Indianapolis Colts Still Favored To Win Super Bowl... In 2011

NFL News - February 12th, 2010 - Written by John

In 2011The Indianapolis Colts started 13-0 for the second time in Peyton Manning's career, earned the top seed and won the AFC playoffs in 2009. But the season will ultimately be remembered for a surprisingly inefficient fourth quarter in the Super Bowl in which they were outscored 15-0 by the New Orleans Saints, and Manning threw a clinching interception that gave the Saints their first championship. And although no Super Bowl-losing team has ever turned around and won it the next year, Indianapolis have the best odds to win the whole thing next year. Bodog has the Colts as a 13/2 favorite to win their third championship, according to NFL Betting Lines.

When talking Indianapolis, always start with Manning, who became the first NFLer to win the MVP trophy four times in '09. He won every game he completed last season and threw for 4,5000 yards and 33 touchdowns. He started the year with a bunch of unknowns on offense, but ended it by making stars out of Pierre Garcon and Austin Collie. The youngsters combined for 1,441 yards and 11 scores in their first full seasons of action, and Garcon went on to win the AFC Championship MVP.

They will both be back in 2010, along with Anthony Gonzalez, who was originally the second starter until suffering a season-ending knee injury in the opener. He's averaged just over 500 yards per game since being drafted in 2007.

Reggie Wayne returns as the NFL's fifth-leading receiver, tied with Randy Moss with 1,264 yards and 10 touchdowns. He was third in the league with 20 receptions of 20 yards or more and had five games with at least 125 yards.

Indianapolis will hopefully return to full health on defense after being forced into a makeshift secondary for most of 2009. Bob Sanders and Marlin Jackson missed most of the year, but will hopefully be completely healthy this year.

Defensive end Dwight Freeney led the team with 13 1/2 sacks, but suffered an intrusive ankle injury before the Super Bowl.