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Dungy rediscovers roots in a victory

Defense puts Colts back into contention

By GARY SHELTON
Published January 7, 2007

INDIANAPOLIS - Three wise men, talking about a journey.

They sat at a table at P.F. Chang's, talking about life and lessons, beginnings and destinations. Tony and Herm and Lovie, the old gang, were together again.

A decade has passed since they first began to work together with the Bucs, and their paths separated long ago. The memories, as ever, remain.

There are bonds that cannot be broken by the color of uniforms or the position of the standings of the schedule of games. And so on Friday night, Tony Dungy sat at a table with former proteges Herm Edwards and Lovie Smith, and they talked with the warmth of men who have ridden together, with the familiarity of men who share the same goal.

They talked about Tampa Bay, and about '96, and about how excitement turned into uncertainty as they lost their first game with the Bucs 34-3. They talked about the league and about dealing with players. They talked about Smith's Bears and Edwards' Chiefs and Dungy's Colts. They talked about how far they had come since Dungy's first year as a head coach, when he hired Edwards to handle the Bucs secondary and Smith to handle the linebackers.

Turns out, Dungy may still have places to go.

Turns out, Dungy may still have memories to make.

For a day, at least, Dungy's Colts returned to their position as legitimate Super Bowl contenders. Indianapolis smothered Edwards' Chiefs 23-8 in a game that hinted that despite their recent struggles, there may be some magic left in the Colts' postseason after all.

Just asking, but whatever happened to Kansas City running back Larry Johnson? You know, the guy who rushed for 1,789 yards this season? The guy who was expected to run for about a thousand more against Indy?

Johnson and the Chiefs were swarmed by the Colts, who suddenly looked quick enough, physical enough to make a legitimate run.

Yes, the road ahead looks imposing with Saturday's trip to Baltimore and probably a trip to San Diego afterward. Still, it was the kind of performance to make you look again at Indy, a team that had almost played itself out of reasonable assumption.

Before the game, the one thing everyone agreed on was that Johnson was going to do horrible things to the Colts defense. After all, everyone else had, and Johnson was the league's second-leading rusher. When people talked about how many yards he was going to gain, it was like listening to an auction. Would he get 175? How about 200? Anyone think 250?

After the game, even Dungy admitted he thought Johnson would get 100-110 yards on 20 carries. That would be good enough, Dungy thought.

Instead, Johnson had 32 yards on 13 carries. As far as anyone knows, he is still buried somewhere beneath Dwight Freeney and Bob Sanders.

As for the rest of the Chiefs offense, it seemed to be operating from Bucs' old game plans. Kansas City didn't get its first first down until 3:32 remained in the third quarter. Trent Green seemed lost. Tony Gonzalez was invisible. No one is sure if the Chiefs even played with wide receivers.

It was the type of defensive performance you might expect from Baltimore. Chicago, perhaps. But Indianapolis? Wasn't it the worst rushing defense in the league? Wasn't it the team that made stars out of Maurice Jones-Drew and Ron Dayne?

That defense stopped L.J.?

"We played with a lot of energy," Dungy said. "We didn't have any of those mistakes where we're going along pretty good and then we give up a 30-yard run. We hustled and tackled pretty well."

Perhaps it would be more comforting if Dungy said that he had discovered why the Colts have been such a misery in their run defense, that perhaps he discovered his tackles were lining up facing the wrong way or some such nonsense. Then again, Dungy was always about hustling and tackling.

Still, it had to be good for him to see his defense stand up on a day when Peyton Manning looked mortal. At heart, Dungy is a defensive coach, and there have been times during his stint at Indy that he has looked like an actor cast in the wrong role. With Dungy, the game always started with defense, and defense always started with stopping the run. Until you can do that, you aren't going to win championships.

With Dungy, that remains the point. These are his ninth playoffs in his 11 years as a head coach, and he has won 10 or more in each of his five seasons in Indy. But he still hasn't made a Super Bowl, and because of it, his critics tend to get noisy this time of year.

For a day, however, his defense hinted that maybe he has a chance this time around, after all. For a game, all things seemed possible.

And the next time Dungy meets with his former assistants, perhaps he will have some more stories to tell. In the meantime, it was Edwards who had the last word.

"You hear me," Edwards said as the two met at midfield after the game. "You win this thing."

Gary Shelton can be reached at (727) 893-8805.

[Last modified January 7, 2007, 01:31:55]