Yes, the NFL Does Allow Ugly Wins

Whew. That’s about all you can say after the Colts defeated the San Francisco 49ers 18-14 today.

I’m glad that one is over, and that’s one I won’t be going back to watch on the TiVo later tonight. So sorry Colts’ fans, I won’t be breaking down the tape Ron Jaworski-style this week.

But again, we’ve gotta remember that it was indeed a win. There are no such thing as style points in the NFL, which was certainly good on this day for the Colts.

It wasn’t a Manning-like today for Peyton Manning, even if he did throw for 347 yards. He overthrew several passes, which is something that we don’t see on a regular basis from him. Plus, Joseph Addai had more touchdown passes than he did, as Addai made the 22-yard pass to Reggie Wayne that would put the Colts in front for good. That’s right. Manning had zero touchdown passes to Addai’s one. The NFL is an interesting place.

You have to give a lot of credit to the Niner defense, as they seemed to always have an answer for Indy when they were trying to drive for a touchdown. This made Matt Stover busy on the day, as he kicked his first four field goals as a Colt. Welcome aboard, Matt.

Of course, he’s no Adam Vinatieri, but if he kicks like he did today, we may just alternate kickers in order to keep them fresh. I’ll pass the idea on to Coach Caldwell.

All in all, it’s a good victory for the Colts, especially on a day where they clearly didn’t have their best stuff. The 49ers aren’t a bad team, even though that was their third loss in a row. Frank Gore made things look a little scary early on, because after he broke that 64-yard run, I thought it may be a long day for Indy. But aside from that run, they held him to just 27 yards on 12 carries. Good job by the rush defense to pick things up in the second half.

So Colts’ fans, now I turn it over to you.

What did you think of today’s game? Just one game? Or should we be worried?