Indianapolis Colts Season Breakdown

Football season, gotta love it.

It’s hard to not sound like a spoiled rotten brat while maintaining that last season was a disappointment but I do.

Peyton Manning had it in hands, the second Super Bowl ring, the final monkey that would take all the weight off his back as arguably the greatest QB ever. He must have thrown that interception on purpose. That’s the only conclusion I can come to. Roger Goodell met him at halftime and said “Look, the NFL needs this, New Orleans needs this, so you're going to need to throw this one son or else.”

Just kidding.

But seriously it stung, the 10 beers I’d slammed that night immediately went from the best decision of my life to the worst with that one fateful pass. When the final whistle blew the feeling of accomplishment that was there after every game the Colt’s won was absent.

That's was possibly what hurt the most. We almost freaking had it.

But enough on that, head coach Jim Caldwell went to the Super Bowl in his first year, and shows every sign of being Tony Dungy 2.0.

The Colts will take the field at Houston on September 12 with the same guy as their starting quarterback. All will remain well for Indianapolis’ high powered offense with Reggie Wayne making the pro-bowl barring some freak accident. Pierre Garcon should continue torching defenses with his speed for big plays. Austin Collie and Anthony Gonzalez will duke it out for balls thrown their way which is not a bad problem to have for this team. Oh and we still have the best receiving TE in this fine land in the fan favorite, Dallas Clark.

Defensively it seems like everyone has forgotten about Bob Sanders which is surprising considering how he has lit up opponents with monster hits his entire career. The defensive line should be stacked with Dwight Freeney and Robert Mathis continuing to give opposing quarterbacks nightmares. Antoine Beathea is a beast and will continue to develop into an even better playmaker than he already is. Love love love, Jerraud Powers, he looks like a quicker scarier version of Freeney and should be an excellent addition to their fast paced defense.

The run game is the X-factor with Joseph Addai and Donald Brown splitting touches. Addai is consistent, a good blocker and pass catcher who works well in the Indy offense. Brown has big play potential though and I think if he starts getting more touches the run game as a whole would benefit greatly. His final play from scrimmage before an injury last year was a 40-yard scamper against the St. Louis Rams and his ceiling is high, especially in Indy’s high octane offense where he won’t be concentrated on.

The schedule is the one part that worries me. I’ll admit it, usually I think the Colts will role over all their opponents, maybe get knocked off by someone in their division; but in  Manning I trust. At the same time at first glance a fan can only raise their eyebrow at the number of high caliber offenses and just plain good football teams my Colts face this year. 

Anyone in their division has tended to be a crap shoot in years past with games usually being decided in the final five minutes. The New York Giants comes to town in the second week and Eli Manning will be looking to upset his big brother. At Denver the next week, a talented defense coached by Bill Belichick disciple Josh McDaniels. The altitude of Mile High Stadium causes players to have trouble with stamina and the Colts will need to bring their A game right out of the gate.

Indy travels to Washington in Week 6, which I wouldn’t have worried about last year but with Donovan McNabb at the helm I expect the Redskins offense to be a more in sync unit than in the past.

The Colts have then their bye week, Houston at home followed by another trip east to the high flying Philadelphia Eagles. Say what you will but these two teams are each capable of putting a lot of points on the board so the defense needs to step up this year or Peyton could find himself in more shootouts than he’s comfortable with. And when teams know Manning is throwing for certain it allows them to focus their attention on different blitzing schemes that have been known to frustrate our gunslinger (see Belichick).

Then comes the make or break four game stretch of the season, really the whole schedule is just booming with talented football teams but, Cincinnati at home followed by a trip to New England before welcoming the San Diego Chargers and Dallas Cowboys into town.

That makes five teams who were in the playoffs last year. Beating all these teams is a pretty high mountain for the Colts to climb.

The Colts end the season against the Tennessee Titans in two games out of four. Jeff Fischer’s squad will be prepared and possibly in the hunt for the postseason with Vince Young looking like he has realized his potential and Chris Johnson’s ceiling being unlimited right now.

I'm not saying Indy doesn’t make the playoffs but I do expect more losses than last year. 12 wins would be defined as an incredibly successful season in my book heading into the postseason.

Coming off the Super Bowl loss, the Colts have done little to nothing to change their approach because well, it clearly works. With Manning at the helm Indy will score enough to keep them in the game but even he can’t beat everyone in the pass happy league. Though I'll still take my chances going into each game as a fan.

Either way football’s back thank God, Sunday’s will take on another meaning in a couple weekends and our boys in blue should be able to look forward to another successful year. Go Colts.