Colts stop others, can’t be stopped themselves

By Anthony Bialy  |   Monday, October 15, 2007  |  Comments( 0 )

Indianapolis Colts
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There are some allegedly foolproof ways to win football games: Having a running back rack up 100 yards, winning the turnover battle, and scoring on defense are all cited by some as certain guarantees to victory. Those events do frequently coincide with success, but the most obvious road to domination is also the truest one: Gain lots of yards while keeping your opponent from doing the same, and you're likely going to roll through your schedule.

It's an astoundingly easy concept that's of course not easy to achieve. The exceptions are the rare teams stocked with outstanding coaching and personnel on both sides of the ball, and it's a testament to the way the Indianapolis Colts are led and have been built that they were in the top five in offense and defense per game following their break. Indianapolis rested this past Sunday knowing that those it's due to face won't be able to rest themselves in the week leading up to a game against a team excelling at everything.

To the surprise of no one who's followed football since this Peyton Manning fellow was drafted, the Colts are near the league's statistical pinnacle on offense. After their off Sunday, they ranked third in offense with 402.8 yards per game.

Manning has accounted for 260.8 of those per clash through the air; while that's a superior rate, the difference between his team's passing and overall total is fairly vast, and it's surprising to even those who saw Indy rush through the last Super Bowl that it's fifth in the league with 142 ground yards per game.

The key factor in the thriving land assault is that Joseph Addai has evolved from serving as part of the plan to being the primary guy, stepping up his game with Dominic Rhodes gone. Further, the recent emergence of Kenton Keith is going to confound many defenses in the weeks ahead as they attempt to stop a foreboding and still emerging aspect of this offense, especially when Addai returns from injury and the pair can complement each other.

As for slowing other offenses, they were fifth in the league defensively after their bye week, surrendering a meager 278.2 yards on average every contest. That shouldn't be a tremendous surprise, as the Colts played sturdily on defense for large parts of last season, too, but the truth is that they will always be perceived as dominating through scoring. In actuality, they're holding opposing passers to a middling 81.2 rating while keeping rushers to 105.4 yards a contest, an amount that's not stunningly small but still respectable.

With those spots, the Colts are in a choice group dominating both aspects: There are currently five teams in the top 10 for both categories. Dallas is right now second in offense and 10th in defense; meanwhile, the team that beat the Cowboys this week, New England, is the best offensively and runner-up on defense to Pittsburgh, which complemented its premier defensive standing with a ninth-place rankings in terms of yards gained per game. The surprise team in the group, Philadelphia, has crept into the rankings (eighth on offense, seventh on defense). This is after Week 6's contests, with New England and Dallas both having played the maximum number of games; as with the Colts, the Steelers and Eagles had played one fewer.

Unsurprisingly, four of those franchises, excepting Philly, are ones fans reflexively identify as dominant, with the only two top five teams in both categories, the Colts and Patriots, considered 1 and 1A.

With New England universally held as one of the best of the best, especially after its aforementioned victory against the Cowboys, the similarities between the Pats and Indianapolis become that much more compelling. That includes the basic fact that both squads are gaining much territory while surrendering little.

The forthcoming matchup with the other team constantly mentioned as either first- or second-greatest is a challenge Colts fans can look forward to during a week when there's no game to enjoy. In the meantime, Indianapolis remains at the league's uppermost echelon when it comes to both moving and stopping the ball. Being near or at the crown both in terms of stats and wins is a position they will hold through their idle week and until, or if, some team proves they don't belong there.
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