Pro. Brandon Stokley

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Colts page on Brandon


Brandon News breaks

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This is from a Q&A with Colts president Bill Polian.

Q: How healthy are the Colts going to be by the time the playoffs get here? Will they get their starters back soon?

A: I certainly hope so. I hope they’ll be healed sooner rather than later. We’re hopeful that (wide receiver) Brandon Stokley will be ready to go by this weekend. That will be determined much later in the week with his neuropsychological test, but he’s feeling a lot better. He practiced last week and felt like he could have played had he been cleared by the docs. It will be up to the guys at Methodist Sports Medicine to sort that one out. We’re hopeful.

The source of the story

[Turbine]

5 catches and 2 TOUCHDOWNS

University of Louisiana players are tearing it up this year.

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Very good day for Stokley

7 catches for 95 yards and 2 touchdowns. He had the longest catch of the day with a 37 yarder.

Colts WR Brandon Stokley looks to avoid a tackle by Falcons Bryan Scott . (AP)

[NOCajun]

WAY TO GEAUX BRANDON!!!

[CajunCharlie]

It was a great day for some of our football heroes... Jake moved the Panthers down the field with 1+ minutes left for a winning field goal, Brandon had a super day with 2 TD's and 95 yds, and "Peanut" Tilman "stole" the game from Minn with an interception in the end zone.

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Local star helps take load off Manning’s shoulders

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Peyton Manning was finally playoff perfect.

The Denver Broncos were imperfect. And that’s being kind.

The result was a 41-10 rout by Indianapolis over Denver on Sunday that put to rest any questions about Manning’s ability to win a big game and sent the Colts (13-4) on to Kansas City for a second-round game with the Chiefs next Sunday.

Perfection?

The NFL’s co-MVP threw for touchdowns on each of the Colts’ first four possessions and finished 22-of-26 for 377 yards and five TDs, the third time in 17 games this season he had five or more TD tosses. That made Manning the first ever to do that.

Perfection?

When he left game in the fourth quarter Manning had a perfect passer rating of 158.3 for the second time this season.

“It was one of those days that everything seemed to go right,” said Manning, 1-3 in the postseason. “It’s good to get the monkey off my back, but we’ve got more work to do now.”

Added coach Tony Dungy: “It was really awesome to see from the sidelines.”

Manning might have had five TDs in the first half had time not run out and forced Mike Vanderjagt to kick a field goal. No problem: Manning threw his fifth on the first series of the second half.

Denver’s day was defined by one play: a 46-yard TD pass from Manning to Marvin Harrison late in the first period.

Harrison caught the ball at the Broncos 30 and fell to the turf. Three Broncos — Lenny Walls, Kelly Herndon and Al Wilson — surrounded him, but when no one touched him down, Harrison casually rolled over and started running for the end zone.

No whistle. Touchdown. And though that made it just 14-3 with three quarters left, the game was over. Denver coach Mike Shanahan laced into his brain-dead defenders on the sideline and Manning continued to find open receivers everywhere.

“They just assumed he was down,” Shanahan said. “You can’t assume anything in this game.”

On the first drive, Manning threw a 23-yard TD pass to Brandon Stokley. Manning also hit Stokley for an 87-yard TD just inside the 2-minute warning.

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The Associated Press
AP photo

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INDIANAPOLIS, Jan. 5 — Brandon Stokley's game is speed — raw and functional speed. He exhibited it in the Baltimore Ravens' Super Bowl victory three years ago when he snatched a 38-yard touchdown pass and swooshed past the Giants.

Last season, his fourth in Baltimore, Stokley was hobbled by an injured left foot that sidelined him for nearly half the season. Afterward, the Ravens decided it was time for a split. As an unrestricted free agent, Stokley talked with Carolina, St. Louis and Indianapolis.

When he came to visit the Colts, he was on crutches.

Imagine that — a speed guy hobbling around selling his services.

"That's a tough sell," Stokley said. "I was flattered any team still had interest in me. Indianapolis was different. They pursued me. In fact, as soon as my plane landed from my visit to St. Louis, Coach Tony Dungy called me and said they were going to wait for me to decide before they made any other major additions on offense. I was trying to sell them; that sold me."

Stokley signed with the Colts but missed all of their minicamps because of his foot injury. He practiced only five days in training camp and played in just the last two preseason games. He then labored through most of the first half of the season after injuring a hamstring and sustaining a concussion.

The Colts kept waiting. And by the end of the regular season, Stokley began to show them flashes of why the wait was worth it.

The big payoff came Sunday, when Stokley scored the game's first points on a 31-yard touchdown pass from Peyton Manning. In the second quarter, he added an 87-yard touchdown catch. Free from pain, healed in mind and spirit, Stokley surfaced as a big-game producer with a career-high 144 receiving yards in helping lead the Colts to their 41-10 playoff victory over Denver. Up next is Kansas City on Sunday.

Stokley, 5 feet 11 inches and 197 pounds, has become a key complement to Marvin Harrison, the Colts' marvelous receiver. But if Stokley, 27, can maintain his current drive, he will become much more than a complement.

"When you have an offense with the line we have, with the quarterback in Peyton we have, with Edgerrin James at running back and Marvin at receiver and Reggie Wayne, too, and toss in all the other ingredients, it is an offense that allows for different guys to be able to make big plays," said Stokley, who was a fourth-round pick by Baltimore, the 105th over all, in the 1999 draft.

Manning knows Stokley's value.

"You add a guy like Brandon to what we already have," Manning said, "and what quarterback wouldn't love that? He's just getting started."

And the Colts have just begun to find ways to use him.

On his first touchdown catch against Denver, Stokley drew single coverage on an 18-yard crossing route, while Harrison was being double-covered on a post pattern across the opposite side of the field. Stokley sped inside his defender, made the catch and easily outran the rest of the Denver defense the final few yards.

On his long touchdown, the Colts ran comeback routes on the outside and Stokley ran a post pattern and split the Denver safeties.

"Peyton and I talked about it," Stokley said. "Their middle linebacker was not dropping back very far in pass coverage, and we felt we could hit it over his head and I could outrun the last defenders. It worked."

At the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Stokley averaged 100.5 receiving yards a game and routinely ran 40 yards in 4.35 seconds. Despite his recent injuries, he appears just as quick and fast.

He said he had been warmly accepted by his new teammates.

"We've got a camaraderie that all good teams have," Stokley said. "It's fun to come to work, and when it isn't, you don't win games.

"I would like to think that this is my permanent new home."

Having played in Baltimore with running back Priest Holmes, now with Kansas City, Stokley said he knew what to expect from Holmes and the Chiefs' offense. He said he and his teammates also knew what to expect leaving their dome and playing outdoors at Kansas City.

"It's a big challenge," Stokley said. "We need to execute and we'll be all right. Everyone saw that against Denver."

By THOMAS GEORGE

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Stokley picks right time to shine

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Wide receiver Brandon Stokley wants a second Super Bowl ring, and his play is starting to reflect that.

Stokley, who won a Super Bowl with the Baltimore Ravens three years ago, has emerged as one of Peyton Manning’s favorite targets in the last month. That has forced opponents to defend another weapon in the Indianapolis Colts’ already-potent offense.

“Nobody’s looking for me,” said Stokley, who remains the University of Louisiana’s career receiving leader (241-3,702-25).

Defenses typically focus on stopping receivers Marvin Harrison and Reggie Wayne, tight end Marcus Pollard and running back Edgerrin James.

Given Stokley’s performance in the Colts’ 41-10 victory over Denver on Sunday, the Kansas City Chiefs (13-3) might have to make some changes for Sunday’s second-round playoff game at Arrowhead Stadium.

He burned Denver’s secondary for 144 yards — the first 100-yard game of his career — and scored twice. One of the TDs came on an 87-yard reception, making it the longest pass play in the Colts’ postseason history.

The rest of the story

The Associated Press

[Turbine]

Lets Geaux Brandon after playing in only 3 of the Colts first 13 games, all that matters is playing in the last three games of the 2003-04 post season.

With the Ragin' Cajuns, Lady Cajuns, and Jake all winning. . . we need a Brandon win for a QUADRUPLE WEEKEND.

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For 13 games, Brandon Stokley was an afterthought. In the Indianapolis Colts' past four games, Stokley has been a revelation.
It wasn't a good start or a likely destination, but when the Colts play the Kansas City Chiefs today in an AFC semifinal, Stokley will command serious attention. On a team that features Marvin Harrison, Edgerrin James, Reggie Wayne and Marcus Pollard as primary targets, the former Ravens receiver has become another scintillating option in Peyton Manning's passing game.

All Stokley had to do was overcome a lingering foot injury, a shoulder ailment and a concussion. And, oh yes, win Manning's favor.

"This offense provides so many opportunities if you can just gain Peyton's trust," Stokley said last week. "And I'm taking advantage of them. You've got to step up and make plays."

For most of the season, he couldn't get onto the field because of physical problems. He played in just three of the team's first 13 games and totaled five catches for 44 yards.

In the past four games, he's had 21 catches for 311 yards (a 14.8 average catch) and five touchdowns. In last week's wild-card romp over the Denver Broncos, he had four receptions for 144 yards with touchdowns of 31 and 87 yards.

"What you have seen from Brandon is what you probably would have seen all season if he had been healthy," Manning said. "It has been frustrating for him and also for us, because we have wanted to get him out on the field and show everybody what he could do."

Stokley, 27, left the Ravens in free agency last offseason ("I wanted to stay. I loved that organization, but they didn't make a big push for me to stay."). He has a Super Bowl touchdown on his resume, and he'd like to go back for more.

"I tell these guys it's an unbelievable feeling [to play in the Super Bowl]," he said. "You've got to be there and feel it."

The source of the story

SunSpot.net
Ken Murray -- On the NFL

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Great TD catch by brandon to start the game