Good News First…Or Bad?

Bad news first (’cause that’s just how I roll):

1. Our Colts lost.
2. Our Colts gave up a 10-point lead to lose by four points.
2. Our Colts lost when they should have won.
3. Peyton was definitely NOT on his game and failed to really exploit the Pats stale and predictable defense.
4. We didn’t have some major starters, well, starting: Tony Ugoh, Marvin Harrison, Tyjuan Hagler and Freddy Kieaho. Also, we lost Gonzalez and Bob Sanders got shaken up a bit.
5. Reggie Wayne seemed bothered by the pressure, dropping two key passes. This is very strange…
6. Peyton failed to find and utilize Dallas Clark.

Okay, let’s look at some good points from last night’s game:

1. The Pats are beatable and every team in the league should watch this game film over and over and over again to see just how beatable they are.
2. It’s amazing how Tom Brady’s game changed when he was actually playing against a real NFL-caliber team and not some Rams, Dolphins, Jets or Bills squad.
3. The defense pressured Brady all night, opening the Pats night on offense with a monstrous sack from Robert Mathis.
4. Dwight Freeney was running Matt Light and Logan Mankins all night long, exploiting the weakness in that side of the Pats OLine.
5. Randy Moss was nearly shut down by our secondary (except for a TD and a single long-yardage gain…he just killed us underneath.)
6. Joey, Joey, Joey…Joseph Addai was incredible. It was his night with over 200 yards of total offense.

All-in-all…not a bad game for either team. Regular season doesn’t mean much besides pride (and the Colts took a hit last night, for sure), except that we’re going to have to hear how “utterly unstoppable” the Patriots are until the Colts meet them again in the AFC Championship. But this game showed one simple thing…The Patriots are very beatable. Very beatable.