The best Sunday Night game of the year took place tonight in San Diego, of all places, and Indianapolis eked out a win over the (sort of) rival Chargers on the leg of Adam Vinateri, who knocked a 50-yard field goal as time expired to seal the win, 23-20.
It wasn’t pretty. It wasn’t perfect. And the Colts have some serious issues on their offensive line – but for whatever reason, they were able to survive and advance. I mentioned earlier they needed to navigate the six-game meat of their schedule at 4-2 to make some noise in the AFC. Well, they’ve done that. They’re not whole, they’re not quite right, but they exorcised some Charger demons and managed to pull out a win tonight.
Suffice it to say if we didn’t expend so much energy detesting the Patriots or loathing the Jaguars, we might actually lament the Chargers. They who seem constructed almost exclusively to defeat the Colts, who seem to knock out a key Colt during each matchup, and they who we cannot solve, even as every other team can. The underperforming team who derailed the Colts’ 2005 undefeated run; the bizarre team who notched 6 picks and two Darren Sproles run-backs to squeak out a win last year in San Diego; and of course the debacle of the final Hoosier Dome game. I feel sorry for San Diego fans – how much agony can one season present – but, seriously, the Colts needed to finally beat these guys.
And beat them they did, somehow, some way. Good game, good win, get the hell back to the Oil Drum, and we’ll see what happens.
