INDIANAPOLIS — It was dreary, cold and overcast in Indianapolis yesterday, but Hoosiers here still were running hot over the Colts’ decision to pull their starters against the Jets on Dec. 27, costing them a chance at a perfect season.
“[The Colts] shouldn’t have given the game away like that,” said Ryan Blankenship, a bartender at Jillian’s in downtown Indianapolis.
“If Peyton [Manning] would have stayed in there, he would have kicked their [rear]. We’d be going for a perfect season and the Jets wouldn’t even be around today.”
It has been nearly four weeks since the Jets rallied from a 15-10 third-quarter deficit for a 29-15 win after Manning and several other prominent Colts were pulled by head coach Jim Caldwell, who wanted to rest his stars and protect them from injury.
The victory was the first of four straight for the Jets, who after a stunning 17-14 upset of the Chargers in San Diego on Sunday find themselves in an improbable rematch with the Colts (15-2) in Sunday’s AFC Championship Game at Lucas Oil Field.
Now it’s time for payback. At least that’s how Colts fans view it.
“This is the team I wanted to play,” said Peter Watkins, 34, of Indianapolis. “I wanted the Jets. They’ve been talking like they beat us in a real game. It’s doesn’t get any more real than this.”
The controversy over Caldwell’s decision to rest his starters over the final two regular-season games after the Colts had clinched home field has been rekindled by the matchup against the Jets — a team that was 7-7 and on life support when it arrived here in Week 16.
Now the Jets are a team full of confidence, feeling destiny is on their side.
“It’s a real challenge for us,” Caldwell told Indianapolis reporters late Sunday night. “They are a team that’s hot right now. They’ve taken advantage of their opportunities, and whoever they’ve played, they’ve found a way to win.”
The Colts won’t report to work until tomorrow, when they’ll begin full preparation for the Jets. Caldwell gave his players an extended break after Saturday night’s 20-3 win over the Ravens so they can be fully focused when the gameplan is presented.
“Most of us were up late, 3- to 4-o’clock [Sunday] morning,” Caldwell said. “To come back and do something [yesterday] doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. We gave them a little time off. Our guys have used it wisely.
“They are in here, they’re lifting weights, and they’re watching film. That’s kind of the attitude around here. They are going to use it wisely to promote health and also to get ourselves mentally prepared for the game as well.”
Talk to enough Colts fans and you get the sense most think their team has an easy path to the Super Bowl. The Chargers, the Colts’ postseason nemesis, no longer are around, replaced by a fifth seed with a rookie quarterback.
“San Diego would have come here and killed us the way they have the last two years,” said Chris Brown, who also pours drinks at Jillian’s.
“But I don’t have a lot of faith in [Jets QB Mark] Sanchez. I mean, the Jets played good in San Diego, but let’s face it, the kicker blew that game. I’d rather face the Jets than the Chargers any day.”
It will be interesting to see how the week develops. The Colts aren’t a trash-talking team. But given the bravado the Jets are bound to utter about the first meeting between the two teams, the Colts might be pulled into some verbal sparring.
“I don’t think there’s a better position to be in,” Caldwell insisted. “Somebody can tell me if there is. That’s what you strive for.”
Say what they want, but the Colts have all the pressure on them to fulfill expectations. The Jets already have surpassed their own.