INDIANAPOLIS — Give Josh McDaniels this. He is nothing if not innovative.

Convinced that trying to start fast against the Colts hadn't worked for anybody else, he brought a different strategy to Indy on Sunday:

Start slow.

I am not making this up.

"Everybody talks about, 'You've got to start fast and get ahead.' I don't really believe that because that hasn't worked for anybody all year," McDaniels said after the Colts overcame three Peyton Manning interceptions to improve to 13-0 and set an NFL record with their 22nd consecutive regular-season victory.

So, when the Broncos won the opening coin toss, McDaniels elected to kick off, deferring to the second half the Broncos' opportunity to take the ball.

"I wanted to maybe take a shot at scoring right before the half and then getting the ball back in the third quarter, and if you get a 10-, 14-point swing in that situation, you put yourself in a good spot and their offense hadn't played football if you could do that," he explained afterward.

Unfortunately, the Colts adopted the opposite strategy.

"We got off to a fast start like we wanted to," said their coach, Jim Caldwell.

"My points of emphasis were obviously to get off to a good start," Manning said.

In fact, the Broncos had run only three plays from scrimmage when the Colts went ahead 14-0, so both game plans were right on target.


"It was a huge way to start," said the Colts' Dallas Clark. "I think that really put them in a chase mode and got them out of their offense early."

McDaniels' pretzel logic was twisted beyond recognition when he got exactly the opportunity he wanted near the end of the first half. The Broncos had scored on their previous possession to cut the Colts' lead to 21-7.

Had they put together an effective two-minute drill resulting in a touchdown, they would have been back in it, down by a single score with another possession coming to start the third quarter. In other words, precisely the scenario McDaniels envisioned.

But instead of an aggressive two- minute drill with 1:41 showing, McDaniels called a running play, a screen pass, another running play and, on fourth-and-1, another running play. The third- and fourth- down runs were both stuffed, and the Broncos turned it over on downs. Why not run a two-minute drill in that situation?

"The first thing is, you don't give the ball back to him," McDaniels said, referring to Manning. "If you do, it's one of the silliest mistakes you make. So if you start by throwing two incomplete passes and give him two minutes on the clock, you've made an error."

So giving Manning the ball to start the game is clever and imaginative, but giving it to him about 90 minutes later is one of the silliest mistakes you make.

In fairness to McDaniels, he's not the first coach Manning has driven to distraction. His mentor, Bill Belichick, famously went for it on fourth down from his own 28 because he didn't want to give the ball back to Manning. When the Patriots failed to convert, he gave Manning the ball back with a short field and lost the game.

In McDaniels' case, the whole point of giving Manning the ball to start the game was to set up the scenario he got just before halftime. Then he decided not to make aggressive use of it because he was afraid of giving the ball to Manning.

Explaining his decision, McDan- iels mentioned he had won the toss and deferred previously this season "for the same reason." The only previous instance I recall was at Oakland, which was a radically different situation.

The Raiders featured the worst starting quarterback in the NFL at the time in JaMarcus Russell. Giving them the ball pretty much assured you better field position when you got it back than you would have had taking the opening kickoff.

Giving the ball to Peyton Manning is about as different a decision as it could possibly be. And it demonstrates how Manning can short- circuit the logic of even the most confident coaches.


McDaniels actually convinced himself that trying to start fast hadn't worked for other clubs, so he would go a different direction. Now we know how that worked.

McDaniels said afterward he wouldn't change the decision. The loss, of course, was all about poor execution, too many mistakes, by the players.

But the truth is their coach didn't help them. On a day when Manning threw three picks, the Broncos made it easy for him. They beat themselves.

Dave Krieger: 303-954-5297 or or

Manning was missing

After jumping out to a 21-0 lead midway through the second quarter, through their first possession of the fourth Sunday, Colts QB Peyton Manning all but disappeared against Denver, going 3-for-15 for 21 yards and three interceptions. A lookat those possessions:


Start Cm Att Yds Result

IND 19 1 3 6 Punt
IND 46 1 2 4 Int.


IND 19 0 2 0 Punt
IND 11 1 2 11 Int.
IND 14 0 2 0 Punt
IND 32 0 1 0 Int.


IND 20 0 3 0 Punt