Manning, who threw four touchdown passes, had accumulated 259 of his 457 passing yards before throwing his first offering to future Hall of Fame receiver Marvin Harrison for a 5-yard gain with 5:19 remaining in the second quarter. That's because the Colts acknowledged that Bailey could neutralize Harrison, and Herndon would blanket Brandon Stokley.
With an arsenal second to none, Manning looked often to Reggie Wayne (10 catches, 221 yards, 2 touchdowns), who was being covered by rookie nickel back Roc Alexander, who played like he had rocks in his pockets. Tight end Dallas Clark (six catches, 112 yards) also was wide open over the middle.
Having mastered the Broncos (49 of 59 for 834 yards and nine touchdowns in the last two playoff games), it's on to the Ty Law-less Patriots secondary, trying again to exploit the mismatches and trying to find Wayne, Harrison, Stokley, Clark, Marcus Pollard, and Edgerrin James against guys such as Asante Samuel, Randall Gay, Earthwind Moreland, and Troy Brown.
There's nobody of Bailey's caliber, let alone Law's. The question is: Who will shut down Harrison?
There will and should be mismatches galore, but as we've found out over the past few seasons, Bill Belichick and Romeo Crennel seem to have ways to turn those mismatches in their favor. If that should happen to Manning Sunday in Foxborough, confiscate the game plan before Belichick does a Doug Mientkiewicz with it, because it's going right to Canton, Ohio.
"It's been no Ty Law since the Pittsburgh game, and they win every game," said Manning, who threw four interceptions (three courtesy of Law) last Jan. 18 in a 24-14 AFC Championship Game loss at Foxborough. "Ty is one of the top players in the NFL and of course he's missed, but as we all say, `Everybody else has to step up,' and they've been stepping up."
Manning, who ended up with a rather sick 145.7 quarterback rating, threw slants, bombs, dumps, quick outs, play-action, drop-back, roll-out, you name it. He threw a ball toward the sideline after a pump fake and Wayne hadn't even turned yet, but when he did the ball was right on his numbers.
