NFL Late Hits: Week 16

I'm going to try and not make this whole column be about the Colts and Head Coach Jim Caldwell.

It may be hard.

I'll give this to the Colts' coach—damned if he does, damned if he doesn't.

Well, I guess if you were predisposed to think Peyton Manning—one of the most durable quarterbacks in the game—would end up hurt. Frankly, I wouldn't think that way.

I can't put it better than my boy Sigmund Bloom did on Twitter :

"

You can't coach afraid of negative outcomes, you focus on the positive outcomes you are pushing towards. Wonder how team feels right now.

"

Caldwell was preserving Manning, a guy who rarely gets hurt, and may have thrown off the timing of a team who was on a roll. There's no way he puts the starters in for long this week, is there?

We're watching momentum disintegrate for the Saints—are we going to see it for the Colts now?

As for the Jets, Mark Sanchez didn't throw an interception. Starters may have been sitting, but Sanchez protected the ball. Big deal for him this season considering how he has struggled. Good decisions, solid play-calling, effective ground game.

They still need to win against the Bengals (starters or not) and all those things need to be going if they are going to win.

Interesting side note: The Colts/Jets game inspired this piece of writing on a University of North Carolina website called The 5th Corner where writer AEM uses it as a cautionary tale for the NCAA Basketball Tournament , which is considering a move to a 96 team tournament.

(sidenote-within-a-sidenote: I think expanding to that size is a horrible idea, incredibly unmanageable and frankly giving the College BCS anti-playoff people ammunition they don't need .) 

See what you did Jim Caldwell?

The Chargers, Cowboys and Patriots seem to be heating up at the right time. This is standard operating procedure for the Bolts, but it seems like new ground for Dallas.

Romo has turned the concept he's a Christmas choke artist on its ear the last few weeks. Maybe the Cowboys aren't perfect and maybe they won't make it far into the playoffs, but they seem to be ready for the playoffs at a time when some teams—like the aforementioned Colts and Saints as well as the Vikings—are stumbling.

In the last few years, both the Giants and Cardinals have shown us where momentum can take you. One of the fringe teams will heat up and cause some havoc in the playoffs.

Finally, I've danced around it enough this month: it's retarded that Titans running back Chris Johnson isn't getting more buzz for MVP. Beyond that, it's criminal. I'm not saying he should be a lock to win it, but not enough writers are even taking note of him beyond 'wow he's pretty good'.

Maybe it's a moot point, given that his team has struggled even when he's doing well and his impact on any game is negligible.

This fallacy—or what I consider one—pretty much makes it impossible for almost any position not named 'Quarterback', a problem which is already part of the Heisman lack of defensive players.

No one player wins a game every time out (just ask John Elway) but the MVP needs to be a game changer. Chris Johnson is a constant threat to break a long touchdown—a defense cannot afford to ignore him or he will burn them.

Maybe he hasn't won a lot of games for the Titans. But at any moment, he could.

That should count for something in my opinion.