Peyton Manning did more than simply deliver one of the most memorable first-half performances in NFL playoff history yesterday during the Colts’ 49-24 drubbing of the Broncos. He put the lie to one of football’s most inane cliches – namely that “controlling the ball” and “establishing the run” are the keys to postseason success.

The Broncos foolishly set out to play ball control in order to “keep the ball out of Peyton Manning’s hands,” as head coach Mike Shanahan said in his pre-game conference. Broncos running back Tatum Bell had eight of his 12 carries in the first 23 minutes of the game, and he didn’t do badly, gaining 41 yards. It proved to be absolutely irrelevant.

The Colts “controlled” the ball all right; they controlled it straight into the Broncos’ end zone four times in their first five possessions. The last three of those scoring drives took up a mere 5:37 combined. When the final time of possession was displayed, Denver had held the ball for 1:24 longer than Indianapolis. Of course, the NFL’s antiquated way of tallying time of possession doesn’t tell you how long a team has the ball because the game clock stops on incomplete passes and out-of-bounds plays. In real time, the Colts probably had the ball for better than 60% of the game.

But it didn’t matter how long the Broncos had the ball; when they were done with it, Indianapolis got it right back and promptly threw it into the end zone. Nor did it matter where the Colts were on the field when they got it – when your passing game is hitting all cylinders like the Colts’ is now, there is no such thing as bad field position.

You could tell by Indianapolis’s second possession – an 87-yard drive highlighted by six Manning completions for 77 yards – that Denver, on a dry field, couldn’t keep up with the Colts. And after the Colts’ third possession (by which time they led 21-3) it was obvious that the Broncos’ defense had already checked out.

In the end, the Colts tallied a team playoff record 49 points while gaining only 62 yards rushing on 18 tries by Edgerrin James. The same held true for the weekend’s other contests: Passing accounted for 19 touchdowns in the four contests, while none of the great running backs – the Jets’ Curtis Martin, the Chargers’ LaDainian Tomlinson, the Rams’ Marshall Faulk, the Seahawks’ Shaun Alexander, or James – were much of a factor. So much for establishing the run.

How, then, can the Patriots hope to overcome the Colts’ offense next Sunday? Lousy weather on their home field should help, but the Pats will have to put a lot of points on the board because none of the options on defense are particularly attractive.

You’ll hear a lot of nonsense this week about how the Patriots need to assign double coverage to wide receiver Marvin Harrison, but that won’t work because Harrison isn’t even the Colts’ most dangerous receiver – Reggie Wayne is. Wayne has caught 87 passes to Harrison’s 90 his season, but he’s gained 288 more yards and has a considerably higher yards per catch average, 16.6 to 12.8.

So should Bill Belichick double cover both of them? If so, who’s going to cover Brandon Stokely? After all, he’s also caught 70 balls and has a higher yards per catch average than Harrison with 15.9. And if the Pats double cover all three, they’ll get burned down the middle by tight end Dallas Clark, who has a higher yards per catch average – 17.3 yards – than all three wideouts.

Nor can New England blitz the Colts; in fact, they hope opponents will blitz. The Indianapolis game plan is predicated on picking up the blitz and finding the open man. The Pats might get a really good pass rush from their front four; then again, nobody has managed to accomplish that against Indy so far this season. The Pats might put in extra linebackers, drop them deep into what they guess will be the principal passing lanes, and have them whack the receivers after the catch – they might get a couple of fumbles that way, which would negate a lot of passing yards. But that’s playing a dangerous game; linebackers aren’t as quick as wide receivers, and if they miss their hits, it’s off to the races.

Really, there’s nothing you can do to get the edge on the Manning and the Colts, except pray for the kind of weather that slows down a passing game; I’m betting that right now the New England Patriots are getting very religious.

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That the Rams will be playing football on the same weekend as the Colts and Patriots is absolutely appalling. The Rams don’t deserve to be in the playoffs – but then, the Seattle Seahawks, whom they beat on Saturday, didn’t’ deserve to be there, either. With 5:27 left to play from the Rams’ 5-yard line, fourth-and-4 four with the Seahawks down 27-20, quarterback Matt Hasselbeck started to run up the middle, realized he couldn’t make it, and tried to throw the ball into a sliding Bobby Engram in the end zone. Engram couldn’t hang on, and the Rams took over and went on to win.

Engram took the blame, but it wasn’t his fault. He could have caught the ball, but the pass was a bad one. Hasselbeck threw it low and side armed, so it was starting to rise when Ingram dived for it. It was also slightly behind him.

The real blame should go to neither Hasselbeck nor Engram, but to Mike Holmgren, the most overrated coach in the NFL. Holmgren, who came to Seattle so he could control player personnel in a way he couldn’t at Green Bay, went to the trouble to acquire the greatest clutch receiver in the history of pro football, then, with the playoff game on the line and the ball at the 5-yard line, forgot Jerry Rice was on the bench. There are a lot of good reasons to fire Holmgren, most notably his five consecutive playoff losses. But leaving Jerry Rice on the bench on fourth-and-5 is grounds for dismissal all by itself.