Sometimes, losing can teach you more than winning. And that was certainly the case for Matt LaFleur back in 2008 when he watched Peyton Manning engineer a comeback against his team.
During a recent press conference, Matt LaFleur recalled a game back in 2008 when Peyton Manning led the Indianapolis Colts to a massive comeback against the Houston Texans, where he was coaching at the time. LaFleur admitted that the comeback taught him a pretty brutal lesson.
“I’ve had the experience as a coach going against him,” LaFleur said according to Pro Football Talk. “The lessons I’ve learned as a coach when you go against him you never forget. I told the team this: In 2008, I was with the Houston Texans, and we’re playing Indy, we’re up 17 late in the fourth quarter and we watch this guy bring his team back and beat us in a two-minute drive. They scored 21 points, basically, in about a five-minute span.
“It was a great lesson early in my coaching career that you’ve got to play until that clock says zero. I’ll never forget sitting in that press box when we’re up 27-10, thinking, ‘Oh my gosh, we’re going to beat the Indianapolis Colts’ only to see it evaporate quickly. It was a tough lesson to learn but it was one of those things we all have to go through.”
LaFleur was clearly able to learn from that experience and it seems to have helped him throughout his coaching career. But it probably didn’t feel good at the time.
