As the snow melts and the great blizzard of 2014 becomes a memory, so too the 2013 Colts season is now in the NFL history books. It was a great run for the Horseshoe, filled with dramatic ups and downs, unforgettable plays, and hair pulling moments of frustration for the Big Blue Nation. The Colts were both giant killers and ridiculous chumps during the course of the season knocking off such top rated teams as the San Francisco 49ers, the Seattle Seahawks, and the Denver Broncos which are three of the four teams left in the semi final round of the playoffs. However, losses to the Miami Dolphins, San Diego Chargers, Arizona Cardinals, Cincinnati Bengals, and particularly the St. Louis Rams were troubling in that the Big Blue was not just beaten by the these teams, they were thoroughly dominated and in three cases humiliated by their opponents. In the St. Louis Rams loss, the Colts were particularly ineffective in all phases of the game offensively, defensively, and on special teams. Career backup Kellen Clemens started at quarterback for the Rams and had a career day against the Colt defense with 245 yards and two touchdown passes. The Rams rookie wideout and kick return man scored five touchdowns all season. Three of those touchdowns were against the Colts. The Bengals game saw the Colt defense manhandled by the Cincinnati offense in both the rushing and passing game. The 42 points they gave up to the Bengals was the most of the regular season.
A Colts fan could say that given the number of injuries to key players, particularly on the offense, the team responded surprisingly well. Offensive guard Donald Stone, tight end Dwayne Allen, and running back Vic Ballard were all lost for the season after the opening game with Oakland Raiders. Free agent running back Ahmad Bradshaw was putting some juice in the running game when he went down with a neck injury in the Seattle win. But the most devastating injury, at least from the point of view of Andrew Luck, was when Reggie Wayne went down in the Denver game with a torn ACL. Reggie was the rock of the offense. The guy went to where he was needed to make the play. There wasn’t anyone on the roster who could fill the gap that Reggie’s loss caused. Second year wideout T. Y. Hilton rose to the opportunity and emerged as the new “go-to” guy in the Colt offense.
In 2012, new GM Ryan Grigson earned some well-deserved plaudits for the job he did in acquiring talent for the rebuilding team in both the draft and in free agent signings. Unfortunately, his 2013 acquisitions did not pan out as well. In order to strengthen the defense, particularly the pass rush and secondary, he added some big name talent. None of these signings paid off in any big way. Offensively, there was an attempt to give Andrew Luck more weapons and better protection; again the new acquisitions didn’t work out as planned. Former Oakland Raider wideout Darrius Heyward-Bey had the home crowd in fits with his drops and poor execution. He was benched when some of the younger players emerged as more viable alternatives. The draft class was undistinguished except for third round pick offensive guard Hugh Thornton, who wound up starting 14 games at the left guard spot and improved with every game. First round pick, linebacker/defensive end Bjoern Werner picked up a bit in the second half of the season after being relatively invisible in the first half. It will be the trade for Trent Richardson, however, that will probably go down as one of the great Colts’ blunders of all time. Giving up a 2014 pick for “T-Rich” may come back to haunt us for a long time and could have been responsible for the morale problem at mid-season when it became glaringly obvious that he wasn’t working out.
Okay, so why did the Colts win the AFC south and advance to the playoffs if the season was such a disaster? We got some help from our division rivals. The Jacksonville Jaguars were considered the worst team in football for much of the season. The Tennessee Titans finished 7-9 to place second in the division. It wasn’t enough to save the job of Head Coach Mike Munchak who was fired at season’s end. The real shock was the demise of the Houston Texans. Going into the 2013 season, the Texans were a popular pick to be the AFC representative in the Super Bowl, so their collapse was that much more shocking. Quarterback Matt Schaub, once considered a solid performer, saw his game totally fall apart and he was benched at mid-season. The vaunted Texan running game ran out of gas and the defense that was so frightening in 2012 just disappeared. Head Coach Gary Kubiak was the first coach to be fired, this after he suffered a mini-stroke during the Colts game. So the Colts, who had started their rebuilding program in 2012, found themselves ahead of the game. They were the only NFL team to go undefeated in inter-divisional games in 2013.
The coaching staff led by Chuck Pagano is emerging as one of the better staffs in the AFC. Coach Pagano has shown himself to be a great motivator and game manager and the rest of the staff has been able to get the most out of what they have to work with. Coach Pagano and his staff have been invited to coach one of the Pro Bowl squads and deservedly so.
The big reason for the Colts success was Andrew Luck. In his second season, he has emerged as one of the NFLs top players as well as one of the game’s most accomplished quarterbacks. He will probably not have the passing numbers of, say, Peyton Manning, but his games won and championship rings may be among the best. His ability to hold the team together and pull the fat out of the fire is becoming legend. Eleven of his twenty-two wins have come from behind victories won in the fourth quarter. That’s the most of any active quarterback and that is in just two seasons. It was the playoff game against the Kansas City Chiefs that was perhaps his greatest moment. Down by four touchdowns in the third quarter, Luck drove his team to a win with his sheer unwillingness to lose. His touchdown scored with a Donald Brown fumble from the five yard line in the fourth quarter was one of the great single plays in Colts history and will be on highlight reels for years to come. The Chiefs game was a contest for the ages and will always be talked about whenever Andrew Luck’s name is mentioned. As one expert said “It was the first of what will be many great playoff games in which Andrew Luck will play.” Without Andrew Luck the Colts are a mediocre and rudderless group of unmotivated individuals, and with him they are contenders. Yes, he’s that good! For Colts fans, Number 12 is the real deal, the comeback kid, THE GUY!
So now what? The Colts start building for 2014. The draft will probably not produce a great deal of young talent. The team has traded away several key picks, including the first round pick. This will hinder their ability to grab some of the big name college players that will be available. The Colts will probably not have their first selection until the 24th or 25th pick of the second round. Most of the really big name players will be gone by then. Having said that, there are supposedly some solid wide receivers and offensive linemen available in the mid-rounds of the draft. If the Colts can add some of that talent to the roster, that will certainly be to their benefit. It will be in free agency that the Colts will have to build the club. The Big Blue is $30,000,000 under the cap, which is a nice chunk of change. Hopefully they will use it to add some quality players to the defense and the offensive line. The Colts are still a work in progress and a little patience is needed from the media and the fans. So congratulations to the Indianapolis Colts organization on a successful 2013 campaign and best of “Luck” in the future. GO HORSESHOE!
snicewanger@yahoo.com