INDIANAPOLIS -- The Colts felt like they took the high road this week, hearing what the Jets were saying and not responding.
On the podium near midfield, unenthusiastically holding the Lamar Hunt Trophy when what he really wants is the Lombardi, Peyton Manning said the Colts had just kept their mouths shut and gone to work.
Implication: The Jets yapped too much.
Others expanded once the locker room doors opened.
“They did a lot of talking,” safety Melvin Bullitt said, the bridge of his nose red and swollen. “It kind of bothered us throughout the whole week, but we were like, ‘Hey let's be quiet, be quiet’ -- the calm before the storm. When we unleashed, we let them know that we had the most physical team.
“We had the more physical defense, we had the more physical offense and we just wanted to go out there and play hard and play fast. We don’t do a lot of talking. We got out there and we play with our pads. That was the whole theme.”
The Colts defensive line did well overall against the run and the run support from players like Bullitt and Antoine Bethea produced some clobbering hits. Indy's pass rush was largely stymied, and there were no sacks of rookie quarterback Mark Sanchez.
Indianapolis saw some different looks from the Jets early as they got two quick sacks of Manning from David Harris. But once the Colts adjusted, they kept the quarterback upright and made enough room for Joseph Addai and Donald Brown that the Colts actually outrushed the Jets.
Overall it’s hard to argue with Bullitt’s assessment about physicality.
