Many were worried when Edgerrin James bolted to Arizona for the money, but the Colts wound up coming out of it smelling like a rose as rookie Joseph Addai and veteran Dominic Rhodes outplayed James this season. Joseph Addai had a great rookie season as he played in all 16 games and carried the football 226 times for 1,081 yards (4.8 ypc) with 7 TD runs. He also caught 40 passes for 325 yards (8.1 avg) with 1 TD grab.

Dominic Rhodes started all 16 games for the Colts and carried the ball 187 times for 641 yards (3.4 ypc) with 5 TD runs. He also caught 36 passes for 251 yards (7.0 avg). For his career, Rhodes has played in 71 games (27 starts) and he carried the football 550 times for 2,274 yards (4.1 ypc) with 19 TD runs. He also caught 90 passes for 649 yards (7.2 avg) with 1 TD catch.

The Colts have played the Patriots two times in the playoffs. They lost both of those games by a combined score of 44-17! Peyton Manning has been horrible against the Patriots in those games. He has completed 50 of 89 passes (56.2%) for 475 yards with 1 TD pass and 5 interceptions. Hopefully Dungy and Manning can come up with something to combat the Patriots defense.

Marvin Harrison also needs to step up. He has only caught 8 passes for 63 yards (7.9 avg) in the two playoff games against the Patriots. He also only has one hundred yard receiving game in 12 career playoff games. In the playoffs, Harrison has caught 51 passes for 735 yards (14.4 avg) with only 2 TD grabs.

If these guys don’t step up, the Colts won’t have much of a chance on Sunday.

Wouldn’t that be a sweet way to send the Patriots home? Vinatieri played 10 season for the Patriots after being signed as an undrafted free agent. In his 10 seasons in New England he hit 81.9% of his FG attempts and he scored 1,156 points for them. He also is probably the best clutch kicker of all time. He’s 8 for 8 in the post season for the Colts and he’s never missed a FG in the RCA Dome…..so if he gets a chance at the end of the game, the Patriots are going home.

The Colts will likely need Peyton Manning to play a big game on Sunday to beat the Patriots and I wonder out loud if he has it in him? He has never played well against the Patriots when all the chips are down so he will be questioned until he has a big game when it counts in the post season. He has only thrown 1 TD pass and he’s been intercepted 5 times in the playoffs for a QB Rating of 58.3, and that will not be good enough no matter how well the rest of the team plays to beat the Patriots! So the burden is on him…will he step up or look like a deer in headlights against the Patriots, again?