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Week 7 Game Recap: Indianapolis Colts 29, Jacksonville Jaguars 7
What you need to know
| Indianapolis Colts |
In a key AFC South matchup before a fired up Jacksonville crowd, the Colts dominated the Jaguars and earned a decisive victory.
QB Peyton Manning led an efficient Indianapolis attack, throwing for 259 yards and directing five scoring drives. He threw the ball accurately, kept the chains moving, and accounted for two scores, including a one yard TD run. Manning was sacked twice and did toss one INT.
RB Joseph Addai ran with determination and showed no lingering effects from his recent shoulder injury. He was also fairly involved in the passing attack. The only downside of Addai's performance, at least from a fantasy perspective, was having to share the ball with Kenton Keith. Keith finished with only one less carry than Addai, though he averaged fewer yards per attempt (3.7) than his counterpart (5.3 for Addai). Keith ran hard and showed some power, and he also scored a rushing TD.
WR Reggie Wayne was by far the most targeted Colts receiver, and he finished with over 100 receiving yards. He did most of his damage in the first half (was targeted only twice in the second half), and he and Manning hooked up on a great deep pattern in the second quarter to set up the second Colt TD. WR Marvin Harrison was limited by his knee injury and had a quiet game. TE Dallas Clark was also having a quiet night until he hauled in a 35 yard TD reception late in the final period.
PK Adam Vinatieri was stellar as usual, converting all of his place kicks and planting four of his six kickoffs in the end zone. Except for the opening drive of the second half, the Colts defense contained the Jaguars rushing attack, and they throttled their pass offense, especially after David Garrard left the game due to injury.
| Jacksonville Jaguars |
The strength of the Jacksonville offense is their rushing attack, but strangely, the Jaguars did not make a serious effort to establish the run until they were seventeen points down. Once the clock became an issue in the second half and they needed to throw the ball more, their passing attack was too weak to mount a comeback.
Starting QB David Garrard was unable to lead a scoring drive in the first half. Early in the second period, he sprained his left ankle on a sack by rookie DT Ed Johnson. Garrard was obviously limited by the injury, but he eventually returned and finished the half; however, he did not play in the second half. Backup QB Quinn Gray was ineffective, accounting for only 56 passing yards and two INTs in two plus quarters of action.
RB Maurice Jones-Drew ran impressively at times and finished with slightly more carries than Fred Taylor. Jones-Drew was targeted by Quinn a few times during garbage time, but overall he was not an important part of the passing attack. Taylor was not involved much in the passing game, either, but he ran with power and quickness and finished with more rushing yards than his teammate.
It was an unproductive night for the Jaguars passing attack. WR Earnest Wilford led all Jaguars receivers with six receptions; no other Jaguars receiver finished with more than three catches or 22 receiving yards.
PK John Carney did not have a field goal attempt and finished with one PAT. The Jaguar defense did not defend the run as well as expected, and their pass rush did not harass Peyton Manning enough to knock him out of his rhythm. They did manage an INT and a couple of sacks by DE Paul Spicer.
What you ought to know
| QB Peyton Manning, Pass: 23 - 37 - 259 - 1 TD / 1 INT, Rush: 2 - 0 - 1 |
Manning had a very solid game, even though his final stats were not exactly spectacular--at least not for him. The Colts emphasized the rush, which allowed them to control the clock against a very fine Jaguar defense that had been extremely stingy versus the run in recent weeks. When asked to throw, Manning picked apart the Jaguar secondary with mostly short passes, and he had eyes especially for Reggie Wayne. With WR Marvin Harrison still hampered by a knee injury, the Colts moved Wayne all over the field to create opportunities, and they obviously succeeded. Harrison was actually pretty active in the first quarter (three targets), but Manning threw to him only twice more after that. Manning threw his only TD pass with about four minutes remaining, hitting a wide open TE Dallas Clark from thirty five yards out for the final Indianapolis score. Manning also ran in a TD in the second quarter on a one yard quarterback sneak. Manning did have a few shaky moments in this game. He was stripped of the ball on one of the two Jacksonville sacks, and he threw an INT in the fourth quarter when Jacksonville still had a chance to get back in the game. He also misfired on a few passes. All things considered, though, he put in a masterful performance on the road in a critical game against a very good defense.
| RB Joseph Addai, Rush: 16 - 85 - 0, Rec: 4 - 22 - 0 (4 targets) |
Addai averaged a gaudy 5.3 yards per rushing attempt against the very stout Jaguar front seven. He ran with power and elusiveness, and he did not seem hindered at all by the shoulder injury that had sidelined him since late September. Addai had three red zone carries and just missed scoring a TD in the second quarter when he ran the ball to the goal line (Manning sneaked it in on the next play). He was also involved in the passing game and caught every pass thrown his way. It's hard to tell whether the heavier work load assigned to Kenton Keith in this game was due to concerns about Addai's health, or if was a sign of things to come, or maybe both. Certainly it was not due to Addai's performance, which was rock solid.
| RB Kenton Keith, Rush: 15 - 56 - 1, Rec: 2 - 16 - 0 (5 targets) |
Keith ran hard and with good toughness, and he finished with only one less rushing attempt than Addai. In the first quarter, he got in the end zone on a three yard run for the first Indianapolis score. Keith was also involved in the passing attack (including one red zone target), though he mishandled a couple of short passes that probably could have been caught. If the Colts are contemplating a time share situation at RB, the one issue Keith may need to work on is to gain Manning's trust.
| WR Reggie Wayne, Rec: 9 - 131 - 0 (13 targets) |
Wayne was the offensive star of this game, especially in the first half (eleven of his targets came in the first 30 minutes). The Colts moved him all over the field to find different ways to get him the ball, and it worked. Wayne had one red zone target, a nine yard reception to the three that set up the first Colt TD. He also set up the second Colt TD with a 31 yard catch to the ten. It's obvious Manning trusts this guy big time, as several passes were thrown into tight coverage, with Wayne coming up with the catch more often than not.
| WR Marvin Harrison, Rec: 3 - 16 - 0 (5 targets) |
Harrison was active early, but after the first quarter, he didn't see the field as much and was targeted only twice. Apparently he is still bothered by his knee injury (Tony Dungy mentioned after the game that he knew Harrison's availability would be limited). Harrison did have one red zone target (an incompletion) near the end of the first half.
| WR Anthony Gonzalez |
Gonzalez got on the field at least, especially in the second half, but Manning did not throw a pass his way.
| WR Aaron Moorehead (1 targets) |
Moorehead was targeted once in the first series of the game, and Manning never threw to him again.
| TE Dallas Clark, Rec: 4 - 66 - 1 (6 targets) |
Clark was frequently open over the middle, and his 35 yard TD catch late in the fourth quarter salted away the Colt victory. He might have had a huge game if the Manning had had more need to throw the ball.
| TE Ben Utecht, Rec: 1 - 8 - 0 (1 targets) |
Like Moorehead, Utecht was targeted once in the first series of the game and was never thrown to again.
| PK Adam Vinatieri 2 - 2 FG, 3 - 3 XP, 9 points |
Vinatieri was perfect on the night, converting both of his field goal attempts and all of his extra points. He did a superior job with his kickoffs, too, booting four of six into the end zone.
| IND Rush Defense |
The Colts did a decent job containing the Jaguars rushing attack. Fred Taylor and Maurice Jones-Drew collected over 100 yards between them, but one gets the sense that if the Jaguars had committed to running the ball earlier in the game instead of waiting until they were 17 points down, things might have turned out differently. FS Bob Sanders (4 solo tackles, 1 assist, 1 INT, 2 PD's) often helped in run support and made a huge midfield stop of Jones-Drew on fourth and one late in the second quarter.
| IND Pass Defense |
The Colts pass rush kept steady pressure on the Jaguar QBs all night. They finished with only three sacks, but all were significant. The first came in the second quarter and resulted in an ankle injury to Garrard that knocked him out of the game; the second sack, by Dwight Freeney, came in the third quarter and resulted in a safety; the third resulted in a fumble that ended the final Jacksonville drive. The Colts secondary did a solid job in coverage and came up with two INTs, one by FS Bob Sanders and the other by CB Kelvin Hayden.
| QB Quinn Gray, Pass: 9 - 24 - 56 - 0 TD / 2 INT, Rush: 2 - 8 - 0 |
Gray entered the game in the second quarter after Garrard's injury, and he played the entire second half after Garrard was unable to continue. His passes were often erratic, and he frequently overthrew his receivers. His first pass went for negative yardage, and his second was intercepted by Bob Sanders, which set up Manning's second TD drive. Gray dropped back to pass only two times in the third quarter, the first one resulting in an incompletion, and the second resulting in a Dwight Freeney sack in the end zone for a safety. His three fourth quarter drives ended in an INT, a failed fourth down attempt, and a sack/fumble.
| QB David Garrard, Pass: 8 - 12 - 72 - 0 TD / 0 INT |
Garrard threw the ball pretty effectively while he was in the game, though he was unable to engineer any scoring drives. Three of his first five passes were directed to Ernest Wilford, but after that, Garrard spread the ball around and did not seem to favor any particular receiver. He did a good job taking care of the ball and had no turnovers, though obviously in limited action. The one time he was sacked resulted in the ankle sprain that knocked him out of the game, and the Jaguars passing attack nosedived after that.
| RB Maurice Jones-Drew, Rush: 13 - 52 - 1, Rec: 3 - 17 - 0 (3 targets) |
Jones-Drew broke off a few nice runs, but he was also stopped for one yard or less on six occasions (though one was for a TD). On his TD run, it appeared at first that he fumbled the ball away, but replays confirmed the he broke the plane of the end zone before dropping the ball. Jones-Drew had only three pass targets, two of them coming in the final drive of the game.
| RB Fred Taylor, Rush: 11 - 55 - 0, Rec: 1 - -2 - 0 (1 targets) |
Taylor ran with conviction and looked really quick. He did not have any red zone carries, as Jones-Drew received all the rushing attempts every time the Jaguars got close to the Indianapolis goal line. Taylor did not receive much attention in the passing game, either.
| RB Greg Jones, Rush: 1 - 2 - 0 |
Jones had only one carry in this game--a red zone attempt.
| WR Ernest Wilford, Rec: 6 - 53 - 0 (8 targets) |
David Garrard looked for Wilford early (three of his first five passes), and then the Jaguar WR disappeared until the fourth quarter, when Quinn Gray began looking for him again (five pass targets in the last fifteen minutes, including one in the red zone).
| WR Dennis Northcutt, Rec: 3 - 20 - 0 (7 targets) |
The first four passes directed to Northcutt came from Garrard in the first 18 minutes of the game. Gray then threw his first INT on a pass to Northcutt, and like Wilford, Northcutt then disappeared until the fourth quarter, when Gray began looking for him on the final Jacksonville drive of the game. One of the fourth quarter attempts came in the red zone.
| WR Reggie Williams (3 targets) |
Williams did not have a reception, but he was thrown to three times, twice by Gray during the final drive of the game.
| TE Marcedes Lewis, Rec: 2 - 13 - 0 (3 targets) |
Lewis caught two of the three passes thrown to him.
| TE George Wrighster, Rec: 1 - 5 - 0 (3 targets) |
Wrighster caught two of the three passes thrown to him.
| TE Greg Estandia, Rec: 1 - 22 - 0 (4 targets) |
Estandia received more attention than the other Jaguars TE, which is worth a mention.
| PK John Carney 0 - 0 FG, 1 - 1 XP, 1 points |
Carney had one PAT attempt, which he converted. Neither of his kickoffs went into the end zone.
| JAX Rush Defense |
The Jaguars defense came into this game on a hot streak, having shut down the running attack of four consecutive opponents. The Colts challenged conventional wisdom, attacking their opponent where they were considered strong, with the net result that they rushed the ball very effectively. Addai ran extremely well, as did Jones-Drew, and their effectiveness moving the ball on the ground allowed Manning and the Colts to dominate the clock and the game.
| JAX Pass Defense |
Peyton Manning was harassed at times by the Jaguars pass rush, especially by Paul Spicer, who collected two sacks for his team. When he had time to throw, though, Manning picked apart the Jaguars secondary with relative ease.
