It was tough to watch this matchup as a Colts fan as I originally became a Colts fan because of Manning back in the early 2000s and grew to love both the game of football and the Colts because of him. It was tough to watch him out there tonight as he just didn't look good, it didn't help that his receivers were dropping passes(lolDT) and our defense was playing over their heads to shut them down. Still happy to have gotten the win, but I definitely wasn't as happy as I should be after a playoff win because it just left a sick feeling in my stomach for how Peyton is probably going to finish out his career.
If it wasn't for that roughing the Peyton on the Broncos' first drive they wouldn't have even had a TD, so hopefully the defense keeps this up heading to NE. Their run game is atrocious, and so is ours, so i expect a lot of passes next week. Luck has done amazing the last two weeks using those short checkdown passes to makeup for the lack of run game and making downs shorter. Honestly Pep should have done this a lot sooner in the season, pretty much after Bradshaw went out, but the adjustments he's made for the offense for the playoffs has been great. Stopping GRONK is what I'm worried about, I have no doubts that Vontae and Toler will hold their own against edelman and lafell, but we got no one that can stop Gronk. Landry didn't play in the first game, and he did well on JT aside from that first drive TD, but he won't fare nearly as well against Gronk unless he can jam him on the line. We've owned Browner in the last two games against him so I expect us to target whoever he's trying to defend.
I fukking hate the Patriots so much though, words cannot express how much agony this fukking team has put me through and I'm hoping we demolish them next week. Get it done Luck and you'll finally get that ELITE recognition you deserved from the beginning of the season when so many were still doubting your ability. Also Hilton and Vontae are both top 5 at their position, everyone just sleeps on them because they're not flashy or loud-mouths like Sherman and Dez. Jones has also been huge in helping our run defense, the dline is honestly completely different with him playing than it was earlier in the season when he was out. Just get it done and get to the Superbowl, it's not too much to ask to shytkick those fakkits in Boston.