Peyton Manning: How One Player Can Truly Be the Difference

"The Indianapolis Colts of the NFL will start 0-6 in 2011."

How many people would have agreed with that statement last season, or better yet, even before this one?

Even with star quarterback Peyton Manning not playing, no one saw this coming. It has been a nightmare mixed with a catastrophe in Indianapolis.

After not being any worse than 10-6 since 2001, during which they won a Super Bowl title, the Colts are now in the sewage of NFL bottom feeders.

And it all comes back to one occurrence, one missing piece of a winning team's puzzle.

And it just so happens to be the biggest piece you could have taken from any team in the NFL.

When Peyton Manning was announced as injured, we all knew that without him, the Colts' season would be pronounced dead.

But 0-6?

We would have taken the NFL Live method and yelled, "C'mon Man!"

Yet here the Colts are. The same players that people thought were stars on the offensive side of the ball are proving to be no more than players reaping the benefits of Peyton Manning's perfect system.

But now the man that has made everything click in Indy is in the press box watching this clunk of a team. Who thought one player could make this much impact?

Dallas Clark is healthy, and so is Jeff Saturday. Austin Collie, Pierre Garcon, and Anthony Gonzalez are all off the mend.

So what else could it be besides the absence of the All-World QB?

Gonzalez rarely plays, Collie only has 127 yards receiving in six games (and five catches in his past three), and Clark is also under 200 yards.

Most surprising of all is what has transpired with Reggie Wayne.

Wayne has one touchdown all season, and there is an outside chance of him being traded.

The Colts would be idiotic to trade Wayne, but that's not the point. The point is, every wideout on this team looks rather pedestrian without Manning.

It's not completely their fault. Not even close. Bringing along an ancient QB like Kerry Collins did no good whatsoever.

Chris Painter doesn't exactly have bad numbers, but there's no leadership there, no picking apart defenses like Manning did so often.

It seemed Indy's window was closing for another Super Bowl run, even before Manning underwent off-season neck surgeries.

That window is now left at just a crack, with the only air coming through it being the hope of Manning returning in regular form at some point.

But as for this season's window, it was closed from the beginning.

News of Manning's lost season was nonstop sports fodder, but did we really think it would be this bad?

To be fair, the Colts have had somewhat close contests in every game they've played. But if No.18 were playing, they could have all been wins.

So after a 27-17 loss to a revived Bengals squad, the Colts are one of three teams that have yet to win a game this season.

Andy Dalton, a guy the Colts debated on picking in the first round of the NFL draft, led the way and Cincinnati now sports a solid 4-2 record.

Maybe it would have been smart for Indy to take Dalton and let him learn from the best, but it didn't happen.

Now the Colts' future is shaky. They seem like they may, in a way, wipe the slate clean.

But Manning is still there, though his future seems uncertain as well.

So this train wreck of a season will continue. Games against New Orleans, the AFC South-leading Titans, and the Falcons are up next for the Colts.

Meaning this abysmal season may only get worse, but the bigger picture may be of just as much concern in Indy.

One player's absence has taken all the success away from this franchise, just like that. The hard part is going to be getting it back.

But did any one think it would be this hard?