As they say on Wall Street (and have been reminded expensively this autumn), past performance does not guarantee future results. Nor does it at the Crossroads of America, where the Colts, just two seasons removed from their Super Bowl victory, are off to their worst start (3-4) since 1998.
And Manning, whose career numbers (5,670 completions, 43,380 yards, 316 touchdowns) all but guarantee him a bust in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, is having the roughest stretch since his rookie campaign in 1998.
He's thrown only one more touchdown pass (10) than he has interceptions (9), and his quarterback rating (79.0) is only 22d in the NFL and 10th in the conference. If the first question here and elsewhere is, what's up with the Colts, the next one is, what's up with Manning?
"I'd say you'd have to say it's a slump, based on his numbers and his productivity," said coach Tony Dungy, whose squad faces a must-win game against the Patriots here Sunday night. "He's generally been 7-plus yards per attempt and a high number of touchdown passes. Usually, we score 28-30 points. We've generally scored more touchdowns than we've had punts. We haven't done that."
Reasons abound. Manning, who has started every regular-season game (a record 167 straight to start a career) since he took over for Jim Harbaugh, missed virtually all of training camp and the entire exhibition season after having two surgeries involving an infected bursa sac on his left knee. His banged-up offensive line has been through four combinations. And top running back Joseph Addai has missed the last two games with a hamstring injury.
The result has been a sputtering offense that has been misfiring at crucial times, as it did in Monday night's 31-21 loss at Tennessee. "I really can't give you a one-word or one-sentence summary, but we do need to play better," said Manning, who pointedly includes himself in the collective. "Our offense needs to find a way to score some more points. It just comes down to executing better and trying to be sound, with all 11 guys doing the right thing at the same time and not 10 guys on this play and nine guys on that play. That's what we need to get back to."
