?), was about as good as they got at that point in NFL history. But he redeemed himself in the second quarter and they won 41-38.

As I said before--even though I got the year wrong :-(--that game is widely viewed, still, as perhaps the greatest NFL playoff game of all time. And Chargers TE Kellen Winslow is still believed by many to have played the greatest playoff game of any individual ever, that day. If you have never seen the game, do whatever you can to get a videotape of it. It's pro football's equivalent of the Flutie/Miami game in 1984.

B.H.N.

P.S.: After their heroic, heart-stopping win over Miami, the Chargers went to Cleveland for that year's AFC Championship Game. The playing conditions were among the coldest in NFL history. I am told that if you saw the teams come out on the field, you knew who would win. The Chargers' faces said, "We have to play in THIS?!?!" The Browns' faces said, "Yeah, the weather sucks, but it sucks for them, too. Let's get it on!"

I don't remember the exact score, but the first time Fouts threw a pass, and it fluttered in the air like a knuckleball or butterfly (it really was that bad), you knew who would win.

1982 was the bifurcated strike season, with 8 teams from each conference making the playoffs. The Chargers again had a fine offense and a putrid defense. They played Round 1 in Pittsburgh, trailed by two scores in the fourth quarter, then put up two impressive TD drives to win, something like 31-28.

It was a Pyrrhic victory because the next week, came the reckoning. The Chargers' great offense had its last stand, in Miami, against a team waiting for revenge. Miami climbed all over them, ending their season. The great "Air Coryell" teams of Fouts, Winslow, Joiner, Chandler, Muncie, Brooks, etc., were effectively finished as an offensive dynasty and factor in NFL playoff races.

But I'll say this: For those of us who were privileged to see them, the Chargers teams of those years were, on offense, as good as any I'd seen until at least the St. Louis Rams' teams starting several years ago. I would probably go further and say they were as good offensively as any teams I'd seen until Peyton Manning's juggernaut in Indianapolis, which, year in and year out, is the best offensive unit I have ever seen.

B.H.N.

Originally posted by toejam
they play in seattle on dec 24th, not only could it very well be cold/windy/rainy/icy.

BaDUHHH. Here's how much I pay attention (and watch West Coast NFL games), I still had the 'hawks playing in a dome!!. Shades of Jim Zorn. My fault.

Whatever the conditions, it ought to be a good game. And if it's nasty weather, that's a disadvantage for the Colts (IMO).

BTW, I think I found the answer to the original question here...

the big game turned out to be not so big after all, the colts coming off their loss last week had nothing to play for and rested their regulars, the hawks had the first string in for more of the game than i would have liked got another great performance from Hasselback and Alexander and clinched home field advantage through the playoffs, the dark cloud over the game due to the unfortunate death of Tony Dungy's son took a lot of the luster off what should have been the game of the year for seattle