(that’s Nelson above, getting brushed aside by Reggie Wayne)
As is the trend for the Jaguars, they took the Colts down to the wire but eventually lost because Indy made the plays down the stretch that they didn’t. Jacksonville, like many teams, seems to be good enough to hang with Indy but they cannot deliver the knockout punch. They might have been able to win on Thursday night had they not given away a touchdown with about five minutes left. Reggie Wayne had beaten Dwayne Cox down the sidelines in what seemed to be a cover-2 zone. Peyton Manning then heaved it over safety Reggie Nelson’s head into the arms of Reggie Wayne. The Colts had a 60-yard bomb that would have taken them inside the 10, but Reggie Nelson’s second bad decision gave them a touchdown.
Instead of pushing Wayne out of bounds — which he easily could have done — Reggie Nelson decided to go for a low-probability strip. When he whiffed, Wayne waltzed in for an easy score. Not only was Nelson’s choice dumb because even with a strip the ball would have gone out of bounds, but also because the defense had a shot to hold Indy to a field goal after that. Jaguars coach Jack Del Rio was understandably pissed, saying about Nelson “He didn’t play well. You can’t stay in the lineup playing like that.” I wish I had the power to bench Nelson too because his sloppy and lazy play put me in a major hole. In both of my fantasy football leagues, my opponent in the playoff has Wayne and is off to a great start. Even though I entered the Coors Light Fantasy Football League playoffs with the top overall seed, I could get knocked out in the first week! Maybe if Reggie Nelson knew was at stake here he would have made the stop. Furthermore, Nelson’s crappy tackling job allowed Dallas Clark to score Indy’s fourth touchdown of the game. Heck, Nelson was one of the Colts’ MVPs of the game. Here are the highlights lowlights in case you haven’t seen them:
