FanPost

The Monster is Built. The Colts Are For Real. "T-Rich" Will Show His Worth After the Bye.

When you look at the open thread here on SB, for the 1st qtr of it you'd think the Colts were getting blasted out the building. All the "usual suspects" were calling for both Manusky, and Hamilton's heads. Some even questioned the fire within HC Pagano. Yet as soon as the Colts turned the corner and changed the outcome on the scoreboard all of the doubters for both men went back into "wait and see" mode. Greg Manusky and Pep Hamilton have taken more scrutiny than any other member of the Colts current staff to date. Manusky can't shake the San Diego/49ers shadow of shortcomings from his stints as DC for those two clubs while Pep Hamilton continues to be compared to the previous regime led by Manning. For the most part I find it baffling how Indy fans are quick to remember the regular season successes of those Manning led teams while conveniently forgetting it's playoff failures over a 14 year span. In Manusky's case, I think it's especially unfair for him to be judged for his stint with a Niners team pre Jim Harbaugh. San Francisco was a train wreck on offense with Alex Smith behind the wheel. He was a turn over machine and that made the Niners' defense appear to be worse than it actually was; which led people to believe coach Manusky was the reason for the units failures. Ditto for his time with the Chargers. San Diego was a team that committed "offensive suicide" weekly with Phillip Rivers looking like Joe Montana for the 1st three Qtrs of a game only to morph into Matt Schaub in the 4th. Both the Niners and Chargers defenses suffered from the same fate: "Inconsistent play from their QBs who constantly put their defenses in short field situations by turning the ball over."

Pep Hamilton's "power run game" might not boast the fire works of those super Sundays we're used to seeing from Peyton Manning, but one thing you can't argue with is the results in the win/loss column thus far. This team is better than any of those that Manning led over his career here because of the balance it has shown. This team doesn't need Luck to be "Superman" every week for it to win the way the previous regime did. This team has a defense and a running game that can step up when needed and close games out when Luck and company can't. Think about it. Do you think the Colts of 2010 could beat the Seahawks team we saw yesterday? Do you think that 25th or so ranked defense of 2010 could've stopped Russell Wilson? Think they could've stopped Marshon Lynch? I don't think so. In fact, I'll bet Lynch does his best impersonation of the "MJD Shuffle" we saw in Jacksonsville a few years ago. although Trent Richardson has yet to break out the way many fans are expecting him to, his time will come sometime after the bye week. I say this because the thing many of his critics forget is the fact that Richardson is still learning the playbook and doing so "on the fly." With the bye week coming up, Richardson and the coaching staff will be able to slow the pace down as far as teaching him more intricacies of Pep Hamilton's offense. Another thing that has played a factor in all of this is the constant shuffling of the offensive line. Those players are learning Pep's offense as well. Once the line settles and we know who is gonna be in the lineup week to week, look out. People just need to be patient and don't buy into the national media headlines from personalities who think the Browns some how got the better end of the deal in all of this. If there's one thing I know about this microwave society we live in is that everybody wants "instant gratification." Good things come to those who wait. Wait on Richardson folks. He will be the "Head of Godzilla" before it's all said and done.

This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of Stampede Blue's writers or editors. It does reflect the views of this particular fan though, which is as important as the views of Stampede Blue's writers or editors.