Writing on Saturday about ABQB's of the year, I mentioned my concern for the Colts decision to carry a rookie QB as their backup. The post wasn't even warm before Peyton Manning had put Indy in the lead against the New York Jets Sunday afternoon and inserted Curtis Painter to finish the job. A sack, fumble, touchdown moments later left the home crowd devastated and it looked like the Hall-Of-Fame QB on the sideline was as well.
Manning has worked as hard this year as any year I've watched to will his team to victories and keep them perfect, only to watch it disappear so quickly. Now, Jim Caldwell and the rest of the team will say that winning the Super Bowl was and is the goal, but this team had a chance that only the New England Patrtiots had before them and would set them apart from every other team in the history of the NFL. The Patriots missed it by the "stick-um" on David Tyree's helmet, but the Colts should have tried for history.
Now this team that was so close to regular season perfection and quite possibly football immortality, is now stuck with a loss and final regular season game to play before taking off for their bye week. Can Indy win with Painter in at QB? I'm sure they can, but what if they don't? And what if Manning were, God forbid, actually to get injured? I don't think the decision to pull Manning was the correct one and I think failing to carry an experienced backup QB could be the biggest mistake of them all.
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