Indianapolis Colts Remain in Playoff Race, but Not as Super Bowl Contenders

Aside from their play during the fourth quarter of their Week 8 loss to the Carolina Panthers, watching the Indianapolis Colts this season has been, well, difficult. The team looks like a shell of its former self, and although they sit atop the AFC South, they hold just a 3-5 record after having lost three straight.

Just last year, the Colts posted an 11-5 record—their third straight season reaching that mark—and reached the playoffs for the third time in as many years. It was an impressive run for the team, and most notably their young quarterback, Andrew Luck.

Take one look at this Colts team in 2015, and that all begins to feel like a distant memory.

After displaying elite-level talent and upside in his first three seasons, Luck has taken an inexplicable step back in his fourth year. Consider the drop-off in production between last year and the first half of this season.

Season	Passing Yards	NFL Rank	Completion Percentage	NFL Rank	TD	NFL Rank	INT	NFL Rank	Quarterback Rating	NFL Rank
2014	4761	3rd	61.7%	23rd	40	1st	16	6th	96.5	7th
2015	1398	26th	56.2%	30th	11	T-13th	9	4th	76.2	46th

Last year, Luck threw his fair share of interceptions. However, that can be excused a bit when you consider the fact that he threw the ball a whopping 380 times in 2014. This year, however, it's a lot more difficult to make excuses for the Stanford University product.

Luck is on pace to smash that 16-interception total he posted in 2014, and his numbers are generally down across the board from where we'd expect him to be.

It's not just in the numbers, though, and Luck's decision-making has been questionable at best. In a year when most would expect him to make the leap to the league's upper echelon of signal-callers, Luck has looked lost and frazzled.

Before he led the team on a seven-play, 27-yard drive that resulted in a Colts field goal, Luck boasted this paltry stat line: 1-5, 3 YDS, 1 FMBL, 1 INT.

When things mattered most, though, Luck turned it on and started doing things like this:

This just points to the problem the Colts are facing with Luck and his streaky play. But, as is the case with any fringe team, he's not the only reason the Colts are struggling.

Though they found some success running the ball in their loss to the Panthers—they managed 136 yards on 35 carries against a staunch Panthers defense—the Colts have had an extraordinarily difficult time getting anything going on the ground this season.

Through the midway point, the Colts rank 30th in the NFL in rushing yards, 27th in rushing yards per game, and lead the league in fumbles lost, per ESPN.com.

Winslow Townson/Associated Press

Teams like New England and Green Bay can get away with running the ball so infrequently when their quarterbacks are capable of delivering a victory on any given night, but when you have a quarterback who's leading the league in multi-interception games, having a cringeworthy rushing attack is just that much more devastating. 

Indy's defense has also been a cause for concern in the season's first half. The team currently ranks 24th in total defense, and 20th in scoring defense.

That porous defense, combined with the fact that the Colts rank 21st in points scored per game, makes for a team that can have difficulty winning against any team, not just the NFL's elite.

So, assuming they win their division and make the playoffs—and make no mistake about it, this team is headed to the playoffs because the AFC South is an embarrassingly bad division—consider how the Colts compare to the AFC's other division leaders.

Team	R YDS/G	P YDS/G	YDS/G	PTS/G
Colts	12th	8th	9th	t-12th
Bengals	5th	4th	3rd	1st
Broncos	11th	9th	10th	7th
Patriots	15th	2nd	2nd	2nd

Team	R YDS/G	P YDS/G	YDS/G	PTS/G
Colts	12th	15th	12th	11th
Bengals	10th	11th	7th	3rd
Broncos	3rd	1st	1st	1st
Patriots	5th	6th	4th	4th

The charts above paint the picture of a team that is woefully outmatched and outgunned by the teams they'll run up against in the playoffs.

The Colts have struggled in all facets of the game, and the main culprit looks to be the play of their once-heralded quarterback, Andrew Luck. Luck is still a talented quarterback, but right now, his play is costing his team opportunities to win games, and he made mention of that in his post-game comments.

So where do they go from here? Well, the short term, they'll head back to Indy to take on the Denver Broncos and the No. 1 defense in football. Even if they lose, they're likely still playoff-bound.

If and when they get there, they'll have no chance to beat any of the Patriots, Bengals or Broncos.

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