Myth Busted: Peyton Manning and Colts Silence Critics

Heading into Saturday night's home game against the Baltimore Ravens at Lucas Oil Stadium, many expert analysts had placed a question mark over the Colts ability to bounce back from nearly a month's rest.

Although the Colts players and staff had the confidence amongst themselves that they could pull it off, the public was under a different impression.

After a shocking loss to the Jets in Week 16, Indianapolis then knew that their would be a period between the final game of the season and the divisional playoff round to recuperate and focus on what is important: the Super Bowl.

8:15 p.m. rolled around, and the Colts exited the tunnel to find themselves staring at one of the toughest defenses in the league to date. Things started off shaky: "rust" being the key word that many people are using, the Colts looked like they'd be left in the rain for a little too long.

Sooner or later though, Manning got going. The familiar faint sounds of his booming voice were heard through the TV broadcast, and you just knew that Indianapolis' dominance was not far away.

With the first quarter being locked up in a tight battle, the Ravens defense never took a stand. Allowing young receivers Austin Collie and Pierre Garcon to run all over their once impressive secondary, the Ravens never looked like the team that beat the Patriots a week ago.

The second quarter rolled around, and the color yellow started to appear more frequently.  Flag after flag, dropped ball after dropped ball, the Ravens were beginning to look like coyote chasing roadrunner, and they just knew they were never going to catch Indianapolis.

Indianapolis' rust was quickly disguised by a 20-3 win, and it was time for the press conferences to begin.

"I know that there's this myth that you can't win at home after a bye week, but I didn't believe that, I just thought that you know if we haven't won after a bye week we just simply didn't play well enough" said Manning after the game was over.
"We got  beat by some teams that played better than us, today we played the better game and as a result we beat Baltimore and that'll be the key next week."

Conferences, stats and game recaps aside, hats off to Jim Caldwell. Thinking back to what seems like an eternity ago when he made the questionable decision to rest Peyton Manning and replace him with Curtis Painter, Caldwell now seems like a genius, and dare I say it, almost Tony Dung-like.

At the moment there is one question remaining in Colts fans' heads. Is the edge back?  Do the Colts have that gene that gave them the ability to win all of those games? And can Manning get back to his old ways, as he did show some rust today against Baltimore?

Well we'll find out soon enough. One thing the Colts don't need to stress though is defense. An outstanding display today to stop Ray Rice in his tracks, is a building point in not only confidence but strategy as well. The Colts now need to get their popcorn ready for the New York Jets and San Diego Chargers matchup, one whom they will be hosting in a week for the AFC Championship.