Ed. Note: There are still renaissance men in the world, and Brian Spicklemire fits that particular bill. Along with being an accomplished percussionist and composer, he's on the track for his Master's degree at Butler University and still finds time to crush the competition at Risk. Most important, "Styx" is a very good sports writer who has already contributed twice to this blog (see "Playoffs? You Kiddin' Me? Playoffs?" and "The ShawShaq Realization"). In this latest piece, he talks about living through the worst Colts' season of recent memory and what the upcoming draft means for the futures of Andrew Luck and Peyton Manning.
But there's one last thing that I always look forward to that won't be happening this year: my Indianapolis Colts fighting for playoff position. In fact, they're fighting for pole position in another race entirely. They've spent the season trying everything in their power to avoid it, but they're sucking for Luck.
Past mistakes
I'll save you the recap of the Colts' atrocious season so far for fear of getting half-way through and deciding to go gorge myself on ice-cream and say mean things about Kerry Collins. Let's just say that when NFL films makes their end-of-the-year video for Indy, the soundtrack is going to be provided by The Fray and the only highlight I can see thus far is covering the enormous spread at New England this weekend. We're awful. Putrid. If you had told me that we were being matched up with Boise State in the "Na-na-na-na-na-pa Know How Bowl," and the line was Colts +7, I'd be on the next flight to Vegas to bet against us and collect on what would essentially be free money. We're historically bad.
Maybe it's karma for punting away the perfect season two years ago against the Jets. Maybe we're too old, a team that rested on its laurels for too long and scored a bunch of points and won at least 10 games every year and forgot to take note that the same players making the big plays every year were getting older, and that in a game like football you truly have to continuously find good youth in maintaining your team. We essentially lost a good year out of Reggie Wayne, Jeff Saturday, Dwight Freeney and Robert Mathis that we'll never get back. What worse is that all of those players just mentioned have expiring contracts in the next two years (most of them after this year), as do young talented receivers Pierre Garçon and Austin Collie, and we have no realistic chance of re-signing all of them.
Weighed, measured, and found wanting
But more than anything it just proves what the pundits and studio crews have said all year: you really do need an elite, high-caliber QB to compete in this league year after year. Back-ups who are unprepared to step into a starting role just can't get the job done (cue the entire city of Chicago nodding their heads begrudgingly). As much as the Indy faithful tried to talk themselves into Kerry Collins' brief Indianapolis vacation, and then poor blond Curtis Painter, and now Dan Orlovsky, we never really had a chance once Peyton got his third surgery right before the season.
Painter (who should have had way more motivation than anyone else on the team to get a few Ws this season so he wouldn't have to fight Luck for a back-up spot on the team next year), spent the last two months woefully under- or overthrowing receivers like an old man who put the wrong prescription glasses on. The defense got exposed for what it is: a below-average secondary whose only strength was its Freeney/Mathis pass rush which, as every single analyst will tell you, was built to play with a lead. (The more I hear that, the more it is starting to sound ridiculous. Have you ever heard of a defense being built with the mentality of, "OK guys, we pretty much have no shot of ever leading in this ballgame so we need you to basically do the offense's job for us, cause we have no prayer of ever having a lead." I mean, ya know, outside of Denver?)
But more than anything it just proves what the pundits and studio crews have said all year: you really do need an elite, high-caliber QB to compete in this league year after year. Back-ups who are unprepared to step into a starting role just can't get the job done (cue the entire city of Chicago nodding their heads begrudgingly). As much as the Indy faithful tried to talk themselves into Kerry Collins' brief Indianapolis vacation, and then poor blond Curtis Painter, and now Dan Orlovsky, we never really had a chance once Peyton got his third surgery right before the season.
Painter (who should have had way more motivation than anyone else on the team to get a few Ws this season so he wouldn't have to fight Luck for a back-up spot on the team next year), spent the last two months woefully under- or overthrowing receivers like an old man who put the wrong prescription glasses on. The defense got exposed for what it is: a below-average secondary whose only strength was its Freeney/Mathis pass rush which, as every single analyst will tell you, was built to play with a lead. (The more I hear that, the more it is starting to sound ridiculous. Have you ever heard of a defense being built with the mentality of, "OK guys, we pretty much have no shot of ever leading in this ballgame so we need you to basically do the offense's job for us, cause we have no prayer of ever having a lead." I mean, ya know, outside of Denver?)
Besides a few early draft picks last April (who have been battling injuries all season), the offensive line hasn't been truly upgraded since team president Bill Polian threw them under the bus after the Super Bowl loss two years ago, and Betty White could have run back a touchdown against our special teams last week. The Colts aren't even trying to tank, and find themselves fait accompli to have the top pick in next April's draft.
Look for Part 2 coming later this week.
JS
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