If you witnessed the Beatles’ first coming to America, you witnessed history.
Similarly, if you are able to recall President Obama’s Inauguration in 2009, you too have witnessed history.
If you spent Saturday afternoon watching the Indianapolis Colts’ improbable, impossible, Hollywood-worthy comeback against the Kansas City Chiefs, you witnessed history.
The 60 minutes of football which occurred wasn’t just a Wild Card playoff game, not by a long shot. Nor was it a simple advance for the upstart Colts – winners of their last four – in these NFL playoffs, although that is understandably how the players see it at this point in time, as they are so universally obligated to in pro sports.
It wasn’t just a statement, either; those players in blue and white, most with minimal experience playing January football, had already made plenty of statements in the regular season after beating the 49ers, Broncos, and Seahawks before steadily fading for a short stretch. Everyone knows about that.
This was a game for the ages, as Chuck Pagano characterized it afterwards. A game to remember not just by Hoosiers but by football fans everywhere. Some will say it doesn’t mean anything if the Colts don’t win The Big One. But some will be wrong.
This game – this nail-biter, heart attack, monster of a game – had all the requisites for a conventionally labeled Instant Classic. All the drama of your mom’s favorite soap opera. All the suspense (in the 2nd half) of a Martin Scorsese picture. As miraculous as a warm January day in the Midwest and more unbelievable than seeing penguins fly.
How do you expect your team to mentally turn it around after the devastating first offensive play of the second half which perfectly described Indy’s futility up to that point? The Colts came out of the locker room, in a 31-10 hole, supposedly rejuvenated and rested after a halftime in which you and I spent watching silly commercials and hearing expert analysis about why the Chiefs will advance and the Colts will go home. Andrew Luck’s first throw of the drive, for the second straight time, ends up in the wrong hands. The score evolves to 38-10 not long after as the Chiefs keep possession of the
momentum.
The rest is history. History led by a key turnover named Robert Mathis, a never-say-die attitude in Luck, the fearless hands of the young T.Y. Hilton, and a coach who knows a little something about comebacks of multiple varieties in Pagano.
The NFL got a win-lose from the first game of the playoffs, as far as media is concerned (not that the juggernaut that is the National Football League needs to worry about people tuning in). A win because, well…the game was history. Second biggest comeback in the NFL playoffs. Most combined yardage in a game which the majority of experts expected to be a defensive struggle. The game was a loss because how in the holy name of the almighty horseshoe will any game in the next month top this one?
At least there’s still Bruno Mars belting out “Grenade” to look forward to on February 2nd.
[caption id="attachment_503" align="aligncenter" width="606" caption="T.Y. Hilton's enthusiasm perfectly describes the elation in the hearts of the Colts faithful when the wide receiver caught his second touchdown pass of the game to win the game for Indy. "]
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How in the world do you explain the range of emotions that Indy’s young – still relatively inexperienced – superstar quarterback, who some have already heralded as The Second Coming of Peyton, had to experience in the final two quarters alone?
Luck throwing interceptions became a trend in this battle, but so did his ability to quickly bounce back from those mistakes and to put points on the board in whatever fashion necessary.
Take your pick:
a) A 12-yard Stanford Connection to Coby Fleener to pull Indy within ten.
b) A ridiculous, sure to be on SportCenter’s Top 10 Plays for a very long time, fumble recovery and desperate dive over the Chiefs defensive line by Luck to pull Indy within three.
c) A dagger through the hearts of the Chiefs in the form of a 64-yard throw bullet to the one and only Hilton to put Indy up by one, good for their first lead of the game.
All this despite being down four touchdowns. The Colts might as well have been 300 Spartans against a million Persians.
All this despite the Chiefs chances of winning at one point peaking at 99.1% percent. Statistics be damned.
All this despite the fact that in the same game that the Colts were playing some of their weakest football of the year up to this point, there was no such thing as a hole too big to dig themselves out of. Once this play happened, we somehow knew the Colts were destined to complete the comeback.
[embed]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvXcH8dfg-Y[/embed]
We’ve all heard the stuff about Peyton Manning’s historic year, and the obligatory stories that “our grandkids’ grandkids’ will be telling their grandkids about” concerning #18. That is all well. If it took you this long to realize Manning’s greatness, shame on you.
But this game. Those four quarters of football will be another story those grandkids in the 22nd century will hear about, just in case the tales of Manning’s invincibility don’t quite put them to sleep just yet. Luck won’t stand for it; he isn’t nearly done proving his worth to the Circle City.
#COLTSTRONG, indeed.
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