Time for Colts to sleep in the bed they made

First appeared on September 28th, 2011
in The Lebanon Reporter

Don’t do it. Whatever happens, don’t fall into that trap. After all those years of practicing, it’s time to call upon your mad “Pitfall” skills by grabbing that vine and swinging over the trap door. Yes it’s been ugly and no Superman isn’t walking through that door anytime soon, but now is not the time to feel sorry for the Colts. The players maybe, but the organization definitely not.

If you want to feel sorry for someone try the people of Zimbabwe or all those who have received a re-gifted copy of Hilary Clinton’s autobiography as a belated birthday gift (not that the dog-eared pages were a dead giveaway or anything). Feel sorry for Fans of 'All My Children' or the kid whose parents are so cheap he’s forced to wear a black trash bag for Halloween, telling everyone he’s a meteorite while answering the same question 146 times: “now are you the one that hits Earth, or is that a meteoroid?” But don’t feel sorry for the Colts.

The day so many spoke of so often, the day all the talking heads warned would be here sooner rather than later has arrived. The moment Patriots fans all over the world have longed for in a not so secretive, Dick Cheney wants to go to war with someone-like manner has finally come. Peyton Manning can’t lace them up.

And while Sunday’s game went a long way towards keeping many Colts fans from slamming the door on the season, the clear reality now is this team won’t be very good this year. I don’t care how many tackles Joseph Addai plans on breaking (Sunday night was the hardest he’s ran since his rookie year) or how far Pat McAffee can kick the football, the Colts will struggle. Even if Dwight Freeney and Robert Mathis have record setting sack totals this season; this team will still struggle.

The cold hard truth is a series of unfortunate events have not put the Colts in this predicament. The Colts have no one to blame but themselves. They’re the ones who sent Jim Sorgi packing. They’re the ones who did not give Curtis Painter more reps in practice or, more importantly, some game time experience in all those 37-10 routs in which Manning held on to the very end racking up his sick stats.

They were the ones apparently hatching a plan to use Manning in Red Zone situations only instead of going into scramble mode to have a quarterback ready for the season. As a result, when it comes to running the offense with some level of comfort, Painter looks about as comfortable as Rick Perry trying to explain Mitt Romney’s penchant for flip-flopping.

The Colts organization are the ones who allowed Manning to usurp so much control he was basically quarterback, Team Captain, Offensive Coordinator, Quarterbacks Coach, Head Coach and head of Lucas Oil Stadium Security. So now it would seem the keys will be handed over to Painter. And while he did show signs of life Sunday night, he also missed a throw 57% of fans in attendance likely could have made. If there’s a silver lining for Colts fans it is found in the hope Painter’s story is yet to be written.

The good news in all of this is if the Colts go winless this year it will forever lay to rest the argument as to which is the better quarterback Manning or Brady; the bad news is you will have plenty of chances to watch them go winless as they will play 5 games this season in Prime Time.


© 2011 Eric Walker Williams