Reggie Wayne caught 111 passes during the regular season, but the Colts only saw fit to throw one ball his way on Saturday night against the Jets.
Such is life for wide receivers who find themselves lining up across from Darrelle Revis. The Jets cornerback was thrown on so rarely this season that he had no interceptions and no penalties called on him all season. While Wayne is surely aware of Revis’s abilities, he isn’t happy that the Colts allowed him to play such a small role in the last football game he’ll play for a good long while.
“It’s bull. It’s bull, man,” Wayne said. “I give everything I’ve got no matter what. Every day, I give it everything. And one ball, that’s all. I shouldn’t have even suited up. I should have watched the game like everybody else. I was irrelevant.”
It was a tough position for the Colts offense. Last year, under similar circumstances, Peyton Manning shredded the Jets defense by throwing to everyone other than Wayne. It seemed to be the right approach heading into Saturday’s game, as did the in-game adjustments Manning made when faced with a more conservative Jets defense than we are used to seeing. The pass wasn’t there for much of the night -- Manning threw a season-low 26 passes -- so Manning tried to do other things offensively. He did it well enough to put his team in position to win the game with a minute to play so it is hard to kill them for the offensive game plan.
That said, it’s still hard to comprehend how the Colts allowed Wayne to be such a non-factor in such a big game. Revis is great, no one disputes that, but so is Wayne. Sometimes you have to have a little faith that your great player can beat their great player.