Week Sixteen, Thursday Night
Another week when I know I’m not wrapping things up ahead of the Thursday night game. So here’s what I’ve got for this gem.
Indianapolis (-6) at Jacksonville
I was one of the people who looked at the schedule in advance of the 2008 season and saw this game as quite possibly the most exciting matchup of the week. I thought these teams could be competing for the AFC South title. Or maybe one of them would have secured the division and would be playing for home field and the other would be fighting for a wild card spot. At the very least, I figured one team would have a solid shot at playing spoiler as the other worked toward the post-season. Yeah, as it works out I was wrong about pretty much all of it. Neither team is winning the south, and only one is making the playoffs at all. And yeah, OK, Jacksonville conceivably could hurt the Colts’ chances of securing a Wild Card berth. But probably not. Indianapolis has about half a dozen doors into the post season to choose from. One of them is gonna swing open even if the Colts somehow manage to lose this game. And the thing is, the Colts aren’t losing this game. You’d think they could, what with Marvin Harrison out and Joseph Addai questionable, and considering the fact that Jacksonville should be able to slow down the game a bit with effective running and keep it close with good-enough run D. But you’d be wrong. Because Jacksonville can’t get anything right this season. Put them up against a team that isn’t running well and they’ll find a way to surrender 400 yards in the air. Or they’ll commit fully to the pass and watch a Colts offense that averages 80 rushing yards a game put together a 200-yard effort on the ground. Or they’ll play well on defense all around, only to watch their offense surrender a couple of key turnovers that give the Colts short fields and easy scores. It’s just been that kind of season. And it isn’t changing here. Indy wins by four and wraps up a wild card spot, not to mention the five seed, which means an easy first-round matchup with Denver (or San Diego, maybe).
