Stampede Blue
Lets start with the elephant in the room. The three remaining teams on the schedule, are a combined 29 – 13. Two of those teams have beaten the Colts in the last three weeks and the third team is from the strongest division in the league and has every reason to treat the game as a must win. Another thing working against our guys is the injuries to Jones, Gardner, Ward, Smith, and Raimann, not to mention Buckner. We may get a couple of them back over the next three weeks, but this group makes up a healthy chuck of salary, so the team is missing much of the core that they were counting on.
Our QB is limited and I feel like I am being kind. Do you want to know why our OL looked serviceable against one of the top defenses last week? Seattle didn’t go after Rivers much at all. Rather than sending an extra guy that would leave an opening somewhere in the secondary, they correctly decided that since the ball was coming out quickly, just make him throw into tighter windows. Without the threat of the deep ball, they had seven guys to cover 15 – 20 yards. It is basically a red zone defense, no matter where you are on the field.
So, looking at the charts, if the Colts go 3 – 0, they have approximately a one in three chance to make the playoffs as the division winner, the 6th seed, or the 7th seed. It would mean that there was only a 2% chance that they were excluded from the tourney.
Starting with game one, lets dream that there is a raucous crowd for a Monday Night game and the defense forces four turnovers, with one of them producing immediate points. Rivers and Grupe stay clean and the Colts emerge victorious. In the mean time, The Jags lose to Denver and the Texans handle the Raiders, but maybe a physical game slows them down a little. Colts 9 -6, Jags 10 – 5, Texans 10-5.
During our game, we again see Rivers trying to loosen his shoulder on the sidelines. He tries to soldier through it, but a total quacker of a pass makes him realize that he simply cant threaten the D with his arm and he hands over the reigns to his mentee. Leonard looks calmer and Rivers is in his ear between each series to the point that the 6th rounder actually looks good. A couple of “dag-gummits, you can do this” later, Leonard looks more like a guy at the end of his first season, rather than the beginning. I have not made it a secret that I believe that Leonard gives us the better chance to win, because we can use more of the playbook. If Rivers can’t go and knows he cant go, he has to make the call.
Week 17 sees Jacksonville come to town with a 60% chance to win the South with...
