If you watched yesterday's game (and didn't have your signal blocked by the Nazis that run Brighthouse) you saw Jim Nantz and Phil Simms confirm that Peyton Manning did indeed have a second surgery on his knee. This second surgery was first reported by former NFL GM Mike Lombardi at National Football Post back in late August. When Stampede Blue readers emailed Lombardi about the story, he stood by it 100% despite a very vocal fan backlash.

This backlash was a bit unnecessary in that the Lombardi had no real reason to lie about the second surgery, and the Colts have a very checkered history when it comes to accurately reporting and addressing injuries. Let's be honest folks, the two teams in this league that are known to flat out LIE about injuries are the Colts and the Patriots. And the policy has served them well.

The second surgery was a result of another infection getting into Peyton's knee after the first one in late July. As Lombardi said, the Colts medical people were having trouble keeping the inflammation down. The second surgery cost Peyton Manning all the preseason, and the first regular season game against the Bears. Peyton was not healthy enough to play well in that game, no matter what others suggest. If an injury prevents you from running the bread and butter stretch run play, you have no business playing QB for the Colts offense. It is as simple as that.

So, some vindication for Mike Lombardi, who did a spot job reporting this back in August. Some Colts fans owe Mike an apology, and the Colts themselves owe their fans a bit of an apology. This entire knee surgery fiasco was a mess from start to finish. The Colts should have been pro-active in dealing with Peyton's grapefruit knee 9which we knew about since the Pro Bowl), not wait for it to become a problem in late-July. Knees are not supposed to swell to the size of one's own head, let alone the size of Peyton's. His knee should have been worked on in May, not late-July. I know some here disagree with me on that, and that is fine. Hopefully, this screw-up will not cost the Colts anything in the long run for the 2008 season. In the short term, I think it cost the Colts Week One against the Bears.

If it does cost Indy something in the long run this season, the Colts medical staff needs to be F.I.R.E.D. I harp on this because I expect accountability from everyone involved with the Colts, and this rash of injuries has not given me much confidence in the Colts medical or training staff. Injuries happen. I accept that. But, the Colts haven't had "injuries" the last three year. They'd had catastrophes. Three years in a row is not "bad luck." Something isn't working, and it is pissing me off.

And the Colts should have been up front about this second surgery thing. Thinking they could hide it was just petty ignorance on their part. This is the 21st century and the Internet leaks everything. Best to just be honest and deal with it. Lying and covering up something that didn't need such antics is not consistent with the high "moral values" the Colts claim to live and work by. And keeping it close to the vest did not give them any competitive advantage. They lost Week One, remember?

OK, so lesson learned. Hopefully, Mike Lombardi wins some brownie points in the eyes of Colts fans. Maybe the reason the Colts officially do not comment on reports from blogs is because the blogs are the ones reporting actual news while the rest of mainstream media is happy to follow lockstep with the Colts, even if it means failing to report accurate or complete information to paying fans.

Peyton Manning reminded everyone on Sunday that he is the best QB in football, period. Photo: Yahoo Sports

Hi. Remember us? We're the fans of the team you thought was dead and gone. Turns out our beloved team ain't so dead and gone. Turns out that, just like several other teams in this league, injuries and dumb luck had them stumble out of the gate. Now things are getting corrected, and the Indianapolis Colts were know and love have finally shown up for the 2008 season.

Now, I personally don't put much stock in "statement games." When you win, you make a strong enough statement. The W is all that matters. However, this win had a little more POW! to it than any other normal, non-division game simply because far too many people had dismissed this Colts team and were ready to brush them aside in favor of "new" teams like the Redskins, Titans, and Broncos. Hell, several supposed experts, like our good friend Bill Simmons of ESPN, picked the Colts to lose this past Sunday. In fact, he thought that they would not only lose, but that the lose would end their season (essentially) and hopefully make them go away from the public eye. AKA, ESPN would pay even less attention to them than they already do. He said, and of course I have to quote ole Billy Boy:

The '08 Colts are like Amy Winehouse -- they look awful and it should have ended by now.

A 31-3 route of the Ravens followed by a 30-10 embarrassment for his beloved Patriots at the hands of the hated Chargers, and I once again ask Why does ESPN pay this schmuck to write about a sport he clearly does not know nor understand? I guess I'll never get an answer to that question. I suppose I'll just have to console myself with the fact that Bill Simmons was wrong (again) and that the Colts will continue to be players in this AFC conference as long as the best QB in football (Peyton Manning) is under center for them.

Let us now brush aside Bill and his nasally vocals and put this game into perspective. The Baltimore Ravens came into The Lube with the #1 ranked defense against both the run and pass. They have three very physical downhill runners and a star in the making at QB, Joe Flacco. The Ravens should have defeated the Titans last week, but bad officiating bailed the Titans out of a lose. The officiating this season has been especially bad, and the NFL needs to take a good, hard look at these lawyers they employ to ref their games.But anyway, the Ravens are a tough, physical, BIG team. Many felt they would come into the LUBE, where the Colts were winless in four games (two fake, two real), and push Indy around.

Um, sorry. Not how it happened.

The Colts dominated the Ravens from start to finish. The #1 pass defense was shredded early by Marvin Harrison. I once again ask why ESPN insists on employing morons to talk about football on their network. Remember Merrill Hoge saying Marvin Harrison is no longer Marvin Harrison? Looks like the tape Merrill was watching was not the same tape our own shake n bake has been breaking down. Maybe ESPN should dump Hoggie in favor of shake. At least shake actually knows the game of football.

Harrison, who has routinely torched DBs all season but hasn't gotten the ball thrown to him, finally had a healthy Peyton Manning delivering the football. Marvin burned CB Chris McAllister early and often. Marvin does that a lot with Chris, who many think is a very good CB. The Ravens played the same kind of defense the Bears, Vikes, Jags, and everyone else has played against this Colts team this year. They crowded the line of scrimmage, blitzed, and had their DBs in Cover 1, which is essentially man-to-man coverage. Fans like me have been tearing our hair out the last few weeks because teams had not done this against Indy since Peyton's rookie year. Why? Because when you blitz Peyton and leave one-on-one coverage with Marvin and Reggie, that is an automatic 6 points for the Colts.

The first four games, Peyton was not healthy and neither was the o-line. The WRs were open, but he wasn't getting them the ball consistently. Now, he is healthy and making teams pay for blitzing. From here on out, we will likely see fewer blitz, Cover 1 defenses. If we do, expect the Colts offense to drop 31 on them.

Marvin Harrison: Still good despite what the "experts" say.
Photo: Colts.com

The second part of the domination was the Colts run defense. They held Baltimore to 51 yards rushing on 19 caries (2.7 a carry). They generated five turnovers on defense, with two coming from now-starting CB Tim Jennings. Indy also sacked Joe Flacco four times, with three coming from Robert Mathis. The team started with Josh Thomas, Raheem Brock, Keyunta Dawson, and Robert Mathis on the d-line. Their stunts and physical play pushed around Baltimore's offensive line. They shed blocks, rallied to the ball, and played fast Colts football. I'll remind everyone that on that starting d-line, there is not a 300-pounder in the bunch. In fact, Josh Thomas (the DE) might be the biggest guy on defense that they started.  Yet, they dominated a big, physical Ravens offensive line.

This was as satisfying a win this team has had in the regular season in some time. They beat the snot out of a team that many think will be players in their division. The Ravens have some good young players on offense, and their defense is still a tough bunch. This was not some chump team that strolled into The Lube. The Ravens are good, and the Colts crushed them. Be sure to check out Rexx at Baltimore Beatdown for his analysis as well.

Bottom line, if you thought the Colts were simply going to "go away," you know nothing about football. Sorry, but teams like the Colts simply do not "go away." Injuries may hamper them for a while, but if you have actually watched this team (which few experts have done) you'd know they have no quit in them. That was made obvious during the Vikings, Jaguars, and Texans games. As this team gets healthy, they will again start to assert themselves, and this wacky season will start to shack itself out. And when the dust settles, our Colts will be there. This is still the best team in the AFC, folks. This was a big win in an effort to reinforce that sentiment.

Go Colts!

We dislike both these teams, but we also like watching them beat up on each other. This is your open thread for the game, and don't forget to check out Pats Pulpit and Bolts From The Blue.

Dear NFL "experts,"

You thought the Colts were done. You thought the Colts were finished. You thought Marvin Harrison was old, Peyton Manning hobbled, and the Colts defense befuddled. A 31-3 ass whopping later, we see Marvin is Marvin (2 TDs), Peyton is still the best QB in football (3 TDs, no TOs), and the Colts defense can stop the run (51 total rushing yards allowed).

In short, you were wrong about the Colts. Again. Please keep it  up. We Colts fans look forward to making you folks look stupid on a weekly basis.

Go Indianapolis Colts!

-Sincerely,

The crew at Stampede Blue

P.S.- Despite the final score, Baltimore has some great young players to build their franchise around. Joe Flacco has what it takes to win in this league. Don't let the TOs skew things. This team will be in the hunt in their division this season despite the youth on offense, and John Harbaugh is a solid young coach. They just ran into a buzzsaw in Indy. Also, to those that complained about Tim Jennings starting today: 8 tackles, 1 FF, and 1 INT.

Some links to get you through the Friday afternoon lull:

• PhilB is not optimistic about Kelvin Hayden's knee injury (Tip to Matic). I'm numb to injuries now. If we can get through one game without losing someone for a significant period of time, I'd almost consider that more of a win than an actual win.
  
• Another AOL Fanhouse comment that makes absolutely no friggin' sense:

  Peyton Manning is like the Phil Mickelson of football and that should be self explanatory.

  Uh, it isn't, unless you are suggesting Phil Mickelson is the greatest golfer of his generation. If you are, your comment makes you sound even stupider than I thought possible. Stick to reporting sports. Lose the comedy (and the pathetic attempts to compare golf with pro football).
• I managed to eek out a win in the Stampede Blue Fantasy Football League. I thought True_Blue had me, but this past Monday I had the Vikings defense and he had Adrian Peterson. Peterson did nothing, and the Vikes defense scored 19 points. I won 114-99. 
• I won in my league against Fanhouse as well. My opponent left DeAngelo Williams on his bench.
• 18 to 88 has their 18 plays up from last weeks Texans game. Always an enjoyable read.
• I don't know WTF is up with Tony Ugoh. It seems the Colts are starting Charlie Johnson at LT over him. Ugoh dressed against the Texans. When you dres, that means YOU CAN PLAY. Yet, Ugoh did not play, and Johnson is getting murdered out there because he is NOT a left tackle. I don't think this is an injury. I think he was benched and the Colts don't want to talk about it.
• Ugoh aside, it is nice to see Pollak and Richard in there. These two were excellent picks by Polian. We may be a bit snake bitten on the d-line, but Polian has done a very good job totally rebuilding Indy's offensive line. Now they need to gell and get some consistency.
  
• Will be see Daniel Muir play this week? According to shake n bake's injury report update, Muir practiced. He should play.
• And finally, aslo from PhilB (same link as above), Philip Wheeler will start at SAM backer this weekend. If the run defense improves with Clint session not starting at SAM, that tells us something. I still maintain Session is one helluva linebacker... at WILL backer. Not SAM.

I have Photoshop. I use it. I love it. I'm working on creating some logos for the following series we run here at Stampede Blue:

Know Your Colts History (JakeTheSnake)

Stampede Blue Prediction Contest (mgrex30)

Injury Report (shake n bake)

General Football Open Thread (me)

But as I started developing logos, I thought it might behoove us to have some of you submit your logo ideas to us. If you are nifty with a photo or image editor and would like to make a custom logo for one of these series, send me an email. If we use it (and if you send me something, we likely will) everytime we use the logo it will have "Logo by _____" to let folks know it was your great talent that created the logo. Just another way for you folks to brand this site as your own, not my own.

I'm also still tinkering with a podcast logo for a show we're thinking about doing with the AFC South bloggers. Tell me what you think:

We've re-started our weekly writers poll for team power rankings. Here are the SB Nation NFL power rankings for Week 6 (special thanks to Matty I for doing the heavy lifting on this):