Obviously Mr. Faded Glory is cautiously thrilled that Indianapolis eked out a surprising win against the Vikings to run the Colts’ record to a pedestrian 1-1. The Colts now have played precisely one solid quarter of football. That doesn’t bode well for the rest of the season. Well, not without rationalizing, anyway.A whopping four offensive line starters are missing, and during the team’s run of success dating back to 2003, the Colts’ O-Line largely remained intact. The impact of Jeff Saturday, Ryan Lilja and Jake Scott’s absences has temporarily killed the Colts running game – and its dearth is tantamount to the team’s success. No stretch play, no play-action, no counter-trap cutback. Without it, the Colts now rely fully on Peyton Manning’s passing game, and that doesn’t cut it. See 2000-2005 Indianapolis.
Until Manning sublimated his game, audibles, and allowed the offense to revert into a short, cerebral, running variation of the West Coast (ugh) attack, the Colts routinely faced ridiculous comebacks like Sunday’s. Never quite despite Manning’s chicken dancing – but certainly not because of it.
Still, we’re happy with a win. We knew it would take time to round the team into form, and injuries to Tony Ugoh, Dallas Clark and Bob Sanders also hurt the Colts. The injury report doesn’t feature enough lines for the Horsies, the linebackers may be an issue yet, and the D-Line (again) isn’t fully sold on stopping the run, issues we’ve seen in the past. Still, 1-1 for an unkempt team is fine.
Does that sound reasonable? I mean, I could teeter out onto the ridiculously subjective media whim, and offer the standard tripe. You know, like offer that Peyton Manning just ‘refused to lose.’
Please. National columnists actually get paid to write shit like that.
News flash – everyone refuses to lose. Reggie Wayne refuses to lose. Ron Meeks refuses to lose. I refuse to lose. You know what, sometimes it still happens. Are we to infer that Manning’s “will to win” was nonexistent during heartbreakers to New England and Pitt in the past? What would Brad Childress tell his team after the game? Sorry, guys, the one thing we didn’t account for was Peyton Manning’s desire. Yeesh.
Wins and losses reflect not simply of heart, but of execution, skill, talent, and often, even luck. Explaining it away as sheer determination is just complete cockamamie from the swirl of NFL media. But then, we’re used to that. Plenty of these guys bought into Jacksonville and forecast them for the Super Bowl. And by the way, we play them next. Better get right before then.
