And Then There’s Peyton… In an unperfect world….

The Indianapolis Colts lost their first game of the 2009 season in week 16 to the New York Jets…. In the 3rd quarter with about 7:36 left, Peyton Manning walked to the sideline and never returned to the game…. Not just him but a few other starters were also resting on the bench…. The whole theory was that if an injury happens to a starter, what will the team do?…. If Curtis Painter would have been in with the starting offense…. He would have succeeded better…. Manning wasn’t the only starter that was claimed to be pulled….
Now here comes the left wing….. I’ve always known Peyton Manning to crack under pressure…. At Tennessee when they played the Florida Gators for the SEC Championship… (Cough cough)….
Manning was certainly a bright spot in 1998 for the Colts, but he also threw a league high 28 interceptions and the team “reached” for a 3–13 record…. Then in 1999, the Colts started the season 2-2 without any consistency in a winning product….The Colts responded by winning 11 of their remaining 12 games, finishing 13–3 and the AFC East champions….. The 10 game turn around from the previous year set an NFL record…. The Colts lost to the Titans in the AFC playoffs….. Then losing to the Patriots in the AFC championship games in the new millenium…. Pressure is something Peyton doesn’t handle well…. He’s good, but big games shake him alittle…. The pressure of going undefeated can sometimes break you….
My opinion is that Peyton didn’t want to lose a tussle, or risk an injury, with a team that would not make the playoffs and struggling…. They didn’t care about injury in the first half…. So if one starter decided not to go back in…. You know you would have to pull the other starters…. What could head coach Caldwell do?