Stampede Blue
6-1. Perhaps the most important win of the season because of everything involved. Colts missing several starters, playing away from home against a conference rival, and getting the tie-breaker over a potential playoff rival. Not only the fact that the team won, but how that win came, with the offense playing the best game I have seen in a long time, and the defense getting the stops and turnovers at the crucial moments.
Another hat-trick for JT, who also got over 100 yards from scrimmage, establishing himself firmly in the MVP race, and why not the leading candidate at this point in the season. The way he moves is so efficient, there is no wasted movement, no rush, it seems like he is playing Madden on rookie difficulty and seeing the entire field from above. I believe it was his second touchdown run of the game where he made Derwin James miss with such ease that it made James look like a bad tackler, a guy who is an All-Pro at his position.
DeFo had an easy matchup in front of him, going against perhaps the worst pass-blocking center in the NFL, and a mediocre interior offensive line, and he took full advantage of it. What we saw yesterday was flat-out domination from Buckner. He won his matchup every single play. At one point I just started looking at him from the snap, and he was consistently beating double teams with ease. Buckner also got the sack that sealed the win for Indy when the Chargers were trying to make an improbable comeback attempt.
I am not going to pounce on the secondary this game, as they held their own at first and then struggled when the team got a big lead and the Chargers were passing every single snap. They did a fine job in limiting the big plays and making LA burn plenty of time on every scoring drive. Kicker Michael Badgley missed an extra-point, which is a small reason for concern, but overall it was an all around perfect game for the Colts.
I had plenty of plays to choose from for this award, so I gave myself the luxury of picking three, for different reasons. First, and the winner, is the pick by Grover, because it had it all: play came at a key moment of the game and stopped the Chargers from entering the redzone, it was an amazing play by itself, a guy as big as Grover getting his hand up and then also securing the ball, and it also has the component of a player as loved as Stewart making the play.
The kick return by Abdullah was a massive play because it shifted the momentum right back to the Colts after the Chargers...
