A week ago Thursday night, the NFL opened the regular season in a spectacular manner. The kickoff game for the 2013 regular season featured the defending Super Bowl champion Baltimore Ravens meeting the Peyton Manning-led Denver Broncos in Mile High Stadium. Both teams figure to contend for the AFC title and both teams had Super Bowl MVPs under center. The teams looked fairly evenly matched in the first half with the Ravens holding a 17-14 edge going into half time. It was in the third quarter that number 18 started to work his magic. The ol’ boy looked pretty good delivering what just might have been his greatest individual game performance, completing 27 passes on 42 attempts for 462 yards, but most importantly, tying the NFL record for most touchdown passes in a single game with seven. This is the sixth time in NFL history that the feat has been accomplished but the last time it happened was in 1969, when Minnesota Viking quarterback Joe Kapp threw for 7 against the ah-um…..Baltimore…Colts. I was 19 when this happened. I am 63 now. I don’t know what that says other than the feat doesn’t happen very often. At age 37, Peyton looked like he was better than ever, now two years removed from neck surgery that ended his 2011 season for the Colts. He looked like he could play another 10 years. As to the Ravens; every team is going to have a game where everything goes down the toilet. Even so, the Ravens it looks as though the Ravens have some serious work to do before they can count themselves as playoff contenders. As to those Colts fans who gripe that it was a mistake to let Mr. Manning go, all I can say is that in Denver, Peyton is the final piece to the puzzle that makes the Broncos contenders. They were ready to challenge for a championship and just needed the right quarterback to take them there. The Colts are still building and developing a team, particularly on the offensive line. Peyton could not have a 7 touchdown pass day behind the current Colts offensive line.
As to the Colts, there is a cautious optimism among Colts fans, myself included, as to the Colts having a successful season and making the playoffs. The Oakland Raiders were our opening day opponent at Lucas Oil Stadium last Sunday. The Raiders were supposed to be a team in turmoil. They did not name their starting quarterback until an hour before game time, although this may have been a bit of gamesmanship by the Raiders’ Head Coach Dennis Allen. As you will recall, the Colt offense was fairly effective in the first quarter and into the second, with Mr. Luck throwing for two TD strikes. But then the Raiders started blitzing their linebackers and the Colts offensive line couldn’t pick them up, causing Number 12 to have to do a lot of running for his life. Then Oakland’s second year quarterback Terrelle Pryor started running and throwing. The Horseshoe defense just wasn’t prepared for this and Pryor had a major game for Raiders. His end-of-the-game interception showed his lack of experience but he put a scare into the Colts. As for our Big Blue, it took some real heroics from Number 12 to pull this one out of the fire for the home team. He did lead the Horse to a fourth quarter come-from-behind win for the eighth time in his short career. We play the Dolphins at home this Sunday.
Last week in my Colts preview, as you may recall, I mentioned Caesar Rayford, a 27-year-old rookie free agent for the Colts as a possible player to watch. The Colts worked him as a passing rushing linebacker and he showed promise leading the team with 5 preseason sacks. It was a feel-good story as Rayford played semi-pro ball for several years and was finally getting his shot. My story went in Tuesday morning. Tuesday evening the Colts traded Rayford to the Dallas Cowboys for an undisclosed draft choice. The word is that Rayford might have taken playing time from Bjoern Werner, our number one pick this year who happens to be playing the same position. The Colts think that Werner is the better long range prospect. The moral of the story is that deadlines are the enemies of prognostication.