Dein erstes Forum » INDIANAPOLIS — Jason Garrett and Frank Reich

understand the high stakes of Sunday’s game.If Dallas wins Adam Vinatieri Jersey , it clinches the NFC East. If Indianapolis wins, it stays in the hunt for the AFC’s final playoff spot and possibly even a division crown.The two coaches and their players will get one more precious late-season chance to see how they stack up against another postseason contender.“Most people call this the dash for cash,” Colts tight end Eric Ebron said. “So you just try to win.”Few teams have done more winning lately than the Colts (7-6) and Cowboys (8-5).Rather than folding after starting 1-5, Andrew Luck and Co. turned things around with six wins in seven games and tying Baltimore, Miami and Tennessee for the No. 6 seed in the AFC playoff chase.Luck’s comeback has happened during perhaps the best season of his career. He has 34 touchdown passes — second in the league and six short of his career high — and a career-best completion rate of 67.7 percent. He is 241 yards away from the fourth 4,000-yard season of his career.This time, Luck also is working with an improved defense that has allowed 17.1 points per game over the past seven weeks and ranks among the league’s top third in sacks and negative plays. The combination has upped the ante for Indy’s opponents.“They attack you a lot of different ways,” Garrett said. “It’s aggressive, it’s attacking and it’s a balanced offense. You have to be ready for a lot of different things.”Dallas also made a dramatic midseason turn. After starting 3-5, the Cowboys made a deal for receiver Amari Cooper and everything suddenly changed.Running back Ezekiel Elliott has charged back into the NFL rushing lead and quarterback Dak Prescott started making more potent plays. Dallas’ defense has climbed to No. 4 in yards allowed.People around town believe the Cowboys could win their first divisional-round game since the 1995 playoffs — if they make it.“It will be a great challenge. It’s going to take every person over there, but I think defenses like that challenge,” Reich said when asked about slowing down Elliott. “I know our defense will like that challenge. It’s not going to be easy, they are going to get some runs. If Zeke has 95 yards, that might be considered a win.”TACKLING STARSWhile much of the focus this weekend will be on high-profile offensive stars such as Luck and Prescott, rookie linebackers Darius Leonard and Leighton Vander Esch will play big roles Marvin Harrison Color Rush Jersey , too.The league’s official stats show Leonard leading the league with 135 tackles despite missing one game with an injury. Vander Esch has played well, too. The Cowboys credit him with 136 tackles, tied for the franchise’s rookie record, while league stats show him with 108 — tied for No. 6 overall and second among rookies to Leonard.LINE DANCEWhile Colts starting center Ryan Kelly could return after missing three straight games with a sprained medial collateral ligament in his left knee, Cowboys right guard Zack Martin will miss a game for the first time in his career in what would’ve been his first trip to his hometown.Martin, a four-time Pro Bowler and 2014 All-Pro, sprained the MCL in his left knee during the preseason and left both games against defending Super Bowl champion Philadelphia after aggravating the injury. He returned to the first Philadelphia game, but didn’t come back in last week’s victory.Kelly, meanwhile, was limited in practice Wednesday. He said he hopes to play through the pain with a brace. Before he was injured, the Colts allowed one sack in six games. Indy has given up six sacks in the three games he missed.REJOINING THE YOUNGSTERS?Cowboys linebacker Sean Lee practiced this week for the first time since leaving a game Nov. 5 against Tennessee with his second hamstring injury this season.He could rejoin the linebacker rotation Sunday. If he does, the focus will be on how it works.Vander Esch and Lee play the same position and 23-year-old Jaylon Smith, a former Notre Dame star, also played well this season. The two youngsters have embraced playing big roles while Lee, a 2014 All-Pro choice https://www.coltsfanshop.com/Tarell-Basham-Jersey , was on the mend.FANCY FEETEight Colts players will wear special cleats this weekend to promote various charities.Luck will wear shoes bearing Indianapolis’ renowned Riley Hospital for Children, which he has worked with since being drafted No. 1 overall in 2012.Three players — Leonard, linebacker Anthony Walker and safety Mathias Farley — are using their cleats to draw attention to the Edwin Jackson 53 Foundation. Jackson, a Colts linebacker, was killed in a traffic accident in February.100<button class="view-gallery">View Gallery</button> Gallery:View from the sidelines: NFL cheerleaders 2018Raj Mehta-USA TODAY Sports | Raj Mehta INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Indianapolis Colts coach Frank Reich leaves nothing to chance.He and his staff spend hours meticulously poring through game tapes, crunching numbers and plotting strategy each week. There’s a meeting every Friday with the team’s two analytics experts where everything from over-under projections to weather conditions come into play.Together, they try to plot out every conceivable game situation in hopes of simplifying the split-second decisions Reich makes each weekend.“They factor what’s the expected point total of the game, what’s the output of the other offense,” Reich said, explaining some variables used to create the charts. “It’s like there is a sliding scale and those things are adjusted. Really, they are quite sophisticated, quite complex and run off of literally millions of iterations.”Reich isn’t the only NFL coach to use analytics, but he might rely more heavily on the projections than other coaches — regardless of the results.Three times last weekend the Colts (6-6) found themselves facing fourth downs in field-goal position with Adam Vinatieri, the league’s career scoring leader, ready to kick. Three times Tyquan Lewis Jersey , the charts indicated Reich should go for it. And all three times, Indy came up short.The resulting 6-0 loss at Jacksonville ended the Colts’ five-game winning streak, complicated their path to the playoffs, and dealt Andrew Luck his first shutout as a pro.Reich had been here before, though.On Sept. 30, he also opted to go for the win in overtime against Houston. A failed fourth-down attempt allowed the Texans (9-3) to kick the winning field goal as time expired — giving them their first victory in a nine-game winning streak they’ll put on the line in Sunday’s rematch.Houston can clinch the AFC South title with a win and a Tennessee loss.Indy (6-6), meanwhile, lost two more games before rebounding with a five-game winning streak that put it back in the playoff mix and had some outsiders openly questioning whether the Colts would have been better off playing it by the book and going for the tie in the first Houston game.But inside the locker room, there is no debate.“It told us he believes in his team, he was not going to allow us to lay down, and we would fight till the end,” rookie linebacker Darius Leonard said. “Yeah, we lost the game. But when he said we’re going for it, everybody on that bench was behind him.”Players embrace Reich’s aggressive philosophy in large part because they understand the rationale for his decisions, and they know the former NFL quarterback does his homework.He asks the analytics specialists not just to contemplate the Colts’ potential game-day situations but also to break down tape of every other NFL game and plot how the Colts would handle those decisions. Then Reich and Luck discuss the charts to assure everyone works from the same playbook.As a self-described nerd who runs his own book club Ryan Grant Color Rush Jersey , Luck understands what Reich’s philosophy is all about.“You play this game to win and he’s going to coach the game to win,” Luck said. “I think as players we obviously didn’t execute that one (against Houston), but I think that gave us a glimpse into how he coaches and his approach. We appreciate that. We want to go out there and win the game and he gives us a chance to do that.”Not everyone adheres to the charts quite like Reich.“I think you have to have a great feel for what’s going on in the game. How is that game going? How did the opponent decide to play you? Are they playing you in this type of defense or that type of defense or are they trying to attack your defense with these certain plays?” Texans coach Bill O’Brien said. “I think charts are great and they help you prepare, but at the end of the day, how is that particular game being played on game day is what’s most important.”Reich understands, even acknowledges, that sometimes coaches need to play a hunch or rely on their gut instinct. He’s done it, too.Even so, Reich believes there is power in numbers.“This is preparation, thought and detail that go into it. It’s not robotic” Reich said, citing his decision to punt on fourth-and-1 Sunday when the chart said to go for it. “What the analytics tell us is that historical coaching philosophy has been a little bit conservative and that there are reasons to consider being more aggressive. Then you have to have the maturity and wisdom to interpret the chart the way that you think is best for your team. That’s the art of it.”