Videotape is as essential to NFL culture as training rooms and playbooks. It runs like a current through game preparation. There are infamous Monday film sessions in which coaches, armed with laser beams, grill players in front of the entire team. Late-night game-planning sessions, aided by the clicker to rewind.
It's no wonder Indianapolis Colts architect Bill Polian couldn't begin to get the deflating Super Bowl loss to the New Orleans Saints out of his system until he saw the videotape. It's what they do in the NFL. Confront the demon. Kick the chair. Move on. Polian studied the video the day after the game and twice more over the next three weeks.
"It didn't turn out any differently," Polian grumbled. "The game turned on two plays — the third-and-1 at the end of the half and the onside kick to start the second half."
Indeed, the momentum swings are no less crucial on video. When Mike Hart was stuffed on third-and-1, it forced a punt that the Saints parlayed into a field goal as the first half expired. Then New Orleans opened the second half by recovering the gutsy onside kick, which led to a go-ahead touchdown.
With just under four minutes remaining, the curtain closed on a Colts campaign that only weeks earlier had fueled debate about the pros and cons of pursuing a perfect season. A pass by MVP quarterback Peyton Manning was intercepted and returned for a touchdown by cornerback Tracy Porter. Ballgame.
Like Polian, Colts coach Jim Caldwell watched all of this three times.
"No," Caldwell said, "no new revelations."
After succeeding Tony Dungy, Caldwell, once Manning's position coach, opened with more consecutive W's (14) than any other rookie coach in NFL history. He inherited a Rolls-Royce, for sure, with Manning the engine propelling eight consecutive playoff seasons. Caldwell, though, deserves credit for not steering the ship off course.
Still, he got virtually no love in balloting for coach of the year honors that went to Cincinnati Bengals taskmaster Marvin Lewis. And Caldwell's debut season was blotched by the controversial manner in which the regular season ended with back-to-back losses that squashed the chance at perfection: pulling Manning and other starters in the second half of a close game in Week 16 and playing Reggie Wayne and Dallas Clark just long enough in Week 17 to enable them to notch their milestone 100 catches.
Caldwell and Polian contend they played it safe after securing the No. 1 playoff seed to keep the team healthy as it pursued the Lombardi Trophy. Then that plan backfired. All-pro defensive end Dwight Freeney tore an ankle ligament in the AFC title game, leaving him to hobble with minimal impact in the Super Bowl.
And the ultimate prize never came. Said Caldwell, "You get it out of your system and move on."
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