INDIANAPOLIS — In essence, the 2007 playoffs will begin for the Indianapolis Colts this weekend when the Jacksonville Jaguars visit the RCA Dome.
The 9-2 Colts could clinch a postseason berth with a win over Jacksonville (8-3) on Sunday, but a few other things would also need to occur — Buffalo must lose or tie, Tennessee must lose and Denver must lose or tie. Or the Bills must lose or tie along with a loss by the Titans and a loss or a tie by San Diego.
In the short term, though, an Indianapolis victory would give Tony Dungy’s team a pretty insurmountable lead in the AFC South race. The Colts have already won all three divisional road games against Jacksonville, Tennessee and Houston. Three of their last five games will be against AFC South team, including Sunday’s rematch with Jacksonville.
“You can see how things are going to unfold. There’s not a lot of guess work to it. If we win this game, it would take, really, a monumental disaster for us not to win the division. If we don’t win this game, then it’s going to be a dogfight the last four weeks of the year. And we’re going to have to not only win our division, but hope Pittsburgh loses some games then,” Dungy said Wednesday. “So we’ve got everything in front of us to understand that it is a big game. And I think we’ll play accordingly.
“I think our team is reenergized [after a three-day rest period last weekend] and looking forward to the challenge. Jacksonville is playing very good football right now since they got [quarterback] David Garrard back. I think they’ve been reenergized too. They won two out of three with [backup quarterback] Quinn Gray playing. But Garrard is playing excellent football, doing a lot of great things for them. So we’ll have our work cut out for us. We went down there and we were able to outplay them in the game down there. And it’s going to take the same type of effort, the same type of fundamentals, not turning the ball over. It’s all those things that we need to work on. And I think we’ll be able to get three good days of practice in and should have our best practices in a while with the rest that we’ve had and a few [injured] people back.”
Positioning yourself for a long playoff run is the key, according to the Colts’ coach.
“That’s what you want. That’s why the beginning of the year is so important. To put yourself in this position rather than being in Jacksonville’s position, where you’ve got to win and then hope someone else beats us. We can still control everything. And we’ve worked hard to get there. We’ve won nine games and that’s put ourselves in this position. And now you want to take advantage of it,” he said.
The Jaguars have pointed to Sunday’s game as the “championship” of the division. Indianapolis’ players are approaching matters in much the same fashion.
“I think it is a big game,” middle linebacker Gary Brackett said. “We know where we are right now. And we know where they are. We win the game, we’re up three games [in the AFC South divisional race]. We’d have a three-game lead with four games left. We lose and I think we’d actually be tied.
“This is a huge game. We’re playing a tough opponent, definitely a rival. A team that for the last several years we’ve split [games] with them. We’ve just got to go out there and play football for 60 minutes and handle our business.”
Brackett said that the Colts want to finish the regular season strong, unlike the struggles the team had late last year.
“The last couple of years, we got ourselves into trouble by losing games early in December and then waiting until almost January to find out if we clinched the division or not,” he pointed out.
“We obviously don’t want to put ourselves in that same situation. So we can take care of a lot of things if we can win this one. We won’t have to worry about what guys are losing this week or who they’re playing or cheer for another team. We can pretty much control our own destiny.”
• Rice decision based on youth movement — The Colts’ decision to release veteran defensive end Simeon Rice on Tuesday was based primarily on the ability of some of the team’s younger players to perform at a high level.
“Simeon came in and did well for us, did what we thought. We just had some young guys, and I’m a big believer in the young guys, that normally if you let them play they usually step up,” Dungy said. “And we had some guys on the defensive line that played well. We had been wanting to get [fullback and special-teams standout] Luke Lawton back for several weeks.
“It just became a thing where we thought that we can get some productivity out of those young guys if we play them. And we can build our special teams and help that out. It wasn’t so much what Simeon didn’t do. It’s just where we were going and giving the young guys a chance. Those guys have all played well. [Rookie defensive tackle] Quinn Pitcock, we have to get in playing more. It could be [defensive tackle] Raheem Brock playing more at [defensive] end and some of the tackles playing a little bit more. I think we have a lot of talent in our defensive line that we have to let those guys play.”
• Injury list — Sitting out Wednesday’s practice were offensive tackles Ryan Diem (ankle), Charlie Johnson (hamstring) and Daniel Federkeil (concussion); cornerbacks Tim Jennings (upper leg) and Dante Hughes (shoulder); safety Bob Sanders (team decision); tight end Ben Utecht (groin); and wide receiver Marvin Harrison (bruised left knee).
Strong-side linebacker Tyjuan Hagler (neck) and offensive tackle Tony Ugoh (neck) participated in the workout. Their availability for Sunday’s game with Jacksonville, however, won’t be decided until the end of the week. Sanders usually takes one day off from practice each week to rest old injuries. He is expected to practice today and start against the Jaguars.
As for Harrison, quarterback Peyton Manning said the Colts are prepared to play without the Pro Bowl receiver for yet another week if necessary. He has missed six of the past seven games with the knee injury.
“I wouldn’t count on [Harrison playing],” Manning said Wednesday. “He’s been out for quite some time now. So we’ve just have to make it work with the guys that are out there.”
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