Patriots 2014 Opponents, 5 First Impressions of the Colts, AFC Championship
The Final Four of the NFL has been set and the New England Patriots will take on the Indianapolis Colts in the AFC Championship Game with the winner heading to the Super Bowl in Glendale, Arizona. The Green Bay Packers travel to Seattle to take on the defending champion Seahawks in the NFC.
The Pats and Colts will meet at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro on Sunday. The game will be televised by CBS and the kickoff is scheduled for 6:40 p.m.
The Patriots (13-4) defeated the Baltimore Ravens in the Divisional Round of the playoffs with a thrilling come-from-behind 35-31 win. Tom Brady threw for 367 yards and 3 touchdowns and Duron Harmon had the Patriots second interception of Joe Flacco with a minute and half left to seal the victory.
The Colts (13-5) upset the Denver Broncos in the Divisional Round on the road in Denver with an impressive 24-13 win. Andrew Luck was very impressive completing 27 of 43 passes for 267 yards, 2 TDs and 2 INTs. Luck’s protection was superb as the vaunted Denver pass rush was barely pressured all game.
All-time History: This will be the 79th meeting between the two rivals dating back to 1970. The Patriots own the all-time edge 49-29 and have won the last five meetings including a 42-20 win in Indianapolis in November.
As part of the lead-up to the game on Sunday, we’ll have a detailed breakdown of the matchups later in the week, but here is our Five First Impressions of the Colts AFC Championship Game Edition:
Luck Beats His Predecessor For Signature Win: Andrew Luck, who replaced Peyton Manning as the Colts QB, got the biggest win of his career against the man he replaced as he and the Colts badly outplayed the Broncos and Manning.
Entering into the game, Luck had been 0-4 in games against top QB’d teams with Ben Roethlisberger, Peyton Manning, Tony Romo and Tom Brady this season. Now with Manning and Broncos defeated, Luck will get a second crack at Tom Brady and the Patriots who defeated the Colts 42-20 in Indianapolis in November.
“I’d like to think I am a better quarterback and would like to think we’re a better team” now, Luck said. “We are well equipped to handle the unknown, the unforeseen.”
Luck used a more patient approach in the game at Denver, checking down to RB Dan Herron, who led the team with eight catches on the day and took what the defense was giving. Luck and WR T.Y. Hilton also hooked up four times for 73 yards as Hilton gave Denver CB Aqib Talib fits all game.
Luck also hit TE Coby Fleener three times for 62 yards including a big 32 yard pass play on a 3rd and 16 play that set up a Colts touchdown.
Colts Defense Shuts Down Manning, Running Game: The conventional wisdom was that the Broncos at home were going to pound the ball with CJ Anderson down Indy’s throat and that Peyton Manning was going to carve up the Colts secondary.
But Indy’s defense had other ideas. After a slow start on the first series, the Indianapolis defense got after Manning and set the tone with a sack and a forced fumble as they harassed him all game.
The Colts secondary was outstanding playing tight man coverage and daring the Broncos to throw deep, completely took away the deep passing game of Denver and Manning, holding him to just one completion of a pass over 5 yards. CB Vontae Davis was immense, credited with five passes defensed.
The Colts were excellent as disguising their coverages, showing one thing and switching to another at the snap. "Once we got into Manning's head -- that was the biggest thing," defensive lineman Ricky Jean Francois said. "You never know Peyton to overthrow guys. He usually puts the ball right on the number and when he kept overthrowing it, we knew we had him."
Manning threw for only 211 yards, 59 of which were at garbage time in the game’s final moments. He went a pedestrian 26-46 for 211 yards with 1 TD for a QB rating of 75.5
The Denver running game, which had been thriving down the stretch was also held in check. Running back CJ Anderson gained only 80 yards on 18 carries and never really was able to get in a rhythm.
Colts Need To Break Recent Losing Streak Against NE: For the Colts to advance to the Super Bowl, they’re going to have to reverse a recent losing skid against New England. Included in the streak are three losses of 20+ points including the Divisional Playoff game of last year as well as the November meeting.
Each game has its own flavor and the one in Indianapolis featured the Patriots going to an extra offensive lineman for most of the game and pounding the ball against the smaller but fast Colts defense. New England ran for over 200 yards in that matchup.
The Patriots have done well in facing Luck at limiting his effectiveness and forcing him into making mistakes. That is something that will be harped upon by each side this week in game planning.
While the Patriots rolled easily in the first meeting, a recent example of how the playoffs are a different animal will be used as an example this week will be the Patriots dismantling of the New York Jets in the 2010 season by a 45-3 score only to have the Jets turn the tide 28-21 in the playoffs. Chuck Pagano will be reminding his troops that they can indeed start a new chapter in the rivalry between the Colts and Patriots with a win on the Foxboro turf Sunday.
Colts Offensive Line Play a Key: The Colts, like New England, have had a lot of different combinations at the starting offensive line in 2014. But in the past few games they’ve settled down and are playing very solidly. On Sunday, they were outstanding giving Luck great protection against a Denver pass rush that generated 41 sacks on the season.
Denver’s Von Miller and DeMarcus Ware were basically rendered ineffective by the Colts revamped offensive line and as a result, Luck was able to get into a rhythm and methodically pick the Broncos secondary apart.
This aspect will be key this week against a Patriots unit that wasn’t able to bring any pressure on the Ravens’ QB Joe Flacco this week. The Colts will need to not only keep DEs Chandler Jones and Rob Ninkovich at bay but blitzers Jamie Collins, Dont’a Hightower and Akeem Ayers as well.
If Luck can extend plays and scramble out of the pocket, the Colts chances of success offensively will expand dramatically.
“The offensive line did a stand-up job, and you’ve got a team that had 41 sacks on the season… they did a great job.” Pagano said, “Andrew’s got the ability to extend plays and buy time and move around and manipulate the pocket, if you will, but they did a great job.”
Gronkowski Matchup Looms Large: This week in Foxboro the Colts will be facing a familiar and tough matchup of trying to account for TE Rob Gronkowski. They really didn’t have an answer for him in November and the big TE caught four passes for 71 yards and a touchdown.
The two images that remain from the game in November are of Gronkowski dragging Colts defenders down the field on a Tom Brady pass and him “throwing Sergio Brown out of the club” on a running play. These will no doubt get a lot of airplay this week in the Colts film sessions.
Gronkowski had a big game against the Ravens in the Divisional Playoff game catching seven passes for 108 yards and a touchdown. He’s a game changer and a force multiplier for the New England offense. The Colts are going to have to do a better job this time around in slowing him down or the defense could be in for a long evening.
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