Caldwell and Colts too conservative in Super Bowl XLIV

Tuesday, 09 February 2010 00:00

Indianapolis coach Jim Caldwell might have to take a big part of the blame for losing the NFL’s championship game last Sunday in Miami.

Although the New Orleans Saints well deserve the Lombardi Trophy – they outplayed, outsmarted and outscored the Colts – they got some help from their opponent.

First-year coach Caldwell had the poise of a veteran for five months. He won his first 14 games and lost the last two only after he pulled starters. He trusted his quarterback Peyton Manning, who went on to earn his fourth regular-season MVP award.

But in the most important game, the one he had to win, he got timid, failing to take chances and failing to trust his QB. It cost him and his club dearly.

Sure, the Colts made some atypical mistakes – Pierre Garçon dropped a second-quarter pass that changed the game’s momentum, there was a gutsy onside kick that was flubbed by Hank Baskett, and Reggie Wayne dropped a potential touchdown pass at the end – but those things happen.

What shouldn’t have happened is that Caldwell took the ball of Manning’s hands, his best player, at critical moments, helping the Saints to score with those decisions.

The first mistake occurred immediately after the Colts stopped New Orleans at the Indy 1, with just under two minutes to go in the first half. The Colts had a 10-3 lead, 99 yards to go, and the Saints had all three timeouts left, but with Peyton Manning at QB you trust him – all the Colts needed was a 10-yard completion.

Caldwell didn’t take that chance, he played safe. So the Colts ran three times, punted the ball away and the Saints scored on a last second field goal.

When you think that the Colts had the ball all of three snaps in the second quarter, with Manning off the field, you should give him a chance to do what he does best, run a 2-minutes offense.

But the worst was Caldwell’s decision to have 42-year-old Matt Stover try a 51-yard field goal in the second half. Stover had a string of 16 consecutive conversions in the playoffs, but his limitations are in the 47-48 yards range. Stover is 13-of-32 on field goals of 50 or more yards and didn’t hit one since the 2006 season. Of course he missed, the Saints then went 59 yards for the touchdown that gave them a 13-10 lead.

The Colts could have pinned the Saints inside their 10, or they could have trusted Manning to make a play on fourt-and-11, anything but try a field goal. Three points weren’t that important at that stage of the game.

The Colts took a 10-0 lead in the first quarter, and with Manning at his best shredding the Saints’ defense, it looked like Indianapolis was on its way to win its second Super Bowl in Miami. Until Pierre Garçon dropped a first-down pass early in the second quarter that started the Colts on their descent. Caldwell, however, pushed them deeper with his conservative approach from there on.

New Orleans coach Sean Payton, in contrast, came in the game with an aggressive plan, taking bold chances, and ultimately taking the NFL’s 2009 title from the favorite Colts. Nobody knows what would have happened if Caldwell had taken riskier decisions, but when Peyton Manning is your quarterback you want to put the game in his hands as often as possible. Especially when there is no tomorrow.

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Caldwell and Colts too conservative in Super Bowl XLIV

Caldwell and Colts too conservative in Super Bowl XLIV

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