| Anthony Holds. 10th September, 2008 - 12:48 pm
 If you are a Colts' fan, this is a particularly tense week. You can try to focus on work, family, time at the gym, or your fantasy team, but as the days plod on toward this coming Sunday, the same question keeps haunting you: Was what I saw on Sunday night real?
First, a bit of recent historical perspective on the Colts' 29-13 loss Sunday to the Chicago Bears in the regular season debut of their new home Lucas Oil Stadium. The last time the Colts lost in September or October was a Halloween shootout loss to the Kansas City Chiefs in 2004. The last time they lost a season opener was also in 2004, to the New England Patriots in a closely contested matchup at Gillette Field. Their last home loss in September or October was October 24 of that same year. The last time the Colts were beaten by more than 10 points at home was in a loss to the Denver Broncos, 31-17, on December 21, 2003. By more than they lost Sunday? A 44-27 loss to the New York Giants on December 22, 2002.
You get the picture. In short, this does not happen to the Colts.
They don’t lose by double digits at home, and they don’t lose in September or October… until this past Sunday. There are numerous players who are in their third year on the team and are in completely virgin territory here.
One can point fingers galore at guilty parties in the loss. As many pundits surmised, Peyton Manning did look rusty, albeit more mentally than physically. He put a couple of balls on the money that could, and should, have been caught… But he also looked rushed and somewhat discombobulated at times. Longtime followers of the team have seen him look this way in a few best-to-be-forgotten playoff games through the years, and it never has carried over to his greater body of play, so I think it’s safe to say this will pass. Taking into account that he looked to be getting more comfortable as the game went on, and the previously mentioned uncharacteristic drops from several of his key receiver, it makes sense that another week of practice will iron out many of the hiccups in the passing game.
More troublesome were the Colts’ simultaneous inabilities to run the ball and stop the run. Joseph Addai had a couple nifty carries, but the Colts overall rushed for an anemic 53 yards on the ground. On the defensive side of the ball, they looked all too similar to the hapless run defense of the 2006 regular season. Matt Forte, the Bears’ rookie running back from Tulane, looked brilliant in his NFL debut, ripping off a 50-yard touchdown run and going for 123 overall. The defensive line was overpowered in the run game, and the tackling, particularly from the safeties -- Pro Bowler Antoine Bethea and NFL Defensive Player of the Year Bob Sanders, was far below what we’ve come to expect. The defense couldn’t stop key pass completions or hold on third downs.
With the team headed to the Metrodome in Minneapolis to meet the Vikings this week, the holes in run stoppage become reason for knee-buckling anxiety. Awaiting the defense this week is arguably the best running back in the NFL and undoubtedly the most explosive -- Adrian Peterson. You have to think that if the defense plays anything like they did this past week on Sunday he’ll go for 200-plus.
Clearly, they will need to play like last year’s stingy unit instead of the group we saw this past weekend. And the offense will need to work out the kinks and get some semblance of a ground game going. If these problems can be fixed, the opening loss can be written off as an anomaly, the rising panic can subside, and the Colts should be back on the road to another outstanding season. In that event they’ll also look like leading contenders for their second title – particularly now that Matt Cassel will be leading their nemesis the New England Patriots for the remainder of the year.
If things don’t improve? Well… that’s a topic for another article. It’s very easy to put way too much importance on Week One results in the NFL, for better or for worse. But suffice to say that if the tone of conversation about the team remains the same three or four weeks from now, the prognosis could be dire. For now Colts' fans can only hope that, in Week Two, the real Colts stand up. |
