A day after crushing loss to Texans, Chuck Pagano says “I am really encouraged”

The Indianapolis Colts crumbled in epic fashion on Sunday night, losing a 14-point lead in the final three minutes of a game before losing in overtime to the Texans 26-23.

According to NFL Media, the Colts were the first team to lose when leading by 14+ in the final three minutes of a game since 2011. According to FOX59’s Mike Chappell, it was just the fourth time in Colts history in which they lost a game they led by 14+ in the fourth quarter, and the first time since 1983 - before they moved to Indianapolis! That’s the kind of loss, one that dropped the Colts to 2-4 and to last place in the division, that is crushing.

But Colts head coach Chuck Pagano doesn’t feel that way.

“I am encouraged,” he said yesterday. “You guys probably think I am crazy, but I am really encouraged because we have a group of guys and coaches that care and they will fight. There are no pity parties in this building, there are no pity parties in football. You watch the tape, make the adjustments and corrections and you move on. We know exactly where we are at, what is ahead of us and we will continue to prepare and work accordingly.”

In one sense, Pagano is alluding to the same thing we heard Ryan Grigson talk about last night: there were positives from the game. And as Grigson pointed out, if the Colts had won the focus would have been on those positives. So yeah, there were some things the Colts did well in the first three quarters, but it’s hard to forget about the fourth quarter.

So if that’s what Pagano was referring to, I don’t disagree. There were some things that the Colts did well on Sunday, and those can be encouraging things to try to build off of. But either way, “really encouraged” is without a doubt the wrong way to express those sentiments the day after the game. Sending the message to your fans, whether he intended it this way or not, that the Colts are somehow encouraged after a crushing and embarassing loss like that is the wrong way to convey sentiments about there being some positives to build off of. There is already a wide-spread belief that Chuck Pagano is too positive with the media and isn’t truly honest about what’s going on with his team, and these comments surely won’t help to diminish those beliefs.