I don't remember many bad passes Peyton had....where could he of done more?
You don't remember the numerous passes out of bounds or to Edgerrin's feet? A couple of times there was no pass rusher near him and he still threw it away. Manning doesn't usually do that.
No I don't remember the numerous passes out of bounds. I do remember passes at Edge's feet, but most of those were because nothing was open on the screen and he didn't want to force anything or get sacked. Sometimes even if there's no pressure yet you throw a scree pass away because if you wait too long the lineman are going to be down field and it will be illegal.
I agree that Manning was forced to throw some passes away. But part of Manning's game is his ability to read defenses and audible into the correct play. When there's no down linemen, how do you stick with a pass play?
Hurons, Peyton wasn't the only one responsible for the lack of scoring. The New England defense played great and Indy's defense got run over. The Colts barely got the ball in the second half.
I agree that the Colts defense didn't give Manning much time in the second half. But Manning had plenty of opportunities to score in the first half, or sustain his own drives, or play aggressively when the team was down late, and he didn't. Look at the
play by play. The first drive ended when Manning threw a 2 yard pass to Pollard on third and four. The second drive ended on a Manning incompletion. The third drive ended on consecutive incompletions to Stokley, who was covered by Troy Brown at the time. He clearly misdiagnosed that as a mismatch. The fourth drive started with a Manning fumble on first down, followed by consecutive incomplete passes. The fifth drive ended on a 2nd and 17 pass to a well covered Dominic Rhodes for -2 yards - Rhodes was blanketed by Bruschi the whole way, so even if Bruschi doesn't strip him, it's still probably a loss or small gain when they need 17. The sixth drive ended with a field goal just before the half, but Manning and the Colts failed to call a timeout and because of it, they ended up kicking a field goal instead of going for it on third and goal from the 5 yard line. The Colts could have taken a shot at going into the locker room with a lead at halftime but had to settle for the field goal instead. The Patriots went three and out on their first possession of the second half, and the Colts had a chance to get some momentum. Instead, Manning's first drive of the second half ended when Manning threw a three yard pass to Stokley on third and four. He then sat on the bench for over 9 minutes, and ended when he threw a pass at Edge's feet, then threw the next pass out of bounds. Sure, he would have been risking an interception by throwing into coverage, but his defense was getting run over. He had to sustain a drive. The next drive, he was down three scores with seven minutes left, but instead of taking his shots downfield, he threw little dink and dunk stuff to Edge and Wayne. Wayne fumbled, then when Manning got the ball back with three minutes left and down by three scores, he started throwing 5-10 yard passes to get a passing touchdown in the closing minutes instead of trying to win the game.