Colts' Brutal Loss to Patriots Calls for Several Offseason Upgrades

The Indianapolis Colts are the stars of Groundhog Day 2: New England Patriots Boogaloo. The round may have changed, but the result continues to stay the same. The Colts just aren't on the same planet as the Pats in terms of talent. 

Or, in the words of safety Mike Adams, via ESPN's Mike Wells, things went from "sugar to (expletive) real fast."

Likewise, as they were in January 2013, the Colts remain much the same team: the ragtag group of misfits that quarterback Andrew Luck dragged above their weight class. That's not to say the Colts didn't see incremental improvements up and down the roster.

Cornerback Vontae Davis played like an absolute star in his third season in Indianapolis, wideout T.Y Hilton established himself as a bona fide No. 1 receiver and the 2014 draft class looks like it has the potential to be a very fruitful one for general manager Ryan Grigson. 

But age sapped the last two legacy Colts on the roster. Wideout Reggie Wayne played hurt throughout the second half of the season and was a liability in the Indy passing game. Pass-rusher Robert Mathis missed the entire season between a substance-abuse suspension and a torn Achilles tendon, and it is anyone's guess as to how effective he can be in 2015. 

And, even if we ignore Grigson's biggest debacle—the trade that sent a first-round pick out for running back Trent Richardson—the patchwork solutions and inconsistent draft results have left this roster without much functional depth.

A well-built team doesn't have to turn to waiver claim Dan Herron at running back. A better roster has solutions on hand rather than having to turn to uncertain additions like wideout Hakeem Nicks and safety LaRon Landry. It's true that Grigson inherited an absolutely abysmal roster, but three years later, after all of the roster turnover, many of the same problems still remain unaddressed. 

Absent a one-year respite in 2013, when Mathis had by far the best season of his career, the Colts simply haven't had a top-tier pass-rusher over the course of the Andrew Luck era. Head coach Chuck Pagano and defensive coordinator Greg Manusky do an excellent job on a seasonal basis generating pressure against bad-to-middling quarterbacks, but when the chips come down against the best in the league, they're at a huge disadvantage. 

The Colts hoped they solved this when they drafted outside linebacker Bjoern Werner, who was actually made inactive for the AFC Championship Game, in the first round. Between his lack of development and Mathis' injury, they've had to rely on stopgap Erik Walden longer than anyone could have foreseen.

Rookie fifth-rounder Jonathan Newsome showed enough to replace Walden as the second banana, but if a first banana doesn't emerge between Werner and Mathis, this unit is going to again be blitz-dependent in generating pressure.  

Likewise, with Wayne on his last legs, Nicks a non-priority free agent and only inconsistent wideout Donte Moncrief a possible top-three option on the depth chart, the Colts need to expand Andrew Luck's arsenal. When the Patriots decided to focus their defense on stopping T.Y. Hilton Sunday night, it completely exposed the lack of depth the Colts carried into this game.

Player	Receptions	Yards	Targets
Coby Fleener	3	30	4
Dwayne Allen	4	30	6
Hakeem Nicks	1	15	3
Dan Herron	2	11	4
Zurlon Tipton	1	4	4
Reggie Wayne	0	0	2
Jack Doyle	0	0	2
Donte Moncrief	0	0	1

It was hard throughout the second half of this season for this team to deal with man or press-man coverage—it simply only had one receiver who could beat it. Coby Fleener is a nice option down the pecking order, but when he's pressed into service like he was in this game, it's a sign things have gone horribly wrong. 

Finally, the Colts need to fix the stubbornness that has permeated their organization since Pagano took over. 

Loyalty is a great quality for an organization to have in the right hands. But the fact that it took Richardson and Werner as long as it did to lose their jobs speaks just to how dead set the Colts are in their ways even when it defies reality. 

Week	Score	NE Rushing Yards	NE Rush TDs
2013 Divisional Round	L 43-22	234	6
2014 Week 11	L 42-20	246	4
2014 AFC Championship	L 45-7	177	3

Nothing shouts that stubbornness louder than looking at how the Patriots have rolled the Colts over these last three meetings.

The Pats ran for just 14 yards against the Baltimore Ravens last week—this is not a super-talented unit. The offensive line was missing its starting center. Running back LeGarrette Blount was picked off the street in the middle of the season. Other than tight end Rob Gronkowski's phenomenal blocking ability, the Patriots don't have many firm pluses in their run game right now. 

And yet, the Colts can't seem to do a damn thing to stop it. I'm not sure if it's the run fits or the players, but given how ineffective the signings of defensive end Arthur Jones and inside linebacker D'Qwell Jackson were, it's hard to blame it completely on the defense.

If insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results, then the Colts deserve to be committed to the asylum for how they've had no counterpunch to what the Pats have done to them over the last two seasons.

No heads are rolling in Indianapolis. This is not a hit piece. Luck is such a powerful asset that he can single-handedly keep the Colts' window of contention open by himself for the next several seasons. 

But to finally escape their circumstances, the time has come for the Colts to do something different. To hit on a big free-agent signing. To make a bold move to swing the odds in their favor. Or, on the boring side, to actually hit on enough of these undrafted free agents, under-the-radar signings and lower-round picks to boost the overall talent level of the roster.

Because we just saw the ceiling of where Luck can take this kind of Colts team. And it will be Pagano and Grigson, not Luck, who will start taking the heat if the Colts wake up in this same spot again next season.

Rivers McCown is the AFC South lead writer for Bleacher Report and the co-host of the Three-Cone Drill podcast. His work has also appeared on Football Outsiders and ESPN.com. Follow him on Twitter at @riversmccown.