RIP Indianapolis Colts

[maverick4]

I enjoyed having the Colts as a tough competitor and rival for almost a decade, it certainly made for fun playoff memories, but RIP Colts. You lost Dungy (HC), Mudd (O-Line), and Moore (OC). Marvin Harrison retired.

Peyton and the Colts pulled 3 wins out of their behinds last year, and this year we'll see the first .500 Colts season on their way to perpetual decline.

Peyton Manning is entering the later stages of Dan Marino's career now.

 

[amazinPats]

The Colts are a good team with good management. I'd be wary about counting them out.

 

[strongside]

I enjoyed having the Colts as a tough competitor and rival for almost a decade, it certainly made for fun playoff memories, but RIP Colts. You lost Dungy (HC), Mudd (O-Line), and Moore (OC). Marvin Harrison retired.

Peyton and the Colts pulled 3 wins out of their behinds last year, and this year we'll see the first .500 Colts season on their way to perpetual decline.

Peyton Manning is entering the later stages of Dan Marino's career now.

I disagree. Did you think the same way when the Pats lost RAC and Charlie or feel the same now that JM is gone and Brady is coming back from knee surgery?

I'm not counting out a Manninng led team the same way I wouldn't count a Brady led team out.

 

[The_Riddler]

They did pull about 3 games out of their lucky arses last season. That team very, very easily could have finished 9-7 last year.

The Peyton Manning decline is now turning towards the downside of the slope and after all that, only one championship to show for it in 11 seasons.

Unlike Polian, we draft and prepare for the present AND the future. We've already drafted and are grooming Brady's replacment down the road. The same can't be said for the Colts.

Soon, with the Colts on the decline, Polian's referee corruption will also be taken care of for games played in Indy as they won't have the same pull they used to now that they're heading towards mediority.

They're still obviously good, but not like they used to be and it's going to be a downward trend with each passing day as Peyton ages from this day going forward.

 

[maverick4]

I disagree. Did you think the same way when the Pats lost RAC and Charlie or feel the same now that JM is gone and Brady is coming back from knee surgery?

I'm not counting out a Manning led team the same way I wouldn't count a Brady led team out.

1. We haven't won a ring since RAC and Charlie left, so losing coordinators is actually important.

2. If we lost Belichick, you would be worried about the Pats. The Colts just lost Dungy. The Colts were nothing before Dungy got there, the guy has won everywhere he's been, and also patched up the defense as a defensive expert.

3. Manning was already pulling wins out of his arse last year, can the magician do it again this year?

(4). Not that it matters, but I am actually happy JM (no situational awareness) is gone and think our chances of winning it all just went up.

 

[efin98]

RIP? You can pronounce them dead when they fail to make the playoffs or have a losing year...but they ain't dead yet.

 

[MoLewisrocks]

Unlike Polian, we draft and prepare for the present AND the future. We've already drafted and are grooming Brady's replacment down the road. The same can't be said for the Colts.

We won't draft Brady's replacement for a couple of more seasons since he intends to play for at least another several seasons...O'Connell is just the next Matt Cassel here, if he's any good he'll be gone in three years.

Manning had issues with his knee (bursa sac) that caused him to struggle early on last season. He's fine now, and will be fine for the forseeable future. If they replace his weapons sufficiently, he will find them in time. Just may not find them in time to make it all work this season.

The problem in Indy is they are losing their emotional leader in Dungy at a time when they are also losing both coordinators, their legendary OL coach and the second of the legenday triplets (Harrison, who has kinda been going for a while now...). I do think they will struggle, but they like us are promoting coaches from within. Just a lot tougher to make it all work when you lose your anchor, which was what Dungy was.

 

[Fixit]

Oh, the 2009 edition of the annual wake for the Colts snuck up on me this year.

I'll bury them when they're dead, not one second sooner.

 

[letekro]

I enjoyed having the Colts as a tough competitor and rival for almost a decade, it certainly made for fun playoff memories, but RIP Colts. You lost Dungy (HC), Mudd (O-Line), and Moore (OC). Marvin Harrison retired.

Peyton and the Colts pulled 3 wins out of their behinds last year, and this year we'll see the first .500 Colts season on their way to perpetual decline.

Peyton Manning is entering the later stages of Dan Marino's career now.

Call me when Manning retires.

 

[MoLewisrocks]

1. We haven't won a ring since RAC and Charlie left, so losing coordinators is actually important.

2. If we lost Belichick, you would be worried about the Pats. The Colts just lost Dungy. The Colts were nothing before Dungy got there, the guy has won everywhere he's been, and also patched up the defense as a defensive expert.

3. Manning was already pulling wins out of his arse last year, can the magician do it again this year?

(4). Not that it matters, but I am actually happy JM (no situational awareness) is gone and think our chances of winning it all just went up.

Reality is...teams don't win rings every year... We're 48-16 since RAC and Charlie left.

Belichick is the brains of this organization. Dungy was more like the soul of his...

Manning won 13 games once with Mora Sr. as HC...

JM has already forgotten more about situational football than you'll ever know. That's why that dolt Belichick kept him around as a coaching assistant, promoted him to OC and he landed a HC job at 32...

This is like the kiddy thread and it belongs in the PS if not NFL forum or Visitors/smack forum (since you seem to be addressing/baiting Colts fans in your OP...)

 

[Rob0729]

Personally, I think they will fall out of being a Super Bowl contender this year. This isn't like the Pats in 2005. They didn't lose their coordinators, they lost their head coach and about four other coaches to boot. I don't think the Pats would have survived the loss of Belichick if he left in 2005.

I agree that they were lucky last year. They won two games on defensive plays returned for TDs. No matter how good your defense is, you cannot count on defensive TDs to win you games. They should have lost to Minnesota if Childress didn't just have Jackson bootleg to his left on every single play. They may have lost to the Titans in the last game if both teams weren't playing for nothing and resting players. I could have seen that team go 8-8 last year. They never looked like a team that scared you. They just found ways to win when they should have lost. Although I give them credit for that, I don't know if that is a way to be a consistent winner year after year.

There were already definite cracks in the armor with this team last year despite their record. I think that as long as they have Manning they have a chance, but Mudd did work with Manning a lot when the defense was on the field analyzing formations and Dungy was a great coach. It may be too much for them to overcome.

 

[Ryan]

I certainly won't say they're dead, but they don't exactly stand out as a big time favorite to me anymore. Yeah, I could see them having a good season, but I could just as easily see them ending up in last place.

 

[Sicilian]

(4). Not that it matters, but I am actually happy JM (no situational awareness) is gone and think our chances of winning it all just went up.

I love this idea that JM was such a situational dolt. So much so that BB never once spoke up and said, "No, we're not doing that, we're doing this." because he was clearly too afraid to hurt Josh's feelings, right? If you're going to blame McDaniels for ONE bad play call, that's fine, but if it was a continuous thing, BB should have stepped in and taken the reins. He didn't, so either you're wrong, or you should be blaming Belichick, not McDaniels.

As for the Colts, sure, you could say they could have been 9-7 last year. You could also say they should have been 14-2 if Manning was healthy all year. It'll be tough without Dungy, but I never saw him as irreplaceable. Last time he left a team that he had built, the next head coach did pretty well that year as I recall.

 

[tanked_as_usual]

every team has question......I believe the titans are going to take the biggest step down in that division.........they overachieved last year, and without haynesworth, their defense is the same size as the colts without all the speed

the colts defense is going to be a mess while they go away from the tampa 2

 

[Rob0729]

I love this idea that JM was such a situational dolt. So much so that BB never once spoke up and said, "No, we're not doing that, we're doing this." because he was clearly too afraid to hurt Josh's feelings, right? If you're going to blame McDaniels for ONE bad play call, that's fine, but if it was a continuous thing, BB should have stepped in and taken the reins. He didn't, so either you're wrong, or you should be blaming Belichick, not McDaniels.

As for the Colts, sure, you could say they could have been 9-7 last year. You could also say they should have been 14-2 if Manning was healthy all year. It'll be tough without Dungy, but I never saw him as irreplaceable. Last time he left a team that he had built, the next head coach did pretty well that year as I recall.

Please! Please! Don't get him started on another McDaniels bashing session! McDaniels is gone and we have argued his merits endlessly at this point. Until this offense proves to be better or worse without him, can we table the McDaniels discussions?

 

[Rob0729]

every team has question......I believe the titans are going to take the biggest step down in that division.........they overachieved last year, and without haynesworth, their defense is the same size as the colts without all the speed

the colts defense is going to be a mess while they go away from the tampa 2

I personally think that Houston or even the Jags could take this division. I think the AFC South could be a surprisingly weak division and the Texans have been making some good moves in recent years and they could pay off this season with the two best teams in the division weakened this offseason.

 

[PATRIOTSFANINPA]

Right now we have on paper the best looking offense in this league

BUT

Outside of the front 3 which are all here again, the rest of the defense we have more question marks than possibly ever in the BB era

At LB We have mostly raw and lightly or unproven players, most with less than 4 years NFL experience and our veterans are either guys from other teams that had losing traditions or guys that are in thier mid 30s,Adailus is 32 but he is probably the only exception to the age and I expect him to continue to play well - Mayo had been beyond exceptional in his rookie season but what will we see from him in his sophomore year?

A CB from an 0-16 team who only had 1 interception last season and a 35 year old Springs which has done little in his past 4 seasons to make him expendable by the Skins

And here we laugh and say R.I.P. to the Colts when we have absolutely NO idea how good...or bad our D will be?

Bad Karma can strike baby,I say STFU

 

[Palm Beach Pats Fan]

While I really really hope that the premise of this thread is true, and I believe they overachieved in terms of record vs. actual on-field performance last year (where at times they seemed physically dominated at both lines of scrimmage), I'll have to really see it to believe it.

They have had a serious deficiency in stopping the run for years now, and they at least made an attempt to fix that. Did they? Their O-line was awful last year due to injury. Do they come back to form? If either of these are true I would expect that a healthy Peyton Manning would lead them to the playoffs like usual (and lose in the first game like usual!). If both are true then they may be more trouble in both parts of the season and be a contender for a home field path to the SB

 

[Snake Eyes]

I wouldn't count them out any time soon, like it or not, Manning is normally one of the best QBs in the league, and when he's on a good day he's downright lethal. Polian, aside from being a jerk, is a very capable person and good at what he does.

If Manning is healthy and on his game I still see them as a contender.

 

[Kontradiction]

What an absolutely idiotic thread. As long as the Colts have Peyton Manning, they are always going to be a threat.