NFL

Indy positioned for playoff success

No. 1 seed, a bye week and home games. What better chance for Colts to bury a host of postseason failures?

By RICK STROUD
Published January 15, 2006

INDIANAPOLIS - Close may count in horseshoes, but not when you wear them on your helmet.

No quarterback has thrown for more yards or touchdowns in the past eight seasons than Peyton Manning.

But unless he slips a Super Bowl ring onto his finger, he risks being defined by what he failed to accomplish.

"I'm not into judging or defining careers in the middle of a career," Manning, 29, said. "I hope to play for a number of more years. I am not looking back on my first eight years thinking about what is going to happen in years to come."

Manning may have other chances to reach the Super Bowl, but it's hard to imagine he will have a better one.

The Colts (14-2) clinched the AFC's No. 1 seed after a 13-0 start. They have had three weeks to heal all their injuries. They need only to win two games at the RCA Dome, beginning with today's division playoff against Pittsburgh (12-5).

They will play in front of their fans, on a fast surface with no elements to slow them like the ones in Foxborough, Mass. It's the most favorable route to Super Bowl XL.

"It's just knowing that, hey, the time is now," Colts receiver Brandon Stokely said. "There's no time to look to the future anymore, there's no "Let's get them next year' or "Hey, it was a great season.' It's Super Bowl or bust."

That's certainly the attitude that Manning always has taken into the postseason.

But for all his success in the regular season - the NFL-record 49 touchdown passes in '04, the 33,189 passing yards and 93.5 rating in his career - Manning has been merely mortal in the playoffs, going 3-5. What's more, his passer rating in those five losses is 55.6, nearly 40 points below his career mark.

Of course, Manning's fingerprints aren't the only ones on the Colts' playoff failures.

The defense has never been an equal partner until this season, when it finished second in fewest points allowed (15.4).

Perhaps the Colts just picked the wrong era to be contenders, having run into a New England Patriots dynasty that has won three of the past four Super Bowls.

"I think we've got more guys who have been there and done it and more guys know what to expect and know how to handle it," Stokely said.

"It is disappointing, but you have to give credit to the teams that have beaten us, too. They've played better than us, and you have to take your hats off to them and say we didn't play that well, either."

Manning is not alone in his quest. Only three coaches have won more games during their first 10 years than Tony Dungy, who is making his eighth playoff appearance without coaching in a Super Bowl.

Manning still will be considered a Hall of Fame quarterback if he never plays in a Super Bowl. For the time being, he is the best quarterback never to win the Big One.

"In the short run. We look back now and realize that Dan Marino was a pretty good quarterback and we realize that Dan Fouts was a pretty good quarterback," Dungy said. "There have been some good quarterbacks that haven't won Super Bowls. In the short run, to be thought of as a good player, you have to win them. "I never looked at it that way," Dungy said. "I can't speak for Peyton, but I know for myself that is not something that I sit up thinking that we have to win a Super Bowl or my legacy is going to be tarnished. We have a great opportunity this year. It is the first time since I have been coaching that I have been the No. 1 seed and had a bye week and home games. That doesn't guarantee anything, but it is certainly a good opportunity and we don't want to waste it."

[Last modified January 15, 2006, 01:48:18]