And when he was finished with his 48 scripted throws, Luck answered requests for one more deep pass by showing off his arm strength. Check out this perfect bomb into the wind that traveled about 75 yards in the air, and was unfortunately dropped by his receiver at the goal line:

Don’t get me wrong, there’s no such thing as a sure thing in the draft, but I’m starting to understand what all the hype surrounding Luck is all about.

Was this the moment that changed Manning's career forever?

The two biggest stories in the NFL right now are Peyton Manning’s release from the Colts, and the bounty system run by Defensive Coordinator Gregg Williams while with the Saints and Redskins before them.  And now it seems that those two stories might intersect in a most interesting way, as former colts head coach Tony Dungy has suggested that Manning’s neck issues could be traced back to an injury sustained while facing a Williams-coached Redskins defense in 2006. And if that’s the case, Williams’ little bounty program will have made a far bigger impact across the league than anyone could have imagined.

On the play in question [VIDEO HERE and below], Manning was hit by Redskins defenders Andre Carter and Phillip Daniels in a high-low combo, with Daniels holding on to Peyton’s helmet all the way to the ground, thus twisting the QB’s neck and body into an extremely awkward position. Manning’s helmet eventually popped right off of his head, and he immediately showed signs of being injured, shaking his right arm ”as if trying to get the feeling back in it.” The Colts called a timeout and Manning was able to return on the next play without any immediate ill-effects, but many believe that this was the beginning of the nerve damage that led to four neck surgeries and his current free agent status.

“The guy wouldn’t let go of my head,” Manning said after the game of Daniels, who was fined $5,000 by the NFL for the hit. “I looked at my helmet to see if my head was in it.”

VIDEO OF MANNING’S INJURY AFTER THE JUMP

For his part, Phillips denies any intent to injure Manning on the play, and there havent yet been any reports of a specific bounty on the Colts quarterback for that particular game. But now that Williams’ pay-for-performance programs are being uncovered everywhere he’s coached around the NFL, one can’t help but wonder if there was a little extra motivation for the Redskins defense to take out the opposition’s star player.

And if it turns out anyone actually got paid to take out the league’s golden boy – in addition to the confirmed bounty placed on Brett Favre by the Saints, Roger Goodell is going to have a field day when he hands down punishment on Williams and anyone who was involved. This could get ugly.

Which uniform looks best on Petyon? (Image via Adam Schefter/Facebook.com)

So far, the story of the 2012 NFL off-season is Colts QB Peyton Manning, and where he’s going to play next season. The back-and-forth between Manning and Colts’ owner Jim Irsay has reached a near-comical level of he said-she said, with Irsay saying on Thursday that they’re currently in negotiations with the veteran quarterback. But the general consensus seems to be that Irsay is just posturing for the media, and that Pey-Pey has likely played his last down as a Colt.

Vegas released updated odds today on where Manning will play in 2012, which place the Dolphins as the favorite to land Peyton at 2.5-to-1, barely edging out “Does Not Play” (currently getting 3-1 odds), for those who believe Peyton’s neck injury could force him into early retirement. The Redskins are next in what seems like a perfect Dan Snyder move, followed by the Colts and Cardinals at 5-1, and Jets at 6-1.

My gut says Peyton will end up in either Washington or Arizona … what do you think?

SEE THE COMPLETE PEYTON MANNING ODDS AFTER THE JUMP

[Via R.J. Bell at Pregame.com]

UPDATED Peyton Manning odds
(next season’s team):

Dolphins: 17% ($100 wins $250)
Does not play: 15% ($100 wins $300)
Redskins: 13% ($100 wins $350)
Colts: 10% ($100 wins $500)
Cardinals: 10% ($100 wins $500)
Jets: 9% ($100 wins $600)
Seahawks: 5.5% ($100 wins $1,000)
Chiefs: 3% ($100 wins $1,800)
Texans: 3% ($100 wins $2,000)
Broncos: 2% ($100 wins $2,500)
49ers: 1.5% ($100 wins $4,000)
Titans: 1% ($100 wins $5,000)
Any Other Team: 10% ($100 wins $500)

Biggest adjustments from opening odds:
Cardinals from (25-1) down to (5-1)
Seattle from (unlisted) down to (10-1)
Chiefs from (50-1) down to (18-1)
Texans from (75-1) down to (20-1)

(special thanks to Cal-Neva sportsbook)

As you can see, the endzones are already painted, along with the SB logo … and it looks like they were in the middle of painting the Giants’ sideline when this shot was taken yesterday:

(Photo: Reddit.com/r/nfl via user fit413)

The best comment from the thread was easily this one by Redditor NightEmber79:

Lucas was such a good choice for the Superbowl. The field is in great shape. Hardly any football was played there this year.

Good night everybody! Try the veal.

(Via reddit.com/r/nfl)

Colts QB Dan Orlovsky led his team to their second straight win last night with a 19-16 victory over Houston, also giving Indy their second win for the entire season.

Orlovsky, who played with the Texans for the last two seasons, lost his first nine starts in the NFL in ugly fashion, but seems to have finally found his groove over these past two weeks. With his impressive game-winning two-minute drill last night, Orlovsky now has consecutive wins over division rival Titans and Texans, making him 2-2 for the month of December since taking the reigns from Curtis Painter in Week 14, and improving the Colts to 2-13 on the year.

And while winning is normally considered a good thing in sports, for Colts fans, Orlovsky ironically may be ruining their Christmas. These two wins hurt Indy’s chances at winning the “Suck for Luck” campaign, and getting the #1 overall draft pick for Stanford QB Andrew Luck … which is basically all Colts fans had been hoping for after such a miserable season.

Poor Orlovsky … the guy can’t win even when he’s winning.

UPDATE: The NFL has just confirmed that if the Colts do lose next week at Jacksonville, they will still be guaranteed the first pick in the draft. So, if they’re really that serious about picking Luck, and with the way he’s playing of late, Indy might want to consider benching Orlovsky next Sunday.

(Pic via Reddit.com/r/nfl)

It's a good thing we're not the betting type (Image via Reddit.com/r/nfl)

And so it was that bizarro NFL Week 15 ended the quest for both the perfect and winless seasons in 2011.

Packers lose, Colts win. Up is down, in is out, bad is good … except for the Saints crushing the Vikings, not much from the early round of games made sense today.

Let’s see if Tebow can restore some sense of normalcy by pulling out a miraculous win against the Patriots.

UPDATE: Nope. Not only couldn’t Denver summon the late-game magic today in their 41-23 loss, but “Tebow Time” actually came during the first quarter instead of the fourth, with the Broncos scoring on their first three possessions and New England forced to mount the comeback.

Bizarro Sunday remains fully intact.

(Photo: Yahoo.com)

Not only are these fans actively rooting for their team to tank the rest of the season to increase their chances at drafting Stanford QB Andrew Luck with the #1 pick, but they went so far as to purchase custom-made Colts jerseys with Luck’s name on it!

There’s so much that’s fundamentally wrong with this, I don’t even know where to begin.

Bowe is an early contender for catch of the year (AP Photo/AJ Mast via google.com)

Here are a couple of the most impressive plays from today’s early games, if not the early part of the season, with the Chiefs’ Dwayne Bowe and Giants’ Victor Cruz making a pair of impressive juggling grabs for touchdowns.

Watch this amazing 5-yard snag by Bowe with a defender draped all over him. Bowe had 128 yards and 2 TDs in the Chiefs 28-24 win over the Colts:

WATCH CRUZ’ CIRCUS CATCH AFTER THE JUMP

And just when you thought we had seen the best catch of the day, here comes Cruz’ 68-yard leaping, juggling, one-handed circus grab from Eli Manning in the Giants 36-25 loss to the Seahawks.  

Cruz, who has already been at the center of quite a few big plays in his young career, finished the day with 161 yards and 1 TD receiving, but also had a fumble and a costly tipped ball on the game-winning interception for Seattle.

Sunday confirmed Indy's worst fears. (Source: NBCSports.com)

Week 1 in the NFL is a lock to produce its share of over-the-top, knee-jerk reactions. Half the league’s fan base wakes up Monday morning feeling great about themselves — and life. The other half are looking around the house for sharp objects. The meaningless preseason has given way to real games, and losses can’t be shrugged off — for some teams, Sunday was a reality check. Here’s a look at yesterday’s biggest losers:

5t. Cleveland (27-17 to Cincinnati): Extremely disappointing for the Browns. Cleveland has won only ONE opener since 1999, despite hosting every one of those games. With their new pass-oriented attack run by Colt McCoy, the Browns looked poised to take a step up in the AFC North — instead, they’re 0-1 after dropping a stinker to Cincy, who many considered worst team in football.

5t. New York Giants (28-14 to Washington): Every other team in this division gets massive media hype, but Washington could end up surprising. They’re immediately dismissed because Rex Grossman‘s at quarterback, but the Shanahans love this kid, and he performed yesterday. For the (heavily banged-up) Giants, a loss that raises more questions about Eli Manning, but not earth-shattering. They played even in the first half and, more importantly, this is a team that does not give up.

4. Kansas City (41-7 to Buffalo): A nightmare opener for the Chiefs, who were as lifeless as they appeared during a tumultuous preseason. Last year’s 10-6 team looked hundreds of miles away.

3. Dallas (27-24 to New York Jets): The Cowboys ended this one in embarrassing fashion, but it was the loss of their starting three corners for most of the second half that allowed Mark Sanchez to find his receivers (including the tedious Plaxico Burress) and climb back in. It’s a bitter defeat for Dallas, but they looked fantastic defensively early on, and there’s reason for hope here. Jason Garrett is putting together a team that could (or should, at least) defeat anyone else on this list.

2. Pittsburgh (35-7 to Baltimore): Are the Steelers in trouble? Not yet. The team has climbed out of bigger holes than this. The team is aging, yes, but they are among the best-coached squads in the game. The Ravens wanted this one more — and it showed.

1. Indianapolis (34-7 to Houston): Nobody picked Indy to go anywhere without Peyton Manning, but Sunday’s trainwreck was clear confirmation that the Colts are in jeopardy without their all-everything quarterback. Granted, it’s going to take Kerry Collins time to learn the offense, but there was very little, if anything, to be hopeful about in this one.

(Photo: Reuters)

Anybody who spends any significant amount of time watching the NFL (or playing fantasy football for that matter) quickly comes to realize how big of an impact injuries can have on a team’s season. So much so that over the years, I’ve fallen firmly in the camp that injuries – and more importantly how back-ups perform in the inevitable case of injury to big-time players on both sides of the ball – are the single most important factor for a team’s success. Everything else can seemingly go out the window if the cornerstone of your offense goes down and nobody steps up to replace him. Add in the loss of leadership on the field, and there can be a domino effect that takes an irreparable toll on the entire team.

(Image: FootballOutsiders.com)

Well, the guys over at Football Outsiders put together an interesting statistical breakdown which might blow my theory right to hell. Or not. This table breaks down the total number of games lost by each team, and as you’ll see, this year’s playoff teams are all over the map. The most startling difference can be found in the NFC Championship opponents. The Packers came in second league-wide with 83 total games missed, while the Bears are tied for dead last with just 11. Meanwhile, the Steelers are middle-of-the-pack with 49, and the Jets got off relatively easy with 38 starter games missed.

In all, 4 of the 5 most injured teams, along with the three least injured teams made the playoffs this season. The remaining five playoff teams (Pats, Steelers, Ravens, Jets, Saints) are somewhere in the middle, and the Colts clearly got the worst of the injury bug this year. So what do we learn from this? Mainly it proves that a team can overcome injuries and still make a run at the post-season. It’s just a matter of having capable back-ups. At the same time, we can also see that some teams who weren’t necessarily expected to be contenders this season (Chiefs, Bears, etc.) benefited from staying healthy.

It should be noted that this breakdown isn’t statistically perfect. It only takes into account 22 starters on each team per game (11 offense, 11 defense), and most teams use more players than that regularly on each side of the ball. Also, it doesn’t take into account injuries to multiple starters at the same position (see the New Orleans Saints RBs). But perhaps most importantly, the table doesn’t assign any value to the importance of the player injured or the total number of games missed by that player. Losing someone like Sidney Rice, Ryan Grant or Ed Reed for much of the season is a far more significant injury than losing a 2-down linebacker for a few games here or there.

So, while this table may be interesting to look at, it doesn’t really give us the full picture. It would probably take a much deeper analysis than I’m capable of (hint hint, Football Outsiders math wizards) to show which teams really faced the most overall adversity due to injury.