| Anthony Holds. 20th October, 2008 - 1:36 pm
 If the Indianapolis Colts are going to the playoffs this year, it may have to be as a wild card team – something that hasn’t happened to them since the 2002 season. Of course, if they play many more games like they did Sunday against the Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field, they won’t need to worry about the playoffs at all.
Flabbergasted Colts' fans have been through a roller coaster with this team since training camp this year, but the last two weeks have been wonderfully symbolic of exactly how confusing, and ultimately disappointing, this team has been.
But first. let’s rewind to Sunday afternoon, October 12. It was the first quarter of a game at Lucas Oil Stadium against the Baltimore Ravens, and the Colts' defense had just come up with a turnover and a stop. And about the time that Peyton Manning’s perfect strike nestled into a streaking Marvin Harrison’s hands for a beautiful 67-yard touchdown that left Ravens Pro Bowl cornerback Chris McAlister watching from five yards behind, a warm feeling descended over Colts Nation. This was what we’d been hoping for. This is what we’d been waiting for. Could they keep it up? And the answer, on that afternoon, was yes. Marvin scored another vintage touchdown on a slant; Reggie Wayne got free for two long touchdowns, the second one a 63-yarder that got negated by a holding call. Peyton looked sharp. He looked healthy. He even felt empowered after the game to admit that yes, he had had a second knee surgery prior to the season. He hadn’t wanted to give the Bears an advantage in the first game, knowing that he was still on the mend. Made total sense.
Really, all the questions that had surrounded the Colts seemed either answered or less important on that afternoon. The offense had just been recovering their timing. It was natural that it would have taken them a while after an unprecedented absence by their leader. The line was coalescing and putting its injuries behind it. The running game, while still statistically anemic, just looked better (and against the Ravens' D!). Meanwhile, the Colts' Jekyll and Hyde Defense had finally done one of their patented and inexplicable conversions into a top flight group. They were flying around the field, making plays, causing turnovers, and getting sacks. They completely negated the Ravens' decent running attack and made quarterback Joe Flacco look like a rookie should against a good team.
All was right with the world. The defense couldn’t be expected to do that every week, but they’d shown that they were not totally inept, and could, particularly given a lead, make some of those game-changing plays that have been the unit’s signature during Dungy’s tenure. The offense? It looked like the Colts' offense that we know and love. So we were looking at something very similar to the 2006 team that, well… won the Super Bowl. Let the good times roll, right?
And then Sunday the 19th came. The Colts walked out onto the thawed tundra of Lambeau Field and laid what was perhaps their biggest egg since a 41-0 playoff thrashing at the hands of the Jets in Dungy’s first postseason game with the team back in January 2003. It started off innocently enough. The defense bent but didn’t break in holding the Packers to a field goal on their first possession. Then the offense took the ball on a lengthy, methodical drive that ended in a Dominic Rhodes touchdown run.
Then, in short, the wheels came off.
In this thoroughly embarrassing 34-14 blowout loss, the Colts were bad on defense, making no big plays and handing the Packers first down after first down. The offense, likewise, was maddeningly hapless, with an injury-depleted Green Bay secondary able to shut down Harrison and Wayne in a way that very few defenses ever have before. The two finished with a combined output of 4 catches for 35 yards. Peyton Manning had two interceptions returned for touchdowns, which now makes three for the season. To put that in perspective, we are now only 3/8 of the way through the 2008 campaign, and Manning has already thrown 20% of his career interceptions-returned-for-touchdowns this season. That’s right: 15 in his whole 166 game career, and 3 of them have happened in two games this season.
But at the end of the day, the yardage generated by the two teams was equal at 302. The most profoundly devastating aspect of the loss, and of the team’s sub-par play this year, was that mental mistakes were so prevalent. The Colts had 12 penalties for 110 yards in losses this time… the most by any Colts' team since 2001. Several of them were real game-changers. For example, it’s early in the third with the Packers up 17-7 and the Colts have a 3rd and 1 on the Packers’ 44. They look to be easily converting on a run by Rhodes, but the play is blown dead. False start, Colts. Now it’s 3rd and 6, and Manning forces a pass high to Reggie Wayne. Safety Nick Collins intercepts the tipped ball and returns it 62 yards for a score. Packers 24, Colts 7. Think that hurt? Think that may have turned the game? Bingo. And there were more, like the one after the Colts finally got a stop while still down 17 later in the third. In this scenario, the Packer punting unit is on the field to give Indy the ball back, and cornerback Tim Jennings (who committed three egregious penalties in the game and deserves some sort of award from the Packers organization) commits an act unrelated to football in an apparent attempt to draw the Packers offsides (??) and instead nabs the Pack a first down and, a few moments later, a field goal that’s a big fat nail in the coffin. Packers 27, Colts 7.
If there’s one thing the Colts have not done over the time Dungy has been their coach, it’s play stupid football. They have occasionally been overpowered, particularly on defense, but they have always played with discipline and awareness. These traits have allowed them to prevail in many tightly contested games with less experienced, less disciplined teams (like the Jacksonville Jaguars of years past) and to use those squads’ unchecked emotions and miscues against them. Now the Colts are looking like they are one of those undisciplined teams. It’s not a one-time thing, folks. Obscured in the joy of the Ravens' win were 11 penalties committed by Indianapolis for 84 yards.
What to make of all the penalties and mental mistakes? What my gut tells me, although I don’t want to listen, is that Dungy is in danger, if he has not already done so, of losing this team. For so long, it seemed that his approach worked beautifully with the Colts. His low-key, even-keeled, highly disciplined approach to the game became the personality of the organization. It’s always been evident, even at dark moments. But this year, for the first time, that team personality seems to have changed. It’s difficult to pinpoint root causes, but it’s quite possible that the players finally have stopped absorbing his message. If that is true, this team is in for some trying times. Starting, oh… now.
The immediate stakes are high and obvious. If the Colts fail to pull off what could now genuinely be considered an upset at white-hot Tennessee this coming Monday night, their currently emaciated divisional title hopes will be dead. In that case, they would be 3-4 and in a fight to the death for one of the two wild card slots in the AFC. From there, it would be absolutely imperative that they go AT LEAST 7-2 the rest of the way. Is this team capable of that kind of excellence? One wonders.
In any case, the talk of it being early is over. We’re approaching the midpoint of the season and a profound moment of reckoning for this team. Beat the Titans next week, and hope will remain on life support. Lose, and the crashing sound you hear may just be the window slamming shut on the Tony Dungy era in Indianapolis. |
