Profootballtalk.com has just reported that the Colts have placed over half of their team on the injury roster.  http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2009/12/14/29-colts-show-up-on-injury-report/

In other words, (like they always do), they're going to mail it in for the rest of the season, pissing away all their momentum, and in all likelihood shitting the bed on Jan 16th or 17th against the Bengals or Chargers, a full 5 weeks from now.

Now for those of you who are not familiar with the Colts playoff success, under Peyton Manning they have been one-and-done in 6 out of 9 playoff appearances.  In 5 out of those 6, they were Vegas favorites.  If there is anything the Colts do with remarkable regularity, it is underperform expectations in playoff conditions.  But it's not like they had bad teams, my guess is that it has to do with the fact that when your starters don't play for weeks on end they tend to get rusty.  Buyer beware, I guess...

That being said, I sincerely hope that the Colts can find a way to win on Thursday, because we need JAX to lose in order to keep our faint playoff hopes alive. 

That the Colts feel it is acceptable to disrespect the purity of the game and shit on fans of the sport by not realistically trying to win is disgraceful.  But hey, Jeff Fisher did it too last year (probably secretly wearing a Manning jersey underneath his powder blue), so who are we to complain, right?

Charity event or not, Titans coach Jeff Fisher's embrace of a Peyton Manning Colts jersey last week has not won much support around the NFL.

Even former Colts coach Tony Dungy, whom Fisher was introducing at the Nashville event last week, said it crossed a line he would not have crossed.

"I wouldn't have done it if we were 10-0," Dungy said on NBC's Football Night in America, "but that's me."

Two days after losing to the Patriots 59-0 and falling to 0-6, Fisher donned the Manning jersey and said "I just wanted to feel like a winner" at an event last Tuesday. He defended the move since it was a charity event and said he was just trying to have some fun.

Dungy, while acknowledging that it was a joke, said it probably occurred too soon after the blowout loss. "From a players' perspective in the locker room, you just got your butt kicked 59-0," he said. "It's just bad timing."

Fox analyst Terry Bradshaw said Titans players might see the act as him drawing a line between them and him.

"I have a big problem with it," Bradshaw said on Fox NFL Sunday. "If you are a player in that locker room and the coach is separating himself from you, he's basically turned around and told the players 'you're the losers.' I'm disappointed in Fisher."

Former Patriots receiver Rodney Harrison echoed that criticism. "That's not the way you lighten the mood," he said on NBC. "I wouldn't do that. I know (Patriots coach Bill) Belichick wouldn't do it." -- Sean Leahy

A few days have now passed since the Colts fell to the Chargers at Qualcomm, and i thought I would take the opportunity to have a little fun with it.

Please feel free to add to the list!

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Well, here we are folks.  Our magic number is 1.  No matter if the Colts win out, as long as we win one more game, we will win in a tie-breaker! 

In case some of you don't know the math, let me break it down -

At 12-4 records for the Colts and the Titans, the tiebreaker (at best for the Colts) would look like this:

Head-toHead = Tie (1-1)

Division Record = Tie (4-2),

Common Games = Titans (thanks to wins against the Bears and Packers)

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After 10 wins and a 3-game lead over the rest of the AFC, I thought it made sense to take a look at the playoff picture.

Assuming there are no massive surprises over the next few weeks, I think we can get a decent idea of how things will shake out.

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Today felt like last year.  We won ugly, but we won.  Kerry Collins had a wild day, completing less than half of his passes and nearly getting intercepted twice.

Now, it is true that the Packers have an excellent secondary, and they pressured our line more succesfully than all of our previous opponents, but on some of the errant throws Kerry was just stinking it up.

This is the halfway point of our season.  We've benched Young, and have asked Collins to take our Titans to the promised land.  Can Kerry do it?  Let's grade him at the halfway point of the season.

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As some of you have likely noticed, the posts over at Stampede Blue have gotten quite adversarial as of late.  In fact, somebody over there has been deleting some of my posts; I suppose the frustration of their season is starting to get to them, and as a result they have resorted to censorship.  After the jump, you will find my post in response to http://www.stampedeblue.com/2008/10/23/641118/i-m-going-to-enjoy-watchin.  I am also posting it here, so my fellow Titans fans can enjoy it.  I assume that someone will delete it at Stampede Blue.

We go back and forth, we trash talk, we do many things on these blogs that, for the most part is nothing more than cheering on your team.  Rivalries are fun; but they are not very fun when blog writers make ad hominem attacks on our players or our fans.

In fact, one of the administrators at StampedeBlue, BigBlueShoe, obviously takes great pleasure in ripping apart and verbally assaulting our players.  Usually, the blog admins tend to rise above these low-grade tactics.

I invite you, fellow Titans fans, to not take this idly.  Let us not revel only in being 7-0, let's defend our players and our team; as much as it feels great to win, it feels almost just as good to shut up these arrogant fans who had the audacity to disrespect our team and insult our players. 

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On August 12th, I wrote a Fanpost hypothesizing that this is the year that the Colts fade.  The post is here http://www.musiccitymiracles.com/2008/8/12/592488/is-this-the-year-the-colts

After 2 weeks of football, I thought it would be an opportune time to revisit the post.

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Ok I admit, the Colts have been an impressive team in recent years.  Winning the division in each of the last 5 years is an accomplishment any team could be proud of.  Though some might argue (quite convincingly) that Rex Grossman single-handedly lost that Superbowl for the Bears, I'll take the high road and give Manning credit for leading his team to victory.

A great team indeed. 

But things are changing...  Marvin Harrison is getting long in the tooth, being distracted by legal troubles, and his health is still questionable.  Fanboy Colt disciples will claim that he has looked fantastic in training camp - we'll see once he starts getting hit properly how well he holds up.   Ben Utecht is gone.  Manning had an infected bursa sac removed and isn't there to practice.  How serious was the procedure?  Hard to say, but when a team starts filling its roster with backup quarterbacks, you know it's a concern of the FO.  Bob Sanders is injury prone, yet somehow managed to get through 2007 basically unscathed.  Could he repeat this feat?  Not so sure he can.

Sure, Manning still has reliable targets in Dallas Clark, Reggie Wayne, and Anthony Gonzalez, but if something happens to any one of them, or if Peyton struggles with his injury recovery, this situation could quickly deteriorate.

Freeney, the highly paid superstar DE, basically has not played football in about 10 months.  His Lisfranc injury is serious, and could linger for years to come.  To expect him to ever return to top form is wishful thinking; it could happen, but the odds are against him.

A solid secondary and a decent linebacking corps does put the Colts in a good spot to play good defense again.  But you slow down that offense, and put the Colts D on the field more, and you can expect them to fall off in effectiveness. 

Besides, is Tony Dungy's heart still in it?  I have a feeling he'd rather deploy his "quiet strength" and preach to prison inmates than coach football.

It is my sense that we will see the beginning of the great unravelling this year.  My prediction, the Colts win 10 games and finish 3rd in the AFC South.

It will be so much fun for the Titans to maul this team this year.

Nothing - not a single thing is happening.  Other than the occasional arrest and boring reminder of Spygate.  Even Peter King has ran out of stuff to say.

It's killing me - Why can't the beat writers in Nashville come up with something interesting to say about our players?  Seriously, a story about Amano competing for Left Guard???  'Dinger barely knows who he is!

Another Pacman story?  Yawn... we should try to forget Pacman, because the more we are reminded of him the more it will hurt if he has a great season.

I need some football.  There is only so much golfing and drinking I can do in any given week.

These are interesting comments by Fisher - perhaps it is just a negotiation ruse...  But with Pac handing out food to the poor and Goodell saying he is encouraged by his attitude, could it be that the Titans are changing their perspective a bit?  Can they get more value for Pacman if they get him on the field a bit this year and hold off until the trade deadline?  

Are they actually considering all these options seriously?

http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080401/SPORTS01/80401167&referrer=FRONTPA GECAROUSEL

Thoughts?

Well...  Looks like the last remaining free agent who is better than our receivers has been snapped up.

http://beta.profootballtalk.com/category/rumor-mill/

I think unless we get a miracle trade we're likely to end up in the bottom quartile, receiving-wise.  I just don't see how else it would work out.  Williams and Gage have improving chemistry with VY, so that will make us better but I don't imagine that they are ever going to become stars (hope I'm wrong).  Crumpler is a question mark.

If everyone recalls, the primary objective this offseason was to get weapons for Vince.  I think we can agree that Reinfeldt has failed in this effort so far, no?  

Am I the only one who is disappointed in the shortcomings of this front office?

http://beta.profootballtalk.com/2008/03/14/49ers-sign-bryant-johnson/

well well...  what a disappointment this is.  That pretty much wraps up the desireable free agents - who's left, Hackett?

Looks like the two Justins are our studs this year...

Does anybody have any theories on why this fell apart?  This is extremely disappointing.  Titans Front Office has let another one slip away.

Coming into Nashville this weekend from Montreal to see the Titans game.  I somehow ended up with an extra pair of tickets (Sec 316, row JJ).  I bought these initially on Ticketmaster and later found better seats on Stubhub.

I've had no luck selling them on either Craigslist, or StubHub or eBay.

At this point I'd hate to see them be wasted.  If anybody wants them, I'll sell them for $35 each, and I can meet up to hand-deliver in Nashville this weekend.

Also wondering if pre-game breakfast is better at the Wildhorse Saloon or Coyote Ugly?  Any opinions on this?

Thanks!