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2006 Colts Betting Preview

NFL News- August 1st,, 2006 3:00pm
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Vip.com - Colts Preview - August 01, 2006

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Sports Edge's profile of all 32 NFL teams continues today with the AFC South's Indianapolis Colts.

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VIP Odds

Indianapolis is 6:1 to win the Super Bowl, 10:3 to win the AFC Championship, and 1:4 to win the AFC South. Their Over / Under win total is 11.5.

Schedule

Indianapolis’ 2006 opponents had a record of 124-132 in 2005. That is the 5th easiest in the AFC. The Colts get their bye-week after Week 5.

The Colts’ schedule is harder than their cakewalk last year, but anytime you get Houston and Tennessee four times a year, it can never be that bad. The Colts do have to travel to New England, Denver, Jacksonville, Dallas and the NY Giants, but they should do no worse than 6-2 at home.

Sports Edge Analysis

Quarterback, Peyton Manning saw his yardage numbers decrease last year, but he still had the second highest quarterback rating of his career. That being said, Manning played a poor playoff game in their loss to Pittsburgh even though his numbers looked pretty good. Manning needs to play his best in the playoffs, something he has not done to date.

The big free agent loss for Indianapolis was Edgerrin James to Arizona. Joseph Addai was drafted in the first round to share the job with Dominic Rhodes, but neither back will cause opposing teams to respect the play-action-fake like James did.

Fortunately, Manning’s wideout core is still full of weapons and they should all get plenty of work this year. Receivers, Marvin Harrison, Reggie Wayne, and Brandon Stokley, plus tight end Dallas Clark, would make any quarterback drool. The one caution note is that Harrison is starting to get up there in age, and getting more injury prone each year.

The Colts’ offensive line should be very solid once again although they will miss having a runner like James in which they knew his every move.

Indianapolis was 4th in the AFC in yards allowed last year and first in points allowed. Coach Tony Dungy finally built the championship level defense he was looking for, unfortunately they didn’t perform that way in their playoff game against Pittsburgh.

The defensive line is led once again by pass rushers Dwight Freeney and Robert Mathis, but the Colts proved last year that they can be tough to run against as well. Defensive tackle, Larry Tripplett did depart for Buffalo, but he is replaceable.

The back seven lost only one starter as David Thornton went to Tennessee. Third year pro, Gilbert Gardner takes his place. The secondary looks strong once again with a lot of depth.

Prediction

What is lost somewhat in the Colts’ playoff collapse to Pittsburgh is that they finished 14-2 in the regular season and were 13-0 at one point. The addition of kicker Adam Vinatieri means that they don’t have to watch kicker Mike Vanderjagt cough it up at crucial times, but the Edgerrin James loss is being understated in the media.

The Colts have been so deadly on offense over the years because you could never play them to pass. If you did, then they would just hand the ball off to James and run at will. This is still a very good team, but they will fall back to earth a bit with an 11-5 record.

Click any of the following teams for their NFL 2006 Betting Previews

Posted by miker at August 1st, 2006 1:59 PM

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