When Sage Rosenfels Equals Paul Crewe—Colts Win Every Time

I'm not saying that Bill Polian got to Sage Rosenfels at halftime or that one of the Colts defenders slipped him a note with the payoff information, but the last four minutes looked about as fixed as possible.

During the game, Sage Rosenfels looked like he was about to permanently supplant Matt Schaub and the Colts never found a good rhythm against the strong Houston front four. After scoring 10 points in the first quarter, the Colts did not score again until very late in the fourth.

When the Colts finally scored their first points in the second half, Houston still looked in control with a 10-point lead and possession of the ball. The Colts kicked away, and with the success that Houston had running the ball, it should have been over.

Enter Sage Rosenfels, starting for a sick Matt Schaub. He had performed beautifully up until this point. He had been running the offense efficiently, with no turnovers and one touchdown pass. The rest of his game looks like this: fumble, fumble, three completions, interception.

The first fumble that Indianapolis recovered for a touchdown came on a play in which he should have slid. The second fumble came when he was scrambling out of the pocket, looking down the field. The one problem is, there was only one receiver out on his side of the field, and he was blanketed by three defenders.

The worst of the three turnovers was the last, coming with about a minute left in the game. After completing a few passes to advance the ball past midfield, he faced second down on the Colts' side of the field, now trailing 31-27.

After dropping back and surveying the field, he threw the ball 25 yards down field, and straight into the arms of a Colts defender. There was not a single receiver within 10 yards of where the pass was intercepted.

I refuse to imply that any NFL quarterback would ever intentionally throw a game, but if I later found out that he did, I definitely would not be surprised. Unless he is really that bad, which he was not for the other 56 minutes of the game.

A bad taste is left in my mouth after watching the end of that game.