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Andrew Luck finally managed to win two games in a row for the Colts as he guided a brilliant come-from-behind effort by Indianapolis on the road. Things couldn’t had been better for the rookie quarterback that at 4-3 for the season, already has got more wins than his predecessor, Peyton Manning, in his rookie year where he pretty much got chalked all season long. The Colts have had a very emotional year since their head coach, Chuck Pagano, was diagnosed with Lukemia and had to take a leave of absence to undergo surgery and radiation therapy. Still, under the leadership of interim coach Bruce Arians, this young squad has managed to prove themselves once again. Sure they lack experience; sure they are coming back from their worst season ever, and a huge change in their paradigm, since letting go of Manning. But Luck has come in to fill the void and so far, he has done quite a job.

Luck finished off the night with 26 of 38 passing for 297 yards with 1 touchdown and 1 interception. He connected with the acrobatic Vick Ballard on a 16-yard pass in overtime with 4:49 left in overtime to close the deal and give Indianapolis a 19-13 win over the Tennessee Titans. Ballard finished off the drive taking a screen pass while running towards the left end of the field. The Titans’ defenders managed to get the rookie’s feet knocked out from underneath him in an attempt to get him out of bounds. Ballard responded with a fascinating and acrobatic twist in the air. He crossed the goal line upside down with his head hitting the pylon for the winning TD. After the review, officials opted to stick with the initial call and ruled it a score.

None of this would had been possible had Andrew Luck not completed two brilliant 80-yard touchdown drives. On the first one ha managed to set up Delone Carter’s 1-yard TD run that tied it at 13 a piece with 3:24 left in the fourth quarter. On his second drive the No.1 overall pick in the draft managed to set up the play with Ballard that would give them the win. “Andrew, I thought, was fantastic,” Colts interim coach Bruce Arians said in the postgame press conference.

Matt Hasselbeck, the Titans quarterback, guided his team with 22 of 29 passing for 236 yards and one touchdown pass with no interceptions. After the game you could really tell that he was very disappointed in how things had worked out. Truth is that the Titans looked as if they were going to have a chance to close the deal. “It’s a huge play and huge time of the game,” the Titans head coach Mike Munchak said. “You wish it had gone the other way where you let the play go, and they can decide if the guy is down by contact. When you rule forward progress, then you can’t review the play.”  After all Hasselbeck had managed to get the Titans back in contention, but Tennessee opted to punt with 56 seconds left rather than let Rob Bironas, who beat the Colts with a 60-yarder on this field in 2006, try a 58-yard field goal with a stiff wind at his back. This was by no means Muchak’s finest coaching moment.

It is still uncertain what the future holds for Peyton Manning, but one thing is for sure, there are plenty of NFL teams out there willing to do whatever it takes to bring him on their squad. The Manning tour has had stops at Denver Broncos, Arizona Cardinals and the Miami Dolphins, and although he has yet to choose where he might finish his career, he has not eliminated any of the previous team with which he has already met. So far, the meeting with the Titans seems to have been the longest yet, and the organization as a whole is really keeping their hopes high that they could land the phenomenal quarterback. Titans coach Mike Munchak, general manager Ruston Webster and chief operating officer Mike Reinfeldt landed Wednesday afternoon at Nashville International Airport to pick up Manning and get going with the negotiations.

Several team officials apparently meet with Peyton Manning during the course of the meeting including the team’s chief doctor Burton Elrod, who spent about and hour and a half inside the team’s facility. This is all based on conjectures and well informed guesses, as the parties involved have been very zealous and secretive about the details of the negotiation. The offensive line coach, Bruce Matthews was also seen leaving the premises little after the doctor left the building. Even the Tennessee Governor, Bill Haslam, took a little time apart to call Peyton Manning and welcome him back to the city. In total, it seems that Manning spent over six and a half hours inside the team’s main offices and when he came out, some 50 fans were still gathered outside showing their support for the quarterback.

There was no real official comments made by the organization, but the team owner Bud Adams said he thinks Manning was very pleased with what he saw from the Titans. “He’s going to make his mind up fairly soon; hopefully, we’d be in the running,” he said. On a previous press conference, he had been recorded saying that he was willing to do whatever it takes to get Peyton Manning in a Tennessee Titans uniforms and considering the room he has in the salary cap, one could assume that the Titans could, in the long run, be a fairly good option for Manning. Adams went on to offer Manning a deal for life. He was careful enough to make sure that Manning understood that he would have his professional career secured if he opted to stay with the Titans. That is, not only as a player, but if in the future, once he retires, he wishes to stay active as a coach, or a consultant, or even a management position, that he would have a spot with the team.

According to one report we had access to, Some teams that have reviewed his medical records and observed extensive video of recent throwing sessions appear. Considering how often he has been reaches out by the hiring staff, it seems that the teams are satisfied with his physical status, both in neck stability and arm strength. It seems as if the teams are not going to require Peyton Manning to work out. However, Manning has no hesitation about putting his throwing skills on display for the teams he considers to be a serious option.

This was a bad weekend for streaks in general. On the one side, the Green Bay Packers snapped their 19-game-winning-streak when they fell unexpectedly to the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday. The same happened with the 13-game losing streak that the Indianapolis Colts had been recording ever since they franchise quarterback, Peyton Manning, underwent surgery in the preseason. The Indianapolis Colts have proved that, despite the popular belief, they can actually pull a win without Peyton Manning when they managed to defeat a lessened Tennessee Titans 13-27. So there you have it: it took the Indianapolis Colts only 14 games and three quarters to figure out a way to win with a quarterback other then Manning, who had been with the team for over 14 years.

Perhaps the most interesting side of the story lies behind the quarterback. Not Manning, that’s for sure. He’s been throwing passes to his teammates but we all know he isn’t coming back as a starter anytime soon. Not Matt Hasselbeck, who despite having a chance to secure the Titans a spot in the playoffs had an awful game against the up to then winless Colts. No, the good story lies behind one Dan Orlovski, a quarterback that was going to put the extra effort to secure that the Colts didn’t get their first ever 0-16 season. Orlovski was a starting quarterback for the infamous 0-16 Detroit Lions of 2008, so he certainly had much more at stake here then just soothing the Indianapolis Colts sore egos. He was pushing for a win for himself.

It’s been over 50 weeks, that is, 350 days since the last time the New England Patriots won a single game. But that wait is nothing compared to that of Orlovski. The seven-year NFL veteran was 0-9 in his previous NFL starts. So it doesn’t come as much of a surprise that when the celebration came in for the Colts, it was all about Orlovski and his quest to a win. On the press conference, Orlovski, who didn’t really had an amazing game, just good enough for a win, was quite humble in his opinions about the Colts first win of the season. “I think in my career, I’ve learned not to take them (wins) for granted.” Perhaps that’s exactly what the Indianapolis Colts management did: give all the Peyton Manning wins over his career for granted and not come up with a plan for when he was going to be out.

This is a very significant loss for the Tennessee Titans. At 7-7 for the season, the Titans could have managed to make it into the playoffs by their own merits if they had managed to win their three final games of the season. Even thought their playoffs chances are still alive, they are now going to depend on whether their rivals win or lose the next two games in order to clinch a playoffs berth. But there’s no one other than the Titans to blame for the loss. Consider for starters that Matt Hasselbeck completed only 27 of his 40 passes for the game for 223 yards with no touchdowns and two interceptions. That’s just not going to cut it. Not even against the Peyton Manning-less Indianapolis Colts.

Thursday night, Peyton Manning went back to been Peyton Manning as he guided the Indianapolis Colts with a 319 yards and 2 touchdown performance in the team’s 30-28 win against the Tennessee Titans. The Titans’ D had to deal with vintage-like Manning as he was brilliant completing 25 of 35 passes to match Dan Marino’s record as he also hit his 63rd 300-yard-game. At 7-6, the Colts’ hopes of making into the playoffs are still alive.

It has been a while since the Indianapolis Colts head coach, Jim Caldwell, walked out of the field with a grim smile on his face. The Colts, the almighty Indianapolis Colts had been struggling significantly during their last three games. First came their visit to the New England Patriots where Tom Brady and Co. brought in their A-game and defeated the Colts by 31-28. Then the Colts went back to Lucas Oil Stadium and faced the San Diego Chargers which whooped them on their own field by 36-14, and as if that wasn’t enough, on the following week, they hosted the Dallas Cowboys who took them to overtime on the Cowboys 38-35 win. Suddenly, the Colts where seriously jeopardizing their chances of making it into the NFL Playoffs.

At 6-6, right before their game against their Thursday game against the Tennessee Titans, the Colts where in a serious need to turn this game into a winner and finally but an end to a 3 game slump. Who’s to blame? Well, it get’s tricky. An easy answer would be to take a look at the Colts Quarterback. Peyton Manning had a series of under-par performances that where critically affecting the Colts’ chances of winning games.

Against New England, Peyton Manning recorded 38 of 52 for 396 yards and 4 touchdowns. It could have been a brilliant game, had he not been picked 3 times during the game. Those 3 interceptions finally gave the win to the Pats. On the following game, playing at home, one would have guessed that Manning was going to bring on his A-game but against San Diego, Manning completed 31 of 48 for 285 yards, connecting two touchdowns but suffering 4 interceptions. There’s no way you can suffer 4 interceptions in an NFL game and somehow managed to win it. Then came the Dallas Cowboys. He completed 36 of 48 passes for a very decent 365 yards and two touchdown passes. And yet againt, the Cowboys defense was capable of picking up 4 of Manning’s passes.

So just in case you where not following the math, up to last Thursday game, Peyton Manning had thrown 11 interceptions in his last 3 games. That’s almost 4 times the number of picks he had for the entire season. Now, if Manning wanted to make a comeback and guide his team into a winning game, it had to be the Titans.

For the Titans, Kerry Collins completed 28 of 39 for 244 yards 3 touchdowns and no interceptions. The Titans managed to rally back into the game, but time ran out before they could seriously affect the Colt’s win. The Titans have now recorded their 6th consecutive lost. Things are not looking great for the Titans this season. Offense, Defense, Special Teams… it doesn’t make much of a difference, things are not running smooth in Tennessee.