When New England running back Fred Taylor was with the Jacksonville Jaguars, he told me that Bob Sanders was the heart of the Indianapolis Colts defense, not the great pass rushers up front.
The Colts, then, are in need of a heart transplant.
Sanders was ruled out for the season Friday when it was revealed he would need surgery to repair a torn biceps tendon.
That's even tougher to take when you couple it with the loss of Marlin Jackson, the team's nickel corner, who suffered a torn ACL in practice Wednesday. The Colts will also be without starting corner Kelvin Hayden for another month because of injury.
But it's Sanders they will miss. When he's on the field, he's as good as any safety in the league. The problem is he's hurt way too much.
Maybe because he's missed so much time, the Colts will be OK without him. They have played well without him in the past.
And, oh by the way, as long as No. 18 is on the field, they'll be fine.
If the Colts beat the Houston Texans Sunday, the division race is over. Then it becomes about seeding and getting home playoff games.
It's in the playoffs that a loss of Sanders could show up. But even then, the Colts always seem to have capable bodies to fill in.
That's Bill Polian's style.
That guy named Manning helps cover all those deficiencies pretty well, too.
Subscribe to this blog
