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November 4, 2007

Indy Star: 'Brady, Patriots hand Colts 1st loss of season'

Providence Journal photo / Bob Breidenbach

Ty Warren and Junior Seau sack Indy quarterback Peyton Manning in the 4th quarter which forced a fumble and a 4th down. The Colts punted and the Patriots scored on the next drive to win the game.

A hard-fought, hard-won Patriots victory. Not fun to watch, but a satisfying outcome. Dogged, workmanlike football by smart, talented people.

Brady, Patriots hand Colts 1st loss of season at the hometown paper of the losing team.

The Colts' last chance evaporated with 2:25 to play when defensive tackle Jarvis Green broke away from center Jeff Saturday and hit quarterback Peyton Manning. The football popped loose and was recovered by outside linebacker Rosevelt Colvin, an Indianapolis native.

Matt Detrich / The Indianapolis Star

Colts quarterback Peyton Manning, right, can only watch as he loses the football after getting hit by New England's Jarvis Green. The hand at the left belongs to Patriots linebacker Rosevelt Colvin, who recovered the fumble with 2:25 remaining in the game. The Colts never regained possession.

Hundreds of comments make it special. A not quite random sample:

GREAT GAME! I STILL DON'T SEE HOW THE PATRIOTS WON THE GAME-WE PALYED GREAT D RAN THE BALL WELL & THE PATRIOTS HAD A FRANCHISE RECORD IN PEANLTIES??????

COLTS HAD A COUPLE OF CALL I WAS SCRATCHING MY HEAD OVER BUT IF THIS AN INDICATOR THAT THE PATS CAN PALY THIS BAD & STILL WIN ON THE ROAD THIS SEASON IS COMPLETLEY OVER!

All the Indy Star sports columnists had picked Indy to win. Now, Bob Kravitz: You've seen the best; ready for January in New England? asks,

At the risk of messing up the NFL schedule, can we just have the Colts and Patriots play every Sunday, and maybe an occasional Monday?

and Bob Kravitz's report card isn't one you'd want to bring home to strict parents.

Announcing: For the most part, they heard our complaints. Michael Hiestand at USA Today (CBS announcers let Patriots-Colts game speak for itself):

Sean McManus, who oversees CBS' sports and news divisions, was upfront last week about the game plan: The network would cover the New England-Indianapolis game like it's "a football game."

That happened. Game analyst Phil Simms stuck to dissecting what was being shown in replays, not grand theories about football. And play-by-play announcer Jim Nantz earnestly focused almost entirely on the game itself — and not on abstractions like whether we were all witnessing greatness...

There were no sideline reporters offering childhood anecdotes about players, no jokes from the announcers, no booth drop-bys. Simms and Nantz didn't offer up catchy one-liners, but they also didn't hyperventilate - or get in the way of the game.

Posted by Sheila Lennon  at 9:33 PM | Permalink