FanPost

Realx, Guys!

Hi there!

I'm a regular on this blog for about three years. I read all of the posts of the regular staff and nearly all of the fan posts. One of the things this blog gets bashed most about is it's negativity. And damn it, I can be negative, too. Sundays really determine my week long mood from September to January. And, as I like to emphasize, I'm not even American. I've got no connection to the city of Indianapolis other than I hated they Brady-Belichick connection when I witnessed their win against a white/blue-jerseyed team with an amazing quarterback and an African-American head coach back in 2004 which marked the first year that my local TV station aired a playoff game for the first time in Austrian history. Not Austrialia- like kangaroo's 'n stuff like that. Austria, like… I can't give you a positive connection unless you're a Sound of Music fan which you hopefully aren't. So much for my background but enough about me...

Most people in here think Superbowl when the Colts shine and most guys think about #1 draft pick when we lose. The fun thing in American football is, that it's all about winning it all. The 31 teams that don't hoist the Lombardy once the season ends are considered "losers" and funnily, the biggest loser of all is the team that was second best. From a European standpoint, that's hilariously American. But I digress and I probably should start my own blog about "American Football from an Outside Perspective" cause I could go on and on...

Matter of fact is: the 2013 Colts are f-i-n-e. Not from a "the winner takes it all" perspective. Not even from a perspective of "we were 11-5 last year, and we had about 100 mills on cash to invest in players to improve last years 11-5 team". Last year team had no business to play for the playoffs. Every single game was close against even the worst teams in football history and more often than not the Colts were on the right side of wrong. Remember the Dolphins game? Remember the Vikings game? And on the other hand, who remembers that awful awful awful awful outcome of the game against the JAGS @ home???

What I'm trying to say is that last year, we wouldn't have had any business winning against big caliber teams that we beat this year. And don't start with "we beat the Packers last year!" cause they came out of the tunnel thinking "100-14" for the second half. But this year, we sometimes really outplayed the cream of the crop. Yep, our head coach loves to punt with little time on the clock and a 2 score deficit, yep, our o-coordinator can't adjust to losing important players week in and week out, yep our d-coordinator failed to keep the defense on their heels once he beat the mighty three and, most of all, yep, andy luck is having a bad, bad slump once he injured his only #1 receiver on a- what-should've-been-an-easy-TD, but never, and i might emphasize, NEVER, forget how much this years team has improved over last years mirculous 11-5 team.

We're still halfway of creating a dynasty. That's no euphemism or forgetting disastrous plays that cost us a ton on offense or on defense. But take a look at what our offense was able to do, take a look at how our defense was able to stop the mightiest offenses, take a look at the improvements of our special teams (and don't weigh on the Cincy return game too heavily). We're just fine. Yes, Luck will get back on track. Yes, our secondary hasn't forgot how to play. Yes, Grigs is really a good manager who will get us the right pieces. Yes, Pagano will learn that punting in foreign territory is a bad idea more often than it's not.

Oops…. punting…. You, and I shall say, we, really often consider Pags to be a bad head coach cause we're punting far too often instead of playing on 4th down. Let's break this single thing down: we have a bad offense that can't convert on 3rd downs since #87 went down. We have the arguably the best punter in the league leading an outstanding special teams unit. they regularly force extraordinarily bad field positions for the opposing offenses which and we have a defense that can, or could, stop the best offenses. so why won't you punt? don't get me wrong. most of the times I yelled into my 47" screen in hope for Pagano to try 4th down but at the end of the day- punting didn't seem too bad. I was just forced to wonder how a freaking third stringer could create a 97 yard TD drive against a defense that once stopped the Broncos and Seahawks.

So yes, we're still missing important pieces, but still, we're on the right track. We could've been on an even better track that we are on right now if we could have gotten all the pieces in the puzzle right. And yes, some pieces were forced to fit in there that don't absolutely fit at all.

So, the bottom line is, don't freak out. We're in good shape. No, we won't go to New York or even anywhere near this year and yes, mistakes have been made, But fact is, NFL teams are so big that mistakes are being made everywhere and weaknesses are all around every single of the 32 NFL teams. The team that wins the Superbowl is not always the team that plays the best football throughout the season. More often than not, the Superbwol winner is not the best team in the league. Or do you really think that the 2012 Ravens were the best team in the league? Or the 2011 Giants? Like I said, don't freak out cause we're most probably not gonna win the Lombardy this year.

Just lay back. The problem is, we Colts fans are accustumed to be Superbowl favorites year in and year out- but like I said earlier, the best team most likely doesn't win the Superbowl. But still, with this team, there's more to come

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.