So the Colts lost yesterday to huge underdog San Diego. These are the same Colts who were coming off a bye week and had sparingly played their starters two weeks prior in their final game against the Titans. That’s roughly a three week break heading into the playoffs. The team yesterday looked rusty, to say the least — receivers dropping passes that turned into interceptions, the league’s best scoring defense giving up a lot of points, including a huge drive at the end of the game by a backup.

The Cowboys, also huge favorites at home, lost as well, this time to the Giants. The Cowboys did not play their starters in week 17. Like the Colts their first stringers were operating on essentially a three week lay off, coming off the bye last week. The Cowboys lost to the Giants, who played all their starters in a week 17 tilt against the Patriots — who, it should be noted, played all their starters as well in that game, and then beat the hot Jaguars on Saturday.

Meanwhile the Packers, who played their starters for almost the entire game in week 17, blew the Seahawks out of the water.

So of the top four seeds the two that played competitive football throughout the entire season, particularly heading into the playoffs, won their two games. The other two teams lost at home to road underdogs after benching their starters in the final week of the season. For the Colts, this is the second time in three years this has happened.

As a Browns fan it was particularly sweet to see the Colts lose. They made no attempt to beat the Titans in week 17. None whatsoever. They mailed it in. The league apparently had no problem with what transpired in the waining minutes of the game, when the Colts and Titans basically agreed to not play the final snap of the game, which clearly came as a welcomed gift to the Titans. It may as well have come in a velvet box with a lovely note penned by Mr. Dungy himself.

If you don’t try to win you may as well lose. The integrity of the game took a sever blow in week 17 — amazingly no one in the media, as far as I can tell, has made any attempt to further investigate this — and seeing the Colts get their comeuppance was wonderful.

http://disappointmentzone.wordpress.com/2008/01/14/colts-got-what-they-deserved/