I'm sorry, but this has gotta be said. We can't dance around this anymore. The Colts fans used to make excuses when we beat them. Now we're the ones making the excuses. This isn't us. This isn't what we are used to and I can tell you why. It is because we've lost the physicality and aggressiveness that we used to have. I know we still make interceptions and forced fumbles, but when was the last time that you saw a play from the defense that really made opposing teams fear us?
Who is afraid to go across the middle against us? Who is afraid of taking a hard shot from our players? When was the last time that you saw a guy get hit and he looked like he really didn't want anymore? Now when you take all of that, and really think about it, you have to ask: Did we do all of these things when it counted? Did we make the big plays against the best teams in critical situations? I know that I'm asking a lot of questions, but that's what we've have a lot of for the past five years. We've had a bunch of question marks on the team because not enough players had answers. And you don't win championships if you can't answer other teams.
We aren't built to go blow for blow with other teams anymore. Football is a 60 minute fight and we keep getting knocked out at the 50. We have to finish games. We have to find balance. Yes, it's fine to be cautious on defense at times, but all the damn time is ridiculous. We've lost a lot of the aggressive energy on defense. We can't rush the passer in a critical situation to save our lives. If something should happen to Banta-Cain we are done. Dead in the water. But what about the offense.
Yes, we have a great passing game. Yes we have done a bunch of great things through the air. But this is the NFL. It's not always about what you've done. It's about what you are going to do. And bet on this! On 4th and 2, the Colts knew exactly what we were going to do. They knew that we were going to pass because that's what we are: A passing team. We are not an offensive team: that implies balance. We've lost a great deal of that. If you disagree, then ask yourself why a poor Jets team was able to climb back into a football game that it had no business being in. Why were they able to stop us on offense and push us around on defense. IT'S BECAUSE WE DON'T FIGHT BACK. We've lost how. We haven't fought back from a bad deficit since week 1. I don't even think the level of competition needs to be discussed (that team doesn't even have a winning record).
We can't just run the ball more, we have to run the ball more effectively. We have to stop defenders from hitting our running backs before the line of scrimmage. We have to stop being predictable. We have to get our tight ends more involved in a passing game that is lacking a true third receiver. Most importantly, we can't keep living in the shot gun. It lets other teams take too many shots at us. Our offensive linemen can't wear anyone down because the play is usually over before they can really do some damage.
We can't keep making excuses about other teams because we've become the "other team." We're not champions. We're chasers. That's all we are going to be until we get physical, aggressive, and find some balance.
