Raiders Set to Challenge Payton

Right there – in a nutshell – is the game.  It’s the Raiders against Payton Manning.  It’s not about the Indianapolis Colts.  It’s not that you worry the Colt’s will beat you.  It’s what Payton Manning will do against your team.

The Colts go the way of Manning.  If he has a great game, the Colts are uplifted, and they can be a dangerous team. 

Manning has two wins in a row (Tennessee, and Jacksonville), and in those two games he has thrown 4 touchdowns with 548 yards, and most importantly, had no interceptions.  Prior to those two games, Manning had three losses, and it’s easy to point to the fact that he threw 10 interceptions in those games as being the central reason for those losses.

Manning is always dangerous.  In two of the three losses the Colts scored 28 and 35 points.  The only game they were held to under 20 points in that streak was 17 points against San Diego.

There really is only one way to stop Payton Manning, and that is get in his face and harass him all day long. 

But that’s not so easy.

Manning is well known for his play calling at the line of scrimmage.  He waits to see what the defense is giving him, and has been known to call three plays at the line base on what adjustments he sees the defense make. 

In the end, what matters will be the Raiders beating the Colts offensive line to make Manning’s day a bad one, no matter what he does.

Keeping Manning off the field is helpful, but not a certain method to defeat the Colts.  Ask the Miami Dolphins about that. 

Last September the Dolphins kept the ball for 45 minutes against the Colts.  They had 15 first downs out of 21 chances, and ran the ball for 239 yards.   Manning had only 35 plays to work with against 85 for the Dolphins, but . . . that was all he needed.  Manning engineered a drive with 3:50 left in the game, and down 20-24.  Well, I guess you’d call it a drive.  It took him 32 seconds to score the winning touchdown.

The Raiders ought to be able to run the ball against the leagues 28th ranked defense against the run.   Indianapolis ranks 11th against the pass, but the Raiders managed to dominate the NFL’s number one ranked San Diego’s pass defense.

The result the Raiders had against San Diego is what should give all Raiders fans hope, because just a few weeks ago, the Chargers held the Colts to 17 points, while putting up 36 points against their defense.

Stick to the formula – rush and pressure Manning on defense, and run over the Colts defense –a good day from our defensive backs - and I think the Raiders pull of this win in the Oakland Coliseum tomorrow.

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Photo Credits:
All photos from the Raiders website