Reggie Wayne, Pro Bowl and overall money WR for the Colts, had an awfully poor game and rather suspicious effort on a few key plays.

First, he didn't get open very much, and despite getting thrown to the most by Manning he only caught five passes.

Second, on the critical TD INT return by Porter, Wayne took an extra second making a double juke on an in route in the face of a blitz. Any average WR, let alone a veteran pro bowler knows to get into his route quickly on a blitz. He made a double shoulder shake for no reason what-so-ever on a simple 5 yard in route, while the DB was playing OFF the LOS. Manning threw the ball where Wayne was supposed to be, but Wayne was just making his break while Porter jumped WAY in front of him due to the pointless juke and reading Manning's intentions.

Third, Wayne allowed the last pass to him at the goal line to slip right through his hands with nobody on him. There were a few defenders in close proximity, but not actually on him. It was a poor effort at a clutch moment, to be generous, while the game was still possibly in reach. It would have been a TD and left the Colts down by seven with 44 seconds to go.

Fourth, Wayne grew up in...New Orleans. His football idol was the long time WR for the Saints, Eric Martin.

Wayne already has a Super Bowl championship under his belt. I wonder how much loyalty he felt toward New Orleans over his own team, how much pressure he had from long time friends, or how much he was paid by people he knew to have an "off" game when it mattered the most.

I'm very happy that the Saints won. I always like an underdog story, especially for a city that was down in the dirt (water actually) and never sniffed success during the entire organization's history. It's almost exactly the same as when my team, Tampa Bay, finally won in 2003. I can't help but be very suspicious of Reggie Wayne though. His performance stunk in more ways than one.

Well stated.

On the pick 6, he needed to read that blitz and break his route off to a hard inside slant. He knows that he's the hot read on that side of the field, and Manning put it right where he was supposed to be.

At the end there, he was almost jogging across the middle. If he's coming full bore, he blows by the mike, and has an open look to the end zone on the right hash. By going so slow he made Manning throw that early, and of course dropped in anyways.

Should be interesting to see if he gets worked in the media for this one.

Wow... that's pretty interesting.

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Wheelhouse

Couple of media articles are ripping Manning's 'poor throw' on the pick 6.

Totally wrong. The throw was right, the route was not.

yeah on the pick six porter had that play read quite well, he jumped the route. it is possibly wayne wasn't in the right place but you could also say manning well didn't throw the game but might have wanted the saints to win as he also grew up in New Orleans, Louisiana. Same could be said of Farve throwing the NFC championship. a veteran QB knows better than to throw across his body while running out. Farve grew up a saints fan.

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"Tis The Season, Fa la la la la LaFontaine" - Rick Jeanneret

It's going to totally piss me off if the "Manning throws away game" tag line is the prevailing story out of Indianapolis. I don't even like Manning - I'm sick of the golden boy persona - but he surely doesn't deserve the criticism for that INT. He's too classy though to point a finger at Wayne. Phill Simms should know better and pointed it out, but he sucks as a commentator. Troy Aikman would have very clearly illustrated how Wayne blew his route on what it a very typical hot read. Hell, the route was SUPPOSED to be quick anyway, but he wasted so much damn time on his break that it wasn't even a battle for the ball. That play is the WR's fault, all day every day, every play of every game that is the WR's fuck up.

psych, I was actually thinking the same thing about Manning before the game. He played a great game though. He made pin point passes on every 3rd down conversion, mostly to Dallas Clark. He only missed one big pass, right before the FG miss by Stover. Otherwise Manning did everything he was supposed to beside nail a deep throw, but the NO defense was surprisingly stingy about big plays. They were commited to keeping the plays in front of them, waiting for a blitz to pay off or for the Colts to finally fail to string perfect plays together.

Wayne started to stick out to me in the 2nd qtr for looking slow on a pass intended for him. After that it kept getting worse until all of the above added up.

So you're going to blame Wayne, when their defense couldn't stop them.

It wasn't a matter if the Offense could hold up against the Saints, the defense of the Colts was not stopping the pass very well, especially throws straight over the middle.

The game was also not reffed fairly, in all honesty, how many flags should have been called on New Orleans and weren't? everytime Clark was running across the field the defender was holding his jersey and interfering with him, but he's a pro and still made most of the catches.

And Wayne wasn't involved much in the first half at all.

The Saints won it, the colts lost, both teams are still the best in Football right now. It was just the Saints turn to win.

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New Orleans deserved to win, and I'm happy for them. Clearly Wayne blew his chances at making a difference. Maybe New Orleans would have won anyway, but that INT TD prevented what could have been a tying TD drive. There's no way to tell how the game would have ended with 5 1/2 minutes to play at that point. My thread title is a little dramatic, but I'm honestly VERY suspicious of Wayne's effort whether it would have made a difference or not.

Edit - It's a little offensive to me, since I played WR from little league through college. I know exactly what he was supposed to do, and I'm a 35 yr old has-been sitting on my couch. You just can't be late on a blitz route, and you never stop or short arm a quick in-route in the face of DB pressure.

Double edit - On ESPN Steve Young finally called out Wayne on the INT.

I just think he had a rare bad game.

The Colts shouldn't have been conservative at the half with 2 minutes to go either and went for another score. Also that Onside kick was when the Colts were going to lose. Had they got it, they would have won.

That's my theory, but I'm not mad either way, I wanted the Colts to win, but I wasn't going to be mad at the Saints taking it home, they deserved it just as much as the Colts, maybe more since they went from nothing, to a Superbowl Champion, especially after what they had to go through in 2006.

I also wonder how San Diego feels about letting Brees go now?

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..Or how Miami feels for passing over Brees, and going with Duante Culpepper instead???

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"I'll rap you with my cane; you pencil necked geek!!"

-Bowler, imitating Freddy Blassie, at the very first M & G.

I'm a huge Drew Brees fan. I've liked him all through the Purdue days. As a Bucs fan seeing the Vikings twice a season I could have easily told Miami to pass on Culpepper. That's what makes Miami a crappy organization these days, and they lossed Saban after that partly due to that decision.

Wayne had more than a bad game though Sky. He made JV errors and showed a very suspicious lack of effort. His cuts were sllooooowwww and that's a very easy way to have an "off" game without making it glaringly obvious. The ball through his fingers on that last, fairly softly thrown ball, was icing on the cake.

they lost saban because he is, literally, a whore. he will leave an organization at the drop of a hat for more money. he also treats people like shit. he is a pure asshole, and there is nothing good about that man.

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That's true, and he saw that nothing good was going on in Miami, so he took off.

after the way he left MSU, which was despicable, even rival michigan fans such as myself root against him. i HATE when a coach leaves his school for a new job prior to a bowl game. its disgusting. and yes, i know the terms rich rodriguez came to michigan. i didnt like it.

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One thing that really cost the colts was that they went away from Addai. Addai was on a tear, and you barely saw him the second half.

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"Tis The Season, Fa la la la la LaFontaine" - Rick Jeanneret

coughrich rodriguezcough

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Proud LGBTQQ Individual

i never hired him.

however, sabans trail of destruction is much longer then richrods.

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