Bermuda Triangle popular December destination

First appeared on December 15th, 2010
in The Lebanon Reporter

In 20th Century Fox’s soon to be released movie “Gulliver’s Travels”, Jack Black plays a travel writer who stumbles into the Bermuda Triangle. As you can probably surmise, once there life as he knows it changes dramatically.


For almost a decade life as fans of the Indianapolis Colts have known it has included twelve win seasons and a string of playoff appearances. And as the 2010-11 season began there was no reason to believe things would be changing anytime soon.

Enter the Bermuda Triangle. Or, perhaps more accurately, this is the point at which the Colts entered the Bermuda Triangle. Either way, looking up at Jacksonville in the AFC South with a 7-6 record, it’s safe to say these are uncharted waters for this current group of Indianapolis Colts.

The lexicon of the average Colt fan includes oft-used terms like undefeated, home field advantage, record setting and MVP season; but what is this “must win game”? Fundamentally the concept of having to win any one particular game is foreign to the Manning era Colts.

And before you go all “there’s no bigger must win than a Super Bowl!” on me, let me stop you. A must win game the Super Bowl is not. The Super Bowl is confirmation of one’s prowess, the culmination of a long season of hard work. Super Bowls’ don’t smack of desperation in the way must win games do.

Must win is a term that haunts the dreams of mediocre teams and lame-duck coaches. Teams who face a must win have, at some point, generally bungled all other opportunities at success. Must win games conjure images of teams who fell short of their promise.

The idea of the Colts ever playing a must win game was previously unheard of. About as unlikely as Obama’s approval numbers ever reaching Bush the Second level or Hollywood remaking a movie that wasn’t all that good to begin with; like say “Tron” for example. This is the part of the season where the Colts are supposed to blow the season by sitting their starters, not by actually losing a game.

For years we’ve raved over the way Manning’s “laser, rocket-arm” and Bill Polian’s eye for talent have enabled this team to win more games than the experts forecasted. Now, as the franchise drifts into the unknown abyss that is the mythical vortex of sub-reality known as the Bermuda Triangle, some are questioning Manning’s decisions and suddenly there’s a “Help Wanted” sign in the window of the Colts front office.

And as so many pronounce the Patriots and trumpet the Chargers as the Darth Vader to the Colts’ Luke Skywalker, here comes a match up with the one team that has been the proverbial thorn in the side of Indianapolis for many years now.

If there’s one team the Colts should fear in the AFC South it’s this week’s opponent. If someone can line up and pound the ball down their throat it’s the Jaguars. If anybody can hog the clock and keep Manning on the sideline it’s Jacksonville. Sunday the Jaguars can drive the first in a rapid succession of nails effectively burying the Colts’ season.

During his trip through the Bermuda Triangle, Jack Black discovers an air of invincibility after battling a navy comprised of sailors who are less than 6 inches tall. The Colts would do well to relocate the air of invincibility they once wore like a badge of honor. The trouble for Indy is that Jacksonville will likely put up a bit more resistance than any tiny navy lobbing pea sized cannonballs ever could.