Click here to see all recaps on a single page
| Other Week 12 Game Recaps | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BAL at SD | BUF at JAX | DEN at CHI | GB at DET | HOU at CLE | IND at ATL | MIA at PIT | MIN at NYG |
| NO at CAR | NYJ at DAL | OAK at KC | PHI at NE | SEA at STL | SF at ARI | TEN at CIN | WAS at TB |
Week 12 Game Recap: Indianapolis Colts 31, Atlanta Falcons 13
What you need to know
| Indianapolis Colts |
QB Peyton Manning snapped out of his funk, throwing three touchdown passes in the second quarter. He was able to stretch the field with Anthony Gonzalez, completing two passes of over 30 yards to him. He showed confidence in Reggie Wayne, targeting him a team high 12 times.
RB Joseph Addai left the game with a neck injury early in the game, but returned in the middle of the second quarter. Kenton Keith played well in the time he had, earning himself more snaps over the course of the game. Addai and Keith split series in the second half, which could have been because Addai suffered the injury or the Colts were dominating the Falcons on both sides of the ball.
WR Anthony Gonzalez came back from his hand injury to produce 105 yards receiving. Reggie Wayne had a good game, catching a 23 yard touchdown pass from Manning in the second quarter. Dallas Clark and Ben Utecht also caught touchdowns in the second quarter.
| Atlanta Falcons |
QB Joey Harrington had a tough time connecting with his targets, completing only 14 of his 30 passes. He had an early 48 yard touchdown pass to Roddy White, and not much else other than that on the day.
RB Warrick Dunn and Jerious Norwood combined for a solid game against the Colts' run defense. Dunn carried most of the load but Norwood had a few good runs as well.
WR Roddy White was the only legitimate fantasy scorer in the passing game for the Falcons. White had 104 of Harrington's 155 passing yards, and caught the Falcons' only touchdown. Alge Crumpler was targeted four times in the first half and made zero receptions before the last drive of the game for Atlanta where he caught three balls -- all for short gains.
What you ought to know
| QB Peyton Manning, Pass: 22 - 32 - 272 - 3 TD / 1 INT |
Manning welcomed back Anthony Gonzalez with eight targets and 105 yards passing. Manning looked a lot better this week with a competent second wide receiver to complement Reggie Wayne and Dallas Clark. He started slowly but eventually tore apart the defense on several drives, but still had ten incompletions on the day. Six of those incompletions came targeting Reggie Wayne.
| RB Kenton Keith, Rush: 17 - 74 - 0 |
Keith came in when Joseph Addai left the game in the first half with a minor neck injury, and played well. He earned some playing time after Addai came back. Keith looked strong and quick and showed he could do enough to help move the chains against the Falcons defense.
| RB Joseph Addai, Rush: 10 - 44 - 1, Rec: 2 - 14 - 0 (2 targets) |
Addai missed part of the first half with a minor neck injury, but returned in the second quarter. Kenton Keith had success in his absence and saw playing time throughout the game after Addai came back. Addai scored on a four yard touchdown run, and looked fine despite being hurt earlier in the game.
| WR Anthony Gonzalez, Rec: 6 - 105 - 0 (8 targets) |
Gonzalez stretched the Falcons' defense. Manning showed he had faith in Gonzalez, seen by his eight targets. Gonzalez would have caught one of the non-catch targets, but pass interference was committed on a short route. He caught passes of 35, 32, 13, 12, 10, and 3 yards. He caught five first down passes and required quite a bit of attention from the Falcons' secondary.
| WR Reggie Wayne, Rec: 5 - 66 - 1 (12 targets) |
Wayne only caught six of the 12 targets that were thrown his way, one of which was intercepted. He caught a 23 yard touchdown as his first reception of the game. He was still Manning's most targeted receiver and it seemed as if Manning was willing to gamble more with Wayne.
| TE Dallas Clark, Rec: 5 - 49 - 1 (7 targets) |
Clark saw seven targets which he turned into five catches, one of which he brought into the end zone. Most of his catches were short, averaging 9.8 yards per catch. He moved over to slot on several plays as per usual.
| TE Ben Utecht, Rec: 4 - 38 - 1 (4 targets) |
Utecht was targeted four times in the first half and scored on a short pass from Manning on a five yard diving grab. He caught all of the balls thrown his way, but was not utilized in the second half.
| TE Bryan Fletcher (1 targets) |
Fletcher was targeted on a deep mass in the middle of the field, but could not haul in the catch.
| PK Adam Vinatieri 1 - 1 FG, 4 - 4 XP, 7 points |
Vinatieri made a 24 yard field goal and four extra points without too much of a problem.
| IND Rush Defense |
The Indianapolis rush defense was fairly solid on the day. They had some difficulty with Warrick Dunn and Jerious Norwood who rushed for 103 combined yards on 23 carries, however they made several key stops on short yardage plays.
| IND Pass Defense |
The pass defense was excellent against the Falcons. They forced two interceptions and had two sacks, and only allowed 155 passing yards on the night.
| QB Joey Harrington, Pass: 14 - 30 - 155 - 1 TD / 2 INT, Rush: 2 - 3 - 0 |
Harrington had problems against the Colts, throwing two interceptions. He failed to effectively get people other than Roddy White involved in the offense due to accuracy issues. Roddy White caught six of the 14 completions Harrington had, who managed only 155 yards passing on 30 attempts. One of those attempts was a 48 yard pass to Roddy White for a touchdown, showing that he only threw for 107 yards on 29 other attempts.
| RB Warrick Dunn, Rush: 17 - 70 - 0, Rec: 2 - 10 - 0 (3 targets) |
Dunn provided a solid rushing attack against the Colts. He found holes that were very tiny and made them most out of what was available. He passed a huge milestone becoming on the 22nd running back in NFL history to amass 10,000 yards.
| RB Jerious Norwood, Rush: 6 - 33 - 0, Rec: 1 - 9 - 0 (2 targets) |
Norwood shared snaps with Dunn but ended up being on the short end of carries and targets on the day. He had rushes of 14 and eight, and several short gains. He was a hit or miss running back, which might be attributed to the stellar Colts defense.
| RB Jason Snelling, Rush: 4 - 6 - 0 |
Snelling saw limited action as the third running back and failed to produce like Dunn and Norwood.
| RB Ovie Mughelli, Rush: 1 - 0 - 0, Rec: 1 - 9 - 0 (1 targets) |
Mughelli was the fullback and had one rush and one reception on the day.
| WR Roddy White, Rec: 6 - 104 - 1 (11 targets) |
White was targeted early and often by Joey Harrington. He caught a 48 yard touchdown pass from Harrington on the second Atlanta drive of the night as he beat the safety on the outside. White had 104 yards on the day, while the next highest receiving yard total for the Falcons was 14 yards by Alge Crumpler.
| WR Michael Jenkins, Rec: 1 - 9 - 0 (3 targets) |
Jenkins was fairly inactive on the day. He was only targeted three times, and those were all in the first half. He only caught one of the balls thrown his way and it is unclear why he was not more involved in the game, but it is possible that Harrington prefers throwing to Roddy White.
| WR Laurent Robinson (6 targets) |
Robinson was targeted six times and came down with zero catches. Two of the passes thrown his way were intercepted. One of the interceptions he had in his arms and took a decent hit and it ended up being intercepted. He and Harrington did not look like they were on the same page.
| TE Alge Crumpler, Rec: 3 - 14 - 0 (7 targets) |
Crumpler had a quiet game, catching only three of the seven balls thrown his way for a whopping 14 yards. All three of his receptions came on the last drive of the game for the Falcons in the fourth quarter.
| PK Morten Andersen 2 - 2 FG, 1 - 1 XP, 7 points |
Andersen made both field goals and his extra point attempt against the Colts.
| ATL Rush Defense |
The Falcons' rush defense had problems making big stops against the Colts. They allowed 108 yards rushing on 27 attempts to Keith and Addai.
| ATL Pass Defense |
The Falcons had problems stopping Peyton Manning on the day, who threw for several long gains and three touchdown passes. They did get four sacks on Manning, but most of the other time it seemed like Manning had way too much time.
