INDIANAPOLIS —They’re playing with house money now, the Indianapolis Colts. By winning 11 regular-season games and the AFC South and then a playoff game at home, they’ve done what they needed to do, had to do, and now this football season can be seen as a success. And anything they do from here on out — starting Sunday in Denver, and even (gulp) beyond — is a bonus.
That’s not how the Colts are seeing it. Believe that. But this story isn’t about them.
It’s about you.
About you, me, all of us who care about the Colts and think about them, dwell on them, measure them and judge them. Fans, media.
And for us, for you, the Colts are now playing with house money. I’m not trying to be condescending to the Colts, but fair. Given what they have to work with, the combination of talent and experience on roster, it seems right — it seems fair — to say they have met expectations and to view whatever happens Sunday in Denver in that light.
If they lose, as they should — look, it’s a road game in Denver, for crying out loud — there is no shame in that. The sky is not falling, the season is not failing, the world is not ending. If they lose Sunday, villagers should not show up at the Colts facility on 56th Street with rocks and torches.
(No, the villagers here would never do such a thing. It’s a metaphor. Work with me, huh?)
If they win in Denver, as they could — for crying out loud, did you see that throw Andrew Luck made against the Cincinnati Bengals? — that’s a bonus. That’s a gift. That makes the season not merely a success, a meeting of expectations, but an overachievement. Already the Colts of 2014 have been something to remember fondly, but if they beat the Broncos to advance to the AFC championship game, that would make the Colts of 2014 one of the better stories in franchise history.
The Colts have done what they needed to do. This isn’t where any of us were back in October when the Colts were 5-2 and winners of five in a row and considered among the best teams in the AFC, maybe one spot behind Denver. A lot has changed since.
And what we know now is this:
The Colts’ defense isn’t what we thought it was earlier in the season when it was slamming the door 38 times on 41 third-down opportunities. Back then, teams were stupid enough to throw at Vontae Davis. They don’t anymore. The Colts’ defense remains good enough to dominate the AFC South and also the A.J. Green-less Bengals, but that’s a low bar. The bar is about to elevate rapidly.
The Colts’ offense isn’t what we thought it was. Halfway into the season, the Colts were on pace to break franchise records for points, yards and passing yards, and these weren’t just any records. These were Peyton Manning records from 2004. But the final month of this season exposed the Colts’ offense for what it is, with running back Ahmad Bradshaw injured and out and receiver Reggie Wayne injured and ailing and the offensive line clipped into place like Lego pieces and Boom Herron productive but fumble-prone.
The Colts of earlier in the season are not the Colts of now, and the Colts of now are the ones who will be asked to beat Denver, and then most likely New England, and then whatever monster NFC team awaits in the Super Bowl. Can the Colts do all of that? Sure they can. Is it right to expect it, and to hold it against them if they do not? No way.
