Saturday's Words Motivated Colts Throughout Championship-Game Victory
INDIANAPOLIS - Colts Head Coach Tony Dungy’s not one for fiery speeches, pre-game, halftime or otherwise.
But he knows a good speech when he hears it.
And on Saturday night, he heard one from Colts center Jeff Saturday.
Saturday, a two-time Pro Bowl selection and a leader of the Colts’ offense, spoke to the team late Saturday night. This was after the Colts’ final meeting of that, and it came after Dungy’s final words to the team.
“He said, 'This is our time,’’’ Dungy recalled. ‘‘ ‘We’ve got to make it happen.’’’
Saturday recalled it in detail after the Colts’ 38-34 victory in the AFC Championship Game Sunday night.
“I started by telling all the guys how much respect I had for each one and I believe in them,” Saturday said. “We all knew this was our opportunity. I kind of made a parallel to the move, ‘Miracle,’ with Herb Brooks and what he said. The thing I tried to emphasize the most is, ‘This is our time, this is our team. We just need to step up and make it happen.’
“Guys did it.”
Throughout the second half, as the Colts scratched and clawed their way back from a 21-3 first-half deficit and into their first Super Bowl in their 23-year history in Indianapolis, Dungy made sure Colts players didn’t forget those words.
That was particularly true early in the second quarter, Dungy said.
In a 53-second span, the Patriots scored two touchdowns to turn a 7-3 lead into a 21-3 deficit that appeared insurmountable to some.
It didn’t seem that way to Dungy.
To make sure the players believed that, too, he referred to Saturday’s speech.
“All I did at that time
was go up and down the sidelines and tell the guys, ‘It’s still our time – we got plenty of time left,’’’ Dungy said.
Dungy also relied on past history with the Patriots. In 2003, in the first game of the current Colts-Patriots rivalry, New England led 31-10 in the second half before a dramatic fourth-quarter rally by the Colts.
Indianapolis eventually tied the game, 31-31, and trailing 38-34 late, had a chance to win late in the game before running back Edgerrin James was stopped on 4th-and-goal from New England’s 1-yard line.
“We were in this situation the last time we played these guys here,” Dungy said. “They got way up on us and we had the ball at the end to win the game. I think we were down 21 in that game. I told the guys at halftime, ‘We’re going to have the ball with a chance to win in the fourth quarter. This time, we’re going to make it happen.’’’
Only 18 players remain from that team, but those that did remembered.
“Jeff Saturday talked and Tony talked and we just felt like this was our time. We’ve been through a lot. Guys have been through a lot from a personal standpoint off the field this year. When things started coming together at the end, we just said, ‘You know what? Things are going well. We’ve got the home game. This is our time to take advantage of this.’ We’ve got one more game.
“A lot of the veteran guys remembered we were in the exact same position in ‘03. The momentum shifted. We got some turnovers, got some stops and the offense got going.”
Said Dungy, “Our guys just fought. Nobody ever got to the point. We just wanted to fight. Even if we didn’t win it, they just wanted to fight all the way and that’s what this team is all about.”
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