Indianapolis Colts and the Super Bowl

The Super Bowl XLIV in Miami will be  played on a neutral field, but as in every Super Bowl there is  always one team that is designated the "home team" and the other one is designated as the "visitors."

Root Root Root for the Home Team

The Indianapolis Colts for Super Bowl XLIV will be the team wearing their White helmet with Blue jersey and White pants "home" blue uniforms. While the Saints will be in their "road" Gold helmet with white jersey and gold pants   So the Colts will wear their home blue uniforms, and the Saints will wear their road uniforms. The Saints will also get to call heads or tails on the coin toss. Other than that, it doesn't make much difference which team is considered home and which is away. For the Colts one has to to ask, maybe it does matter if the Colts are "home" or "away"? Looking back Indianapolis's record in previous Super Bowls when the Colts wore their "away" white jersey they are 2-0, having won Super Bowls XLI and V as the "road" team, but 0-1 in the blue jerseys, having lost Super Bowl III as the home team.

The Colts are also staying at the same hotel where they stayed the last time the Super Bowl was in South Florida, when they beat the Chicago Bears. Note there are 25 players who have Super Bowl experience.

The Colts Defense
Sunday, Jan. 24, 2010, in Indianapolis The Colts in the  AFC Championship game made it to the playoffs by beating the Jets  30-17. By game's end  it was the Colts' defense - previously known mostly for being small and quiet - that could do the talking (they held New York to 86 yards on 29 carries). They were that good while the game still was in doubt, and they were even better when the Jets had to resort to passing. (Shone Green).
"No one gives that defense much thought, because Peyton is always the headliner -- and for good reasons," said Boomer Esiason, a former All-Pro quarterback turned broadcaster. "But that defense is really, really good. They may be the fastest unit in the league. They seldom give up big plays, and they always keep the Colts in the game.

Shortly after Jim Caldwell was handed the coaching reins by the retiring Tony Dungy, he did something very un Dungy-like: He fired the assistants responsible for two glaring Colts problems -- the defensive coordinator and specials teams coach. 

 Larry Coyer of Tampa Bay was brought in  as defensive coordinator. And by the end of the season the Colts' defense still had the outstanding speed which has long been a trademark, but now it was tougher against the run and much less predictable in pass coverage.

Remarkably, they achieved that improvement even after losing Pro Bowl safety Bob Sanders for most of the season, and starting a rookie free agent, #25 Jerraud Powers, at corner when veteran Marlin Jackson was limited.




For the last four years #58 Gary Brackett has been the starting middle linebacker and defensive captain for the Indianapolis Colts. Brackett, a 5-11, 235-pounder signed as a free agent from Rutgers in 2003. He shares this Coyer  favorite sayings - "Don't be the dog that barks out loud. Be the dog that's quiet that bites you."

"When we get guys out there that fly around, we have performances like we did," said Freeney, who led the Colts with 13.5 sacks in the regular season, followed by Mathis with 9.5.