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Friday, March 29, 2024

Lets come to terms with our Colts

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While waiting in line for my carry out food Sunday evening at my favorite cafeteria, I could not help but hear a lady decked out from head to toe in Colts apparel as she shared her take with all in attendance regarding what had happened in the 27-19 loss to Cleveland just a couple of hours previously.

“I thought we played OK for the most part” she offered, “We just need to get Peyton back.”

Suddenly confused by her lack of logic, I was no longer as hungry and upon arrival from the short trip home, the bulk of my fried chicken and macaroni and cheese found its way evenly into the bowls of my two dogs.

Before I go any further I want to say that everyone who buys a ticket or for that matter dines out and pays a special tax on their meal that helped fund and now maintains Lucas Oil Stadium has a right to voice their opinion regarding the Colts. Sharing an opinion requires nothing more than an audience and I fully support those of the people who have put big money into the pockets of Colts owner Jim Irsay, who continues to fuel the fire of those disenchanted with the lack of planning pertaining to no Peyton Manning with his Twitter account.

The aforementioned aside, why is it that those who focus primarily on the ineptness of Kerry Collins cannot see that this is simply a woeful squad overall. Sure, many of you point to reasoning that says Manning would produce enough points to mask those weaknesses and we could simply beat teams in high scoring affairs.

Well welcome to reality, one that has shown itself in two games to date this season, and be prepared for it to get progressively worse from week to week. Sure the home team has had a plethora of injuries these past two seasons, but that is indeed life in the NFL folks, and the second string players are often where the rubber meets the road.

In the case of the Colts, all the tires are blown and they are running on four of those doughnut tires you see now of days instead of quality spares.

After allowing Cleveland’s Colt McCoy and Peyton Hillis to look like Otto Graham and Jim Brown respectively, the Colts defense will now welcome the Pittsburgh Steelers to town next Sunday night in a nationally televised contest that will give this maligned unit the opportunity to show some signs of life or once again play listlessly and without a sense of urgency.

If I were a gambler, I would indeed bet the house on the latter of the two occurring in the first quarter. Clearly the offensive line must also shoulder a fair amount of blame for this debacle of an early season meltdown, as they have left a quarterback, who has no mobility, quite vulnerable, one that was on the couch at home retired when the Colts made a rather suspect and ill-advised move when it came to planning for life without Manning.

Collins is a stand up person and accepts responsibility as well as any quarterback in the NFL, but the bottom line is he has nothing left in the tank physically, which is why Tennessee had no interest in re-signing him. The guy had a great career but it is obviously over and his agent deserves a raise for fleecing Bill Polian and company.

But despite their cries for his head by the local faithful, the last time I checked, quarterbacks do not make tackles, cover receivers, or return kicks.

Yes this team is lacking in terms of a field general on offense, but from top to bottom, this is not a good football team – one that Father Time has caught up with and one that has flat given up on playing hard.

Losses are one thing, but being thoroughly outplayed to date this year in terms of effort is both embarrassing and unacceptable. It is time to come to terms with the fact that the Manning era is over and develop a new plan. Until then, the players on this current roster must begin playing with pride and resolve, giving 100 percent and leaving it all on the field. Feel free to take that approach against Pittsburgh.

Danny Bridges, who feels the Colts should donate their first two game checks to charity can be reached at (317) 578-1780 or at Bridgeshd@aol.com.

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