They didn't play like a 2-14 team in that game against the Colts. The Colts still should have found a way to win that game, but Lawrence looked pretty good in that game, and Marvin Joes made clutch catch after clutch catch. Lawrence did not look good in some of those blowout losses, but all of a sudden looked like the kid I saw in college in that last game...just looked a little suspicious to me.

I just want to note that I have no issues with Irsay making the call on Wentz. It was a call that had to be made, and it appears the other two in charge of making the decision were divided. It was the right decision.

Every Jags player was trying to save their jobs with that last game. If Wentz had stepped up he would probably still be a Colt.

NFL = not for long. No player is tanking to help the team get better draft picks so they can be replaced. They play to get paid.

Maybe the game finally slowed down for him.

It wasnt just Wentz. The colts played terrible on defense, the d couldnt get off the field

I've heard this argument many times, play calling, preparation, personnel choices/playing time, all play a role in a teams success. I will never believe that teams are not throttled back at times in the NFL to improve draft order...same with the NBA!

I'm sure Eberflus' D and giving his receivers 10 yards of cushion on every play had a lot to do with that.

o


Whenever the topic of NFL teams tanking comes up, I always immediately think of what the 2011 Colts did in their final 3 games of the season.


In 2011, Peyton Manning was out for the entire year with a neck injury. The Colts started the season at 0-13. They seemed well on their way to getting the #1 overall pick (the Andrew Luck Sweepstakes) when they won 2 games in a row, and went right down to the wire in the final game of the season ........ a game in which it would have cost them that 1st overall pick had they won it, as the St. Louis Rams also went 2-14 that season. In that final game against the Jaguars, I remember the Colts scoring a touchdown late in the 4th quarter to cut the deficit to 19-13, and then calling timeouts on defense to try to get the ball back when the Jaguars were trying to run out the clock.

What the Colts did in those final 3 games of that season (and especially what they were doing late in the 4th quarter of the season finale) was the antithesis of tanking, with almost the entire football world waiting to see which team would be selecting Andrew Luck.

o

The NFL does not have guaranteed contracts. The players are not throwing games for the owners, they can get cut any time, any day.

Oh, and since the NFL has gotten involved with gambling, anyone caught point shaving is going to jail. The players are not going to help owners to tank games, if they do, they are cutting their own throats.

It had to do with a lack of healthy safeties