Lucky Horseshoes

How does a Canadian girl end up loving football more than she likes seeing summer appear after a 7 month long winter! Well it all started with me and my dad watching the 85 Bears and I simply fell in love with the best game ever – the GRIDIRON! Living in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada meant that my love affair for all things football included a passion for our own Canadian football league as well, but it was nothing like the NFL (I apologize to my fellow Canadians for stating the obvious truth.) Growing up I told anybody who listened that I had 2 strict rules about my life! The First – I was going to marry a NFL player to get me close to the leagues since I would never be able to play (Blame this thought on my youth… I was naive!) The Second - I would marry the first man that takes me to the Superbowl (Still No marriage = Still waiting on my ticket)

Fast forward years ahead and I now live in Toronto, Ontario. Instead of cheering on the Bills because there nearby, I rather tell you how my love for The Indianapolis Colts began…I was impressed by this young man from Tennessee who was a lil country and threw the ball with such perfection it almost made me tear up. Under Jim Mora’s direction the team assembled with stars; Peyton Manning, Marvin Harrison, Edgerrin James, Reggie Wayne, Dallas Clark and Dominic Rhodes. Then they brought in the brilliance that is Tony Dungy, reunited him with Tom Moore (for those who don’t know, he is the cherub faced former offensive coordinator that can wear his glasses on the tip of his nose for an entire game) and a great team was assembled. And to make my love of football complete, ironically my favorite team FINALLY won Super Bowl XLI, 29–17 over the Chicago Bears; the team that first made me love football.

Some may ask why I LOVE Peyton, well it’s because he is a student of the game and as a result he reads plays before the team knows what they are going to do and because I get the feeling that he screams audibles in his sleep and come on now he has perfected the No huddle offense…I could go on further but really he is a 3 Time MVP and shook his behind on SNL – ENOUGH SAID!

But hey I’m here to write about what is going on today and what we all love and enjoy - a brand new season. Every fan has high hopes, renewed faith and bragging rights on the table. My boys in blue with the lucky horseshoes had to solve their first order of business in the offseason - Defense.

Monday night’s game against Miami was on the turf where they last won the Superbowl. I found this game to be frustrating yet calming all at the same time. The Colts had the ball for less than 15 minutes, which meant the Wildcat was working and Peyton Manning spent most of the night on the sideline. They came from behind four times (10-7, 13-10, 20-13 and 23-20) but eventually rallied up the field in 6 plays capped off with a TD by Pierre Garcon and beat the Fins 27-23. When you review this game the most glaring statistic is The Colts ran 35 plays to The Dolphins 84; which explains why our defence looked thirsty most of the night. When Miami ponders why they lost, they must think about Mr. Manning who happened to earn his 119th victory with the Colts, breaking the franchise record for victories which was previously held by Famed Colts QB, Johnny Unitas.

So my final thoughts on what the rest of this season holds for The Colts are obviously favorable, yet cautious. Coach Caldwell has a lot to live up to; I mean Dungy is a Saint and well we are used to winning games. However, Coach realizes that we cannot always depend on Manning to win games, so we need a stronger, more aggressive and physical defence that stops the run. Monday night’s game showed us that there is much more room for improvement and you cannot expect to pull out wins in the last 3 minutes of every game. I know what these boys are capable of and I’m armed and ready in my Colts gear! So please let’s go to Arizona next week and show em what were made of!