It was much closer than anyone would have thought, but what game during the second half of this season hasn’t been like this?

Peyton Manning was without Marvin Harrison, and Joseph Addai couldn’t walk down a clear sidewalk last night. But Manning’s receiving corps showed up to play! Of course Reggie Wayne was making amazing catches while Anthony Gonzalez has emerged as one of the best rookies the league’s seen this year. And our defense made some blazing hits on the Raiders too…but that kind of stuff is old hat for Bob Sanders and Co., right? And how about big T.J. Rushing with the kickoff runback in the Q1, eh?

Now, not to strip LaMont Jordan or Dominic Rhodes of anything, but why on Earth did it take so long to put in Justin Fargas? I know those Cheifs, Broncos and Bolts fans probably know too well Fargas’ lethality, but the Colts only play the Raiders once every four years so I couldn’t care less about them until this game, but Fargas was impressive! But this brings up an interesting dilemma for the Raiders’ offseason that we should probably keep an eye on: With three quality RBs, who will the Raiders choose to keep? Jordan, Rhodes and Fargas are all great, but there’s only room for one superstar RB on each time (maybe two, if you ask Jacksonville or Minnesota). Anyway, I digress…

It was a quality win in Oakland and I hope our defense took some notes on just how easily our rush defense can be exploited. They plugged in the postseason last year; they can do it again!

Here are some stats of yesterday’s game:

I don’t think Colts President Bill Polian was exactly looking at names when he was signing Keith or Lawton, but honestly these two do seem to play like superheros when you need them to, and the city sure does love them. Not to mention Lawton has a Punisher tattoo which just seems to be fitting. You don’t see much of Lawton on the field but he is there punishing defenders and opening up wholes for Joe Addai. Not to mention his touchdown against the Jaguars to seal the deal. Kenton Keith on the other hand is often seen spelling Addai during the games, and had a great performance when Addai was out against Tampa, rushing for 121 yards and 2 touchdowns.

I know neither of these guys are going to become the typical go to guys, and I deffinately don’t see Lawton ever getting that Mike Alsott kind of role at fullback, but when you need someone to rely on, or if we continue to be plagued by injuries, we know that we have these Superhero type backups that will come through in the clutch for us.