A quarter too far: New England Patriots run out of steam against the Indianapolis Colts, lose 38-34
The New England Patriots took 21-3 lead against the Indianapolis Colts, then fell 38-34, but they didn’t choke, they simply ran out of steam against a team with more speed, more talent and - this time around - sharper execution. Things that have hurt the Patriots throughout the season caught up with them today: Giving up big plays when blitzing, poor tackling, stretches of improductivity on offense.
The Patriots, fatigued after the tough game in San Diego and after a week of battling the flu in the locker room, couldn’t hold off the flying Colts, although they came up only 60 seconds short in their effort.
The Patriots changed up their personnel on defense: Eric Alexander took an inside linebacker spot, Mike Vrabel moved to left outside linebacker and Rosevelt Colvin moved over to right outside linebacker, where he replaced Tully Banta-Cain. It worked well for most of the first half, but the Colts offense was getting in gear even before halftime. Cornerbacks Ellis Hobbs and Asante Samuel both had huge games out on their islands against the best pair of wide receivers in the National Football League. Samuel put the Patriots up 21-3 when he returned an interception for a touchdown. A second-half pass interference call on Hobbs in the second hald seemed quite ticky-tacky, but there have been a lot of those this season.
The defensive front-seven struggled throughout the day. Richard Seymour was once again slowed down by the injury that has clearly been hampering him throughout the season. Colvin started out strong but left the game with cramps. Vrabel battled throughout but was unable to come up with a game turning play. Alexander had a solid outing overall while the aging Tedy Bruschi had problems in the cover game, as he has been this year.
The Patriots persisted in using two-tight end formation where both tight-ends were playing upright but close to the offensive line. The formation didn’t strike me as particularly effective and the best play of the game came on a trusted Power-I right over tightends Graham and Dave Thomas blocking and with runningback Corey Dillon on a 4th down at Colts 48-yard line in the first quarter. It worked the way it so often does and Dillon scampered 35 yards.
Dillon scored a seven-yard touchdown run in the second quarter to put New England up 14-3. After that he had only one more carry in the game.
The wildly over rated Laurence Maroney showed how much of a rookie he is. He forced a fumble by Brady on a simple hand off and generally had a hard time to get going throughout the game. His best run came on a Power-Right I that would probably have gone for more than nine-yard had tight end Ben Watson not whiffed his block, forcing pulling left guard Logan Mankins to abort his lead block. Watson is by far the weakest run-blocker of the three tight ends.
Brady finished with 21 completion on 34 attempts for 232 yards, one touchdown and one interception.
I’m not sure what to say about the way the offense played, or about the coaching in general. New England’s first drive in the second half, which came after an Indianapolis drive that lasted 6:47 and 14 plays, was lame: A wild incomplete pass to the right, a draw play to runningback Kevin Faulk and a no gain-pass to fullback Heath Evans thrown by a hurried Brady. The Colts followed up with another punishing drive that ended with a touchdown and a game-tying two-point conversion. The Patriots were able to regain the lead thanks to a terrific 80-yard kick-off return by Hobbs that set up a spectacular six-yard catch for a touchdown by Jabar Gaffney.
The roof caved in on the offense in the final quarter when Brady missed an uncovered Reche Caldwell along the right sideline. When Brady finally spotted him Caldwell dropped the pass (I saw a similar situation in the semi-pro league* I played in many years ago. The quarterback naturally spotted the uncovered receiver and almost leisurely tossed him a pass for a touchdown. It’s a mystery how Brady missed it). New England’s penultimate drive, with the team up 34-31, was immediately short circuited when Evans got his team flagged for 12 men in the huddle. Now, why he shouldn’t have been on the field is question worth asking, but it is what it is.
It was also strange that the Patriots didn’t take a time out after Indianapolis ran a first-and-10 play deep in Patriots territory on their drive to the game winning touchdown. By not taking the time out the Patriots lost some 30 seconds on their final drive that would have made their last ditch effort less of a panicky rush job.
Like I said, the Patriots just weren’t as sharp as the Colts today, probably because the game against the San Diego Chargers took so much out of them.
I’d like to think that the Patriots used their two-tight end spread-formation as much as they did because they hoped to catch the Colts with a personnel package geared towards stopping the pass, the way the Patriots caught the Jets in the Wild Card game. Or maybe there was some other reason. I don’t know, but it sure didn’t look too good.
Wide receiver Troy Brown made what could well have been the play of the game when he made a 27 yard catch and run on a crossing pattern on fourth and six early in the second quarter from the 34 yard line. The play set up Dillon’s touchdown run. On the following drive, Samuel jumped Marvin Harrison’s route.
Even though the game was close it wasn’t decided by either Patriots kicker Stephen Gostkowski or Colts kicker, ex-Patriot Adam Vinatieri, both of whom made all their kicks.
It was a tough loss, but the Patriots put up a valiant effort this season, over coming the loss of their two top wide receivers and the usual rash of injuries in the secondary to reach the AFC Championship game.
Heck of a game, I must say. Mankins scored a touchdown when recovered Brady’s fumble in Indianapolis endzone after half of Indiana had failed to pounce on the ball. Colts center Jeff Saturday recovered a fumble in New England’s endzone. Former Patriot Dan Klecko caught a touchdown pass.
Flash back: The end of the Patriots Super Bowl era.
Monday updates:
Boston Globe’s football columnist Ron Borges noticed how the Colts fared against New England’s different defensive personnel packages, something I didn’t pick up on:
Twice more the Colts came back to tie it after New England scores, putting up points four of the first five times they had the ball in the second half before the Patriots switched to a five defensive back alignment. That shift brought the Colts’ offense to a momentary halt, stopping them three and out. But when Indianapolis got the ball back with 2:17 to play at its 20, New England inexplicably went back to the defensive formation Manning had been torturing throughout the second half until the Patriots briefly added Chad Scott to their coverage package. That series they chose to again play the Colts in a conventional alignment with four defensive backs and four linebackers that included the seldom-used Alexander, and Manning tore them apart again.
* Don’t get excited: I was the semi part, somebody else was the pro.
