Early exit too familiar

 

 

It's a legitimate spin. You lose Dallas Clark, Bob Sanders, Austin Collie and so on, and replace them with Jacob Tamme, Aaron Francisco, Blair White and so on, and you won't be as good a team as previously assembled.

 

"I think we fought hard, but our standards around here are high," Colts coach Jim Caldwell said. "We got in the playoffs, but we've always believed our goal is to win championships here."

 

Here's the tough part: If the Colts and their fans take an honest look back at this season, which ended with a 17-16 AFC wild-card home playoff loss to the New York Jets on Saturday night at Lucas Oil Stadium, the view is quite sobering.

 

As far as "standards" go, this season looked more standard than not at the end, with the Colts owning a division title and taking a first-game playoff loss. That exact scenario has happened three other times since 1999. The Colts have lost their first playoff game seven times in 11 appearances since Peyton Manning became quarterback. Four of those have been home games.

 

In fact, the Colts have lost their first playoff game four times in the last six years, with the only exceptions being their Super Bowl title after the 2006 season and their Super Bowl appearance last year. They'll take the exceptions to the rule, but the rule is that the Colts don't thrive in playoff situations.

 

They had the chance to beat the Jets, but tentative or conservative play calling and poor special-teams play spelled another come-from-ahead playoff loss.

 

Let's hear it for the Colts persevering through injuries and making the playoffs. But let's not ignore the blown chance upon getting there.

 

"We wanted to get to the Super Bowl, regardless of what we went through," said Colts safety Antoine Bethea. "We fought a lot, we were division champs, that's good to smile about and something to build on for next year. But we fell short, and we're not happy about that."

 

In retrospect, this lost season was salvaged by a late four-game winning streak over some spotty teams.

 

Otherwise:

 

* Only five of the Colts' opponents finished above .500. The Colts beat the 10-6 Giants and 10-6 Chiefs and lost to the 10-6 Eagles, 14-2 Patriots and 9-7 Chargers.

 

* The Colts beat only one playoff team, the Chiefs, who didn't exactly set the postseason on fire.

 

* The Colts lost to the 6-10 Texans, the 8-8 Jaguars and the 6-10 Cowboys.

 

* The 10 wins came over opponents with a combined record of 58-82 (.414).

 

All of that so-so regular season could be forgiven if the Colts had beaten the Jets. But this game will linger in the offseason for the too-familiar reality of missed chances.

 

Once again, the powerful Colts offense could not put enough points on the board, plain and simple. Even without every weapon, they should be winning handily when their defense has given up only two scores with less than a minute to play.

 

But the Colts managed only 16 points, their second-lowest total of the season. In their last four first-game playoff losses, they've scored 18, 24, 17 and 16 points.

 

They struggled to convert the shortest of third downs against the Jets. The Colts had six third-and-1 opportunities. Dominic Rhodes converted two of them with 3-yard runs.

 

The other four: Joseph Addai for a 2-yard loss, two incomplete passes to White and Rhodes for a one-yard loss.

 

A couple of other curious decisions included the Colts showing little urgency to try to score before the half after Justin Tryon intercepted a Mark Sanchez pass, Manning looking away from the NFL's second-most-productive receiver Reggie Wayne, and Caldwell's decision to settle into a 50-yard field goal for the go-ahead score at the end.

 

Perhaps the most puzzling was Manning's decision not to even try to go to Wayne. Manning said the Jets' defense dictated it. So he threw to Pierre Garcon (112 yards, one touchdown), White and Tamme.

 

Wayne was left alone on "Revis Island." Manning didn't even send a message in a bottle.

 

If Darrelle Revis is that good, maybe it's time for early induction into the Hall of Fame.

 

Wayne was targeted once, caught one pass and had 1 yard. One of my fellow sports writers dubbed it "the elusive triple-single."

 

Wayne could not hide his anger afterward.

 

"One ball, that's all," he said. "I shouldn't have even suited up. I should have watched it like everybody else."

 

Manning reads the defensive coverage and decides where to throw. But you have to wonder, given his playoff history (the Colts are 9-10 in the postseason with Manning), if he preferred not to risk Revis making a play that surely would have put more blame on Manning's shoulders.

 

I blame Caldwell's influence in this aversion to risk-taking and too-careful approach to offense in the postseason.

 

Caldwell caught some deserved heat for his timeout with 29 seconds left, which allowed the Jets to reconsider their plan to try a long 48- or 50-yard field goal. Instead, Braylon made a great adjustment, got away with a push, and caught the pass over the height-impaired Jacob Lacey to set up the game-winning 32-yarder.

 

I don't understand the timeout. Why give the Jets more time to plan their next play when they're not in sure-thing field goal range? But the timeout is consistent with Caldwell's call earlier this year at Jacksonville when the Jags looked content to go to overtime. That timeout led to a loss, too.

 

Some coaches need anger-management courses. Caldwell should take clock-management courses.

 

In the end, perhaps the Jets were the better team. They asserted their will with two huge scoring drives in the second half, the latter covering 17 plays, 87 yards and nearly 10 minutes.

 

This was a strange season for the Colts, marred by injuries and close losses. Five of their seven losses (counting the Jets game) were by three or fewer points.

 

It didn't feel like a usual Colts season - until the end. The early playoff exit looked way too familiar to Colts fans. 
A look back at the 2010 Colts 
Stars 
1. Offensive MVP. Peyton Manning threw for a career-high 4,700 yards and - except for his three-game slump - used a lot of unknown players to keep the Colts in contention.

 

2. Defensive MVP. Antoine Bethea had to figure out who was playing in the secondary with him every game. He's a great influence on younger players and rarely makes mistakes.

 

3. Special-teams MVP. Adam Vinatieri returned to his classic form, finishing the season with a 50-yarder that could have (maybe should have) won the Jets game. His contract is up. The Colts need to resign him.

 

Most memorable moments 
1. Austin Collie's concussion vs. the Eagles. It was frightening to watch, and he took another equally scary hit later against Jacksonville. A tough season for a tough player whose worth was magnified with his absence.

 

2. Pierre Garcon's one-handed catch vs. the Redskins. Garcon infuriates fans sometimes with his drops, but his leaping, reaching catch at Washington was so improbable it looked computer-generated.

 

3. Manning's naked bootleg vs. Raiders. Needing another first down to ice the game, Manning called a run to Dominic Rhodes and told no one he was taking the ball and running.

 

Top 3 offseason personnel decisions: 
1. The Man. The Colts intend to make Manning the NFL's highest-paid player, according to owner Jim Irsay. They'll do so soon enough, even with the collective-bargaining agreement in limbo.

 

2. The Myth. Erstwhile defensive showstopper Bob Sanders has missed most of the last three seasons. Yet the Colts have been paying him millions. He has a year left on his contract, but the Colts can't keep paying him wildly to sit. It's time to renegotiate or cut bait.