Mariano Rivera Highlights

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10/11/11, "Colts can't close deal," Indy Star, Mike Chappell

• "In all but 1 game, they've entered 4th quarter close but failed to make key play"

"The NFL can be a complicated venture with zone blitzes, hot reads, defensive line stunts, checkdowns and other assorted X's and O's gobbledygook.

The plight of the Indianapolis Colts? Simple.

They lack a Mariano Rivera mentality. They can't close. Not a lick.

The Colts are saddled with their first 0-5 start since 1997 because of a maddening inability to adequately finish what they've started. The latest and most damning example: blowing 17-0 and 24-7 first-half leads and being

• trampled down the stretch by the Kansas City Chiefs 28-24 Sunday at Lucas Oil Stadium.

It was the Colts' fourth straight loss by eight points or fewer. That by a group that had been 55-19 since 2002 in regular-season games decided by eight points or fewer.

It doesn't take a Rhodes Scholar to detect a common thread.

"The reality is that's what's happened," Colts center Jeff Saturday said Monday afternoon. "You can cut it how you want, but we haven't finished....

"There's no secret to football," he said. "You have to make enough plays

• down the stretch."...

Former coach Tony Dungy stressed that games usually turn on a handful of plays. Coach Jim Caldwell subscribes to that theory.

• "The bottom line is who makes the plays
  

• at the end of the game that make the difference," he said."...

Labels: ' Indy Star, 'Colts lack a Mariano Rivera mentality, Chappell