Deutsche Marine » INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Frank Reich stuck with

his old-school philosophy even when the Indianapolis Colts were losing games in September and early October.The Indianapolis Colts’ first-year coach insisted that even in an increasingly pass-happy league a balanced offense would turn them into real AFC contenders.Over the past 11 weeks https://www.coltsfanshop.com/Kemoko-Turay-Jersey , the perfect one-two combination has landed plenty of scoring punches, propelling the Colts into an improbable divisional-round matchup at AFC West champion Kansas City.“To me, it’s imposing your will on the defense and what that is, is running when you want to run and throwing when you want to throw and being effective at it,” Reich said on a conference call Sunday. “Always use the boxer analogy, it’s not just throwing punches wildly, it’s landing punches.”Few teams have delivered more big blows since Indy’s 1-5 start.On Saturday, second-year running back Marlon Mack carried 24 times for a career-high 148 yards and one touchdown, leading the Colts (11-6) to a 21-7 victory at Houston. They hurt the league’s No. 3 run defense for a playoff franchise-record 200 yards, breaking the previous mark of 191 from their Super Bowl win over Chicago in February 2007.Mack also broke Zack Crockett’s single-game franchise playoff rushing record (147), set in 1995.And this week, Mack could again become the feature attraction against a defense that finished No. 27 against the run this season.If all this sounds eerily familiar to longtime Chiefs fans, it’s understandable given the previous results.Edgerrin James ran for 125 yards, the third-highest postseason total in franchise history, in a 38-31 victory at Kansas City in January 2004. Joseph Addai rushed for 122 of the Colts’ 188 yards, now the third-highest total in franchise history, in a 23-8 wild-card round victory over Kansas City. That win jump-started Indy’s title run following the 2006 season.“It’s December football into January Anthony Castonzo Jersey ,” tight end Eric Ebron said Saturday. “That’s what we’ve got to try to do. We pass it when we have to, but we’re going to try and dominate the run game and try to dominate the line of scrimmage. That’s the kind of football you have to play now.”Even if it deviates from Indy’s longtime image. With Peyton Manning and Andrew Luck behind center for most of the past two decades, the league-wide perception has largely been the Colts are a pass-first team.But Reich has spent this season trying to find balance, and after a rugged start the Colts have seen the benefits.With All-Pro guard Quenton Nelson, a rookie, solidifying the left side of the offensive line and the emergence of right tackle Braden Smith, another rookie, Indy has been able to run effectively across the field.And when Mack returned after missing four of the first five games because of a hamstring injury, the Colts hit their groove.Mack has run for 1,022 yards and 10 touchdowns in the past 11 games, topping the 100-yard mark five times and establishing career highs in four of those games including Saturday’s. He ran for 119 yards and a score in the Colts’ Week 17 playoff-clinching victory at Tennessee and is now the first Indy player since James in 2005, to run for a TD in five consecutive games.Not surprisingly, the Colts have gone 10-1 during that stretch, becoming the third team in league history to make the postseason after starting 1-5 and just the second to win a playoff game. The Chiefs also won a wild-card game in the 2015 season before losing at New England in the divisional round.If the Colts can follow the script once more this weekend, they would become the first 1-5 team to play for a conference championship — and there’s no doubt inside this locker room they can.“We know, and Frank has preached this, in any football game whether it’s playoff or not Ryan Kelly Color Rush Jersey , you need to control the line of scrimmage,” Luck said.“By no means was it perfect (Saturday), but man the positive run yards we got were great and we know that as an offense when we can do that, we can have a great balance. We can throw it a bunch. We can huddle up. We can go up tempo. We can slow down the tempo. We can run it.” FOXBOROUGH, Mass. (AP) — Tom Brady isn’t worried about the shortcomings that the Patriots’ offense has displayed so far this season — whether it’s turnovers or lack of downfield passing.His measuring stick for progress is much more simplistic.“It’s really not about those things to me. It’s about points,” Brady said after New England’s 38-24 victory over the Indianapolis Colts on Thursday night .It was the second straight game the Patriots have scored 38 points. It’s also the second consecutive week that it’s looked like Brady and the offense are turning a corner following a lackluster 1-2 start to the season that included a paltry 10-point effort in a loss to Detroit.“Ultimately we gotta score more points,” Brady said. “We scored 38, which is great. But we have more in us.”Buoyed by the return of receiver Julian Edelman from his four-game suspension for violating the NFL’s policy on performance enhancers, Brady looked like the reigning regular-season MVP for the first time this season.On a night in which he notched his 500th career regular-season touchdown pass, he spread the ball around to eight receivers and threw for a season-high 341 yards.He was spot-on from the start, completing his first nine passes on an opening drive that ended with a 1-yard TD pass to Cordarrelle Patterson. Brady didn’t complete more than two passes on an opening drive in any of the team’s first four games.And after an offseason that featured lots of player departures on the offensive side of the ball, Thursday’s victory also highlighted just how many weapons Brady still has at his disposal.Rookie running Sony Michel came up just two yards shy of his second straight 100-yard game. Tight end Rob Gronkowski broke out of a recent fog with six catches for 75 yards. And recent acquisition Josh Gordon notched his first touchdown — Brady’s 500th — showing off his ability as the big-play threat this offense has been missing.Edelman’s return might have simply been an extra cherry on top an already-decadent cake.“It was great. There’s some things that obviously we have to work on. But it was good to get out there and catch some rocks and go out there and make some plays and be with the fellas,” Edelman said. “I haven’t played football in like, 405 days or something like that. It was good to be out there with the crowd rocking. It was awesome. It was amazing. It’s great to be back.”DISAPPOINTING STARTWhile the Patriots are finding their footing, the Colts have lost three straight and slipped to 1-4.One of the recurring themes has been self-inflicted mistakes, particularly turnovers. Indianapolis had three more on Thursday.“We’re not going to win consistently until we learn how to get out of our own way,” Colts quarterback Andrew Luck said. “I think when we look at ourselves https://www.coltsfanshop.com/Margus-Hunt-Jersey , we’re going to have to learn how not to lose before we want to give ourselves a chance to win. And so, it’s frustrating, the stuff out there. We’re all frustrated but I don’t think anybody’s losing the belief.”INJURIES PILING UPLuck did his best to keep Indy in the game, even as injuries continue to pile up around him.Indianapolis entered the game with receiver T.Y. Hilton headlining a list of five starters that were sidelined. The Colts added four more key players to that list on Thursday.Linebacker Anthony Walker left in the first quarter with a concussion. Safety Clayton Geathers was initially evaluated for a concussion early in the second quarter, before clearing the protocol. But he remained out with a neck injury. Defensive tackle Margus Hunt (knee) and DT/DE Denico Autry (hamstring) also both had short nights.Coach Frank Reich said the injuries weren’t even discussed entering the game.“It’s the hand that is dealt you,” Reich said. “You can’t have penalties, turnovers, and drops against a good team, against any team, especially on the road. So, we just got to pick up the pieces and I still have a lot of confidence in our players.SLINGING IT AROUNDPerhaps because of all the injuries, Luck is having to carry a lot more of the offensive load for the Colts.Over the last two games, he has attempted 121 passes. According to Elias Sports Bureau that’s the second-most pass attempts in a two-game span in NFL history and the most ever in a five-day span. Philip Rivers holds the record with 123 pass attempts in Weeks 6 and 7 in 2015.MILESTONESColts K Adam Vinatieri missed a 38-yard field goal in first quarter. But it marked his 673rd attempt, passing Gary Anderson for second on the all-time list.Vinatieri made a 54-yarder in the second quarter on his 674th attempt. He now trails only Morten Andersen’s 709 career attempts.With his victory, Brady has now tied Vinatieri for most wins by player in NFL history (226).