Indianapolis Recorder, Indianapolis, Marion County, 10 January 2003 — Page 13

FRIDAY, JANUARY 10, 2003

THE INDIANAPOLIS RECORDER

PAGE B5

Dungy hopes Colts use playoff loss as motivation §pgh School Hoops

By MICHAEL MAROT AP Sports Writer

Tony Dungy doesn’t expect the Indianapolis Colts to forget what happened last Saturday at New York any time soon. He also prefers they don’t. The Colts coach is hoping his players use their 41-0 playoff loss to the Jets as the starting point for next season. “We’ve got to learn from it, grow from it and come back with a little more motivation next year,” Dungy said. That might not satisfy Colts fans. With a divisional round and championship round still to play before the Super Bowl, Dungy knows there will be plenty of fin-ger-pointing and the usual suspects are likely to be quarterback Peyton Manning, who is 0-3 in the playoffs, and Dungy, whose teams in Tampa Bay and Indianapolis have not advanced beyond the wild-card round since 1999. Manning said after Saturday’s loss he was “a wide-open target.” Dungy is likely to be criticized, again, for his laid-back, playerfriendly attitude. Both are ready to hear it, but Dungy doesn’t want the players to listen. “Well get a lot of suggestions, but what we need to do now is understand how far away we are,” he said. “It will be the same way for eveiy playoff loser, but you can’t allow outside forces to cloud your decisions.” LOOKING FOR PLAYMAKERS: Dungy liked what he saw out of rookie defensive end Dwight Freeney this season. Freeney had 13 sacks and nine forced fumbles, both team highs, and in the second half of the season demonstrated the ability to change games. Now Dungy wants to get a few more Freeneys on board. “I think we need to continue to increase our speed on offense and defense,” Dungy said. “We’ve got to get some big plays out of our defense.” Only five AFC teams produced fewer turnovers than the Colts -

Tony Dungy wonders what went wrong in the Jet's 41

0 shellacking of the Colts in the Wild

Card Round of the NFL Playoffs. the Jets, Denver, Houston, Cincinnati and Buffalo. Only Denver and Cincinnati had fewer interceptions than the Colts’ 10. For a defense that’s predicated on aggressiveness and turnovers, those numbers will not suffice, and it might indicate where the Colts will look for help in April’s draft. But Dungy also is hoping to see a different mind-set from his defensive players next year. “It becomes a mentality,” he said. “If you have the proper fundamentals and speed, and you’re playing the right way, you’re going to get turnovers. That’s the type of defense I’d like us to be.” REGAINING THE EDGE: Edgerrin James’ road to recovery was paved with inconsistency this season. After good outings in his first two games, James struggled. He produced only one more 100-yard

game, against Dallas in November, finished with a career-low 3.6 yards per carry and had 989 yards rushing, 11 short of a $1.5 million bonus. Some attributed it to James’ surgery to repair a torn anterior cruciate ligament. Others blamed James for not showing up for any ofthe team’s mini-camps, including a mandatory three-day camp in April. Dungy made it clear a couple of weeks ago that he expected James to be in Indianapolis for at least one of the team’s minicamps. When asked what he told James before he left town Sunday, Dungy declined to comment. But after Saturday’s nine-carry, 14-yard effort against the Jets, James said he would attend the team’s mandatory mini-camp and might be around for part of the team’s three-week summer school in late May or early June.

NOTABLE: The Colts had not been shut out in any of Manning’s previous 83 games until Saturday and had scored at least 10 points in 79 of those games. Manning’s quarterback rating of 31.2 on Saturday was a career-low. ... In seven seasons as a head coach, this year marked the first time that Dungy’s defense gave up more than 40 points twice in a season. Only twice before had a Dungy-led team given up 30 points twice in a season. Tampa Bay allowed 31 points twice in 1998 and allowed 30 and 35 points in 2000.... The Colts produced only two interceptions in their final 11 games, and had no interceptions in 10 of those games. ... When the Colts won four straight games heading into a Dec. 8 contest at Tennessee, the defense ranked No. 2 in the NFL. In their last five games, the Colts allowed 148 points and 365.6 yards per game.

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