They are pissing it away, fast and quick.....
From the IndyStar.com:
Now or never for the ColtsIt's unfamiliar ground for these Colts. Not even halfway into the season, they face a three-game stretch that could virtually end their playoff hopes. Experts say a turnaround won't be easy.
At 3-3 and facing a game at undefeated Tennessee on ESPN's "Monday Night Football," followed by New England and Pittsburgh, the Indianapolis Colts are a team on the precipice. Lose Monday, and coach Tony Dungy said the Colts' hopes of a sixth consecutive AFC South title vanish.
His players have heard him.
"We've just got to win. That's a given," cornerback Marlin Jackson said. "We've got to win this game. It's just plain and simple."
The Colts are up against it. Lose Monday, and they're 3-4. They would need a 7-2 finish to reach 10-6, a nice number but nothing more.
"Going 10-6 doesn't guarantee a playoff spot," linebacker Gary Brackett offered. "The only thing that can guarantee us a playoff spot is winning our division."
Since divisional realignment and the current playoff system were adopted in 2002, only two AFC teams have made the playoffs with 9-7 records: Cleveland in 2002 and Kansas City in 2006. Three have gone 10-6 and been left home: Miami in 2003, Kansas City in 2005 and Cleveland last season.
Tennessee (6-0) is playing the NFL's best football. New England (4-2) visits Lucas Oil Stadium the following Sunday. There's a trip to Pittsburgh (5-1) the week after, and the Colts have yet to beat a team with a winning record.
"We're 3-3," Dungy said. "We're a team that wins one, loses one, plays well part of the time, not well part of the time.
"We have the makings of a good team. We have enough individual components to be very good, but right now we're not clicking on all cylinders."
It's early, but time for sputtering has grown short.
The Colts have been musing on their inconsistencies and potential remedies for seven weeks. Time for an informed outside perspective. Phil Simms, CBS television's lead NFL analyst, covered the Colts' last two games, vs. Baltimore and at Green Bay, which showed the team at its best and worst this season. ESPN's Ron Jaworski has the Colts next week, on "Monday Night Football," and has reviewed tape of all of their games.
Some of their observations:
Simms said it takes a very good team to win three or four consecutive games. The Colts have won six or more in succession five times over the past four seasons. Their longest streak this year is two. It's not reasonable, said both analysts, to expect dominance season after season.
Simms: "You've designed a way to run the franchise and the team and it works unbelievable well. Some day it's going to change. Don't we all know that? It hasn't rained in 100 days. Well some day it's going to rain. I don't know when, but by God, some day it's going to rain.
"I think what maybe caught me off guard in Green Bay were the penalties. The penalties were alarming and maybe the biggest thing was the Packers, to my eye, looked faster. That's what would worry me if I was a Colts fan."
Jaworski: "I'm not surprised. They've played at such a high level for such a long time. There always is an ebb and a flow for an organization over a period of time."
Undefeated Tennessee will be playing its first Monday night game in four years, against the team toward whom it has been pointing all season. Tough game. Tough situation. The Colts' season could cave in.
Jaworski: "I think this is almost their season. Monday night is huge. I know it's early in the season and we sometimes put too much importance on games in the middle of the season, but I think when a team is really searching for their identity, which the Colts are right now, they've really got to get a win.
"They go to 3-4 and Tennessee jumps out by four games and the tiebreaker, you don't even think about division anymore. You're thinking about, 'Man, how do we squeeze into the playoffs and be playing well at the end?' "
Simms: "The Colts are on the road for the second week. Tennessee played probably a pretty unemotional game in Baltimore, week off, then Kansas City, where they didn't spend a lot of emotion, either. Now they've got Monday night. That whole bag's full and it's all coming out."
Jaworski holds that injuries to Pro Bowl center Jeff Saturday, left tackle Tony Ugoh, left guard Ryan Lilja and swingman Dan Federkeil and the need to go with rookies Jamey Richard and Mike Pollak as starters has disrupted more than the efficiency of the offensive line. It has affected the entire offense, the entire team.
Jaworski: "The one thing their offense has been devoid of this year is the play-action big play. (Quarterback) Peyton Manning, who's going to go down as one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time, I'm seeing the cumulative effect of all the hits he's been taking. He's always played at a little frenetical pace, but I see him getting rid of the ball a little bit quicker, maybe not as patient waiting for it to happen downfield.
"The big plays are there, but the time isn't there to get the ball down the field because when you're throwing post patterns and deep crosses, you're going to need 3-plus seconds. He's not getting that type of time."
The scarcity of big plays has contributed to the Colts' 21.3 scoring average, more than a touchdown off any of the past five years. The way the Colts are constructed, Jaworski said, requires the Colts defense to play from ahead.
Jaworski: "It's always been that way. The Super Bowl year, down the stretch, the defense really played well and in the playoffs was absolutely fantastic, but this is a defense that needs points at their back. They need to play with the lead."
Simms knows that in terms of the AFC South, in terms of securing a playoff spot, it's late. But the Colts have played only six games, he stressed. It's too early to say where the season, much less the franchise, is headed. One thing that doesn't concern him is the notion that, in his seventh season, coach Tony Dungy has lost his team, that his players have quit hearing him.
Simms: "That never crossed my mind. I think there's a big enough turnover with the team and I look at the stars, Peyton Manning, Dwight Freeney, Marvin Harrison, Reggie Wayne and Bob Sanders, I can't imagine they've lost any of their will to get it done. When (Dungy) has that group behind him, the team's going to listen because those guys are going to listen and lead the way. The rest are just going to follow."
The next three weeks will do a lot to determine where.
Then again, here's why you don't want to start 3-4
Of the 168 teams to reach the conference finals in the Super Bowl era, only seven started the season 3-4. And only one of those lost its next game: the 1996 Jaguars, who actually lost their next two and three of four to start 4-7, and still somehow found their way to the AFC title game.
Moral of the story, that anomaly aside? If you start 3-4, you had better start winning in a hurry.
http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081024/SPORTS03/810240392
