Colts Gab

From: Indy Star

When Indy ventures into San Diego’s Qualcomm Stadium against the Chargers on Saturday night, Bob Sanders should be at his normal strong safety position. The league’s 2007 Defensive Player of the Year missed 10 games during the regular season because of ankle and knee issues. Sanders still was on the mend from arthroscopic surgery on his right knee and didn’t play when the Colts edged San Diego 23-20 on Nov. 23. How does he feel? “Good. Excited,” Sanders said. “I’m glad we’re in this position. Just ready to get to work.”

From: Indy Star

Coach Tony Dungy stopped short of naming Tyjuan Hagler a starter Tuesday, but Dungy ruled out middle linebacker Gary Brackett for the Indianapolis Colts’ wild-card playoff game Saturday at San Diego. “Gary will not play this week, but he’s making progress and we’ll visit it again next week if we win,” Dungy said Tuesday. Brackett has been out since suffering a fractured fibula Nov. 30 at Cleveland. Buster Davis has started in his stead but would sit down were Hagler to start. “We’ll let that play out,” Dungy said. “We’re going to practice several different groups and probably a lot of it will depend on how they play. They play a lot of two tight ends (sets). They play a lot of three wide receivers (sets). It may depend on what groups we see from them.”

From: Colts.com

Colts head coach Tony Dungy said he expects to have all of his starters ready to go for Week 18 when the Colts visit San Diego in the Wild Card round. The lone exception will probably be LB Gary Brackett, who will not practice this week while continuing to recover from a fibula injury.

Games such as the one between the Tennessee Titans and Indianapolis Colts on Sunday are few and far between as both teams had absolutely nothing to play for as their seedings were already predetermined last week. So in essence, this game had the feel of a preseason game as reserves played the bulk of the contest.

However, some records were broken as Colts quarterback Peyton Manning once again threw for 4,000 yards, wide receiver Marvin Harrison surpassed Cris Carter to become the second-leading all-time receiver and tight end Dallas Clark broke a team record for yards receiving by a tight end. Despite all those accolades, the Colts dominated the Titans in every conceivable category, including a sizable 38:20-21:40 margin in ball possession, which allowed Indianapolis to coast to the easy 23-0 shutout of Tennessee at Lucas Oil Stadium.

The Colts dominated after about 6 minutes, commencing the scoring with a 55-yard touchdown pass from Manning to running back Joseph Addai, giving the Colts an early 7-0 lead; they would add a 28-yard field goal by Adam Vinatieri to increase their lead in the opening period to 10-0. Indianapolis would add a pair of FG’s by Vinatieri to pad their lead to a 16-0 halftime lead.

The third period was nondescript as no scorring took place, but the Colts would add an exclamation point to their victory when offensive lineman recovered a fumble in the Titans’ end zone for a score, putting the Colts up for good 23-0. Colts reserve QB Jim Sorgi played the bulk of the game as he went 22-of-30 for 178 yards while Manning played briefly, going 7-of-7 for 95 yards and a TD; Vince Young went 9-of-13 for 55 yards for the Titans.

Lance Ball led the Colts rushing attack with 83 yards on only 13 carries while Quinton Ganther led the Titans with 27 yard rushing on 4 carries. Clark led the Colts receivers with 55 yards on 6 receptions while Addai caught a pair of pases for 55 yards and a score; Brandon Jones led the titans receivers with 2 catches for 13 yards. Tennessee (13-3) will play again in 2 weeks as they will be the #1 seed in the AFC; Indianapolis (12-4), the #5 seed, will await the winner of the Denver-San Diego contest to determine their opponent for the AFC first-round playoffs.

From: Yahoo! Sports

Colts RB Najeh Davenport may get the bulk of carries this week against Tennessee with Joseph Addai likely to be rested, Dominic Rhodes out with a chest injury and Chad Simpson struggling with an ankle injury.

From: Indy Star

Colts Safety Bob Sanders has been added to the list of Indianapolis Colts who will be held out of Sunday’s regular-season finale against the Tennessee Titans in Lucas Oil Stadium. The team’s starting strong safety played in the Dec. 18 win at Jacksonville, but has been dealing with occasional swelling in his right knee. While that’s not an issue at this point, coach Tony Dungy said the team won’t risk it becoming one as the playoffs near. “He came through (the Jacksonville game) well, so that was a good sign,” Dungy said. “Being able to have another week and not have to play him is good for us.” Sanders, the 2007 Defensive Player of the Year, has missed nine games this season with ankle and knee issues.

From: NFL Network

Every December for the past half-dozen years or so, Colts coach Tony Dungy has contemplated retiring and once the season ended, he took some time off and, ultimately, decided to return. Now, Dungy has the same thought process. If the season were to end today, he likely would walk away from the game but the season might not end for a while for Indianapolis which clinched the No. 5 seed with Thursday night’s 31-24 victory over Jacksonville and Dungy knows a big decision awaits.

“I really enjoy coaching,” Dungy said. “I love our team. This year has been a challenge and been so much fun. We’ve got great guys to coach. I have some other things that eventually I’m going to want to do. I’m enjoying being away from the game more and more. My wife and I will sit down at the end of the year after it’s all over and assess everything, where we’re going and make a decision. Fortunately, I don’t have to make it quick and I’m going to take that time.”

From: Tribune.com

Colts head coach Tony Dungy is still mulling over how much playing time his starters and key personnel will see against the Tennessee Titans in the regular-season finale. With an 11-4 record, Indianapolis will take an eight-game winning streak and the No. 5 seed in the AFC playoffs into next week’s matchup with the Titans.

“I don’t know exactly yet, but I don’t think we’ll scale back too much [in practice next week]. The one thing we will do is we’ll protect the guys that are a little bit banged up. So the guys that are iffy [injury-wise] probably won’t play. But we definitely want to win [the Titans game],” he said. “We’d like to get to 12 [victories]. We’d like to not have our division teams think they can beat us. In that regard, it will be a big game. So we’ll see how it goes as the week progresses. But we’d like to play to win and get ourselves ready for the following week [wild-card weekend].”

From: scouts.com

When the Indianapolis Colts take on division rival Tennessee Titans on Sunday, they are expected to do so without veteran RB Dominic Rhodes (shoulder). Rhodes, who was injured during last week’s victory over the Jacksonville Jaguars, and several other key players will probably be held out of the game since the team’s seeding for the AFC playoffs is secured.