FanPulse Week 5: Colts take massive hit after Week 4 loss; Which replacement QB would you take?

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The Indianapolis Colts did not come with their best stuff in Week 4 against the Oakland Raiders. As a result of their 31-24 loss, it didn’t sit well with fans at all.

As they prepare for their Week 5 matchup with the Kansas City Chiefs, the injury woes are just as prominent, and with added issue that their defense has been downright awful, things aren’t exactly where the team would like them to be.

We’ll check in on the fan base’s confidence level as we do each week, and we’ll look at the national question this week which is pretty interesting with so many new quarterbacks getting significant playing time.

Let’s get team confidence out of the way first this week.

Unfortunately, this is an unprecedented week for the confidence level of the fans. The Colts did not look like the team we’ve witnessed up to this point. Malik Hooker is out which is a major issue, but the team has also been without Darius Leonard for the past two weeks which has forced some maneuvering within the linebacker corps.

The team has also been missing Tyquan Lewis up front, and they simply can’t afford to have that when they are already struggling to create pressure, and can’t stop the run. Last week the team also lost T.Y. Hilton which proved to be a massive loss.

To make a long story short, injuries have killed the team, AND they weren’t up to snuff execution wise either. This is creating a rift within the fan base and this week’s numbers proved it.

The fans were largely confident in the team last week holding strong at 96 percent, but after their loss, the fans reacted in unison as the confidence level dropped to an abysmal 52 percent.

The real issue is that the injuries haven’t subsided much, and the squad is headed into Arrowhead to face the most prolific offense in the league to this point. It’s hard to imagine the team gaining much confidence between now and Week 7 when they face the Houston Texans.

We could see an all-time low in confidence level by then.

This week’s national question was quite interesting given the success of young, or backup quarterbacks this year. Teddy Bridgewater has gotten a bit of a second shot at proving himself with the injury to Drew Brees, Ben Roethlisberger is out and Mason Rudolph has an opportunity to prove his worth as well.

Naturally, everyone is very well aware of the success down in Jacksonville with rookie quarterback Gardner Minshew and the Minshew-mania that has followed. I mean, for that matter, you could even consider Jacoby Brissett and that fact that he is a few weeks removed from being a replacement quarterback himself.

But, we can see above that it’s Daniel Jones, who has succeeded Eli Manning in New York, that has gotten the nod from the voters in this case. The former No. 6 overall selection earned the trust from the staff and the Giants’ front office, and has been pretty darn good in his three games of action.

He’s completing 69 percent of his passes, has thrown 3 touchdowns on his 71 attempts and is earning 8.1 yards per attempt through the air.

For what it’s worth, Minshew was right on the heels of Jones in this survey, and I think there’s a very real argument that he should have been the choice from the voters. It’s reasonable to assume that it’s Jones’ draft position, and the fact that Minshew was a sixth-round pick that has earned Jones some of that trust over Minshew.

Minshew is also near a 70 percent completion rate (69.4%), has thrown 7 touchdowns to only a single interception in his 121 attempts, while earning an 8.3 adjusted yards per pass attempt, compared to that of Jones’ 7.7 AY/A. Minshew has actually been considerably better on paper.

This season will be a lot of fun to watch these quarterbacks and their development.