People talk about lack of effort and professionalism with the playoffs on the line but...

2021: off to a bad 1-4 start, the Colts run off to an 8-2 stretch and have a shot at the playoffs, they just need 1 more W to get the spot, and can do it with a home win vs Raiders, or a road win at Jax. They lost a tight one to the Raiders, and completely no-showed 26-11 vs Jags

2022: bad team goes up 33-0 vs Minnesota at halftime. Loses 36-33

2023: Up and down season, 8-6 record with a slim shot at playoffs, get blown out on Christmas eve by the Falcons, 29-10.

When the pressure's on, this team melts and has done so 4 years in a row.

Everyone is talking a lot of about this past game, but this is a trend that predates Steichen, it predates AR. There is something else with this team that STINKS.

Some of these guys are mentally weak and have a loser mentality.

Flat Bill Fucko doesn't focus on finding football players, he is convinced all you have to do is run fast and jump high and it's all good!

FUCK FLAT BILL FUCKO!

So I hadn’t really paid any attention to that Franklin podcast thing but I just read about it.

No big deal he was trash talking the giants imo, that’s a nothing burger. What really gets me is the claim “I’m tired of battling good teams, tired of battling Houston, give me a bad team so I can get my rating up”

Seriously? What the actual fuck? If that’s the attitude these guys have they can’t be cut fast enough. No nfl team benefits from players who think like that.

The Patty Mac rant about how few players he would keep- is DEAD ON!

Gut this piece of shit! Keep ONLY those players that care about being a good football team, any of the ME>WE fuckers, send them packing!

Yea I watched that this morning, he listed Nelson, Pittman, Pierce, DeFo, Kenny Moore.
I'd list a few more, like Josh Downs, Grover Stewart, and maybe even Kwity Paye and Latu (neither produced much this year, but I think they can be good, but I don't know if they have this same loser mentality that Pat is talking about)

Of course I like some of the other guys on the oline, many are injured like the French Fries combo, I think they're good, we just didn't have them all season. Raimann is workable. I'm OK with Glowinski being back but he's 32. The depth from guys like Bortolini and Goncalves and Pinter, they can stay if they have the right mindset.

What a total douche.

And I hate to break it to Franklin, but the Colts schedule this year has been super soft - which certainly includes our opponents offenses. We had a tough stretch w/ Minn, Det, and Buff over 4 games, but aside from those 3 the only other top 10 scoring Os we've played is the Donks who are 10th (technically GB is 9th but not counting them since they had Willis at QB instead of Love when we played them).

On the flip side we've had 7 games against bottom 10 Os and it'll be 8 when we play the Jagoffs Sunday. We also played the Fins w/out Tua, which is a bottom 5 O (they're 22nd overall this season).

Someone should also point out to Franklin that our worst D performances have come against the worst Os that we've played, which clearly ponits to a lack of effort on our Ds part.

o


3 Colts Make Pro Bowl Despite Disappointing Season, Missing Playoffs

(By Joel A. Erickson)

https://www.indystar.com/story/sport...r/77398680007/



1) l Quenton Nelson, the team’s stalwart left guard, made his 7th Pro Bowl in 7 seasons, a remarkable pace for any offensive lineman and a reflection of Nelson’s dominance over the years.

Nelson is the 20th player to make the Pro Bowl in his first seven seasons in the league, 13 of those players are in the Hall of Fame -- Jim Brown, Dick Butkus, Lou Creekmur, Joe Greene, Franco Harris, Merlin Olsen, Mel Renfro, Les Richter, Barry Sanders, Lawrence Taylor, Derrick Thomas, Joe Thomas and Patrick Willis. Of the other six, four aren't eligible yet (Aaron Donald, A.J. Green, Tyreke Hill and Patrick Peterson.)


2) l Jonathan Taylor, the team’s best offensive weapon, made his second Pro Bowl for a season in which he’s rushed for 1,254 yards, currently 7th in the NFL, and scored 10 touchdowns. Taylor’s season has also been marred by a couple of high-profile mistakes, notably fumbling before crossing the goal line in Denver, but he has also been the driving force for the offense down the stretch.


3) l Middle linebacker Zaire Franklin was named to the first Pro Bowl of his career. Franklin leads the NFL with 165 tackles, and he’s added 2.5 sacks, 2 interceptions and 4 forced fumbles despite struggling in coverage at times.



ALTERNATES: l Indianapolis defensive tackle l DeForest Buckner, lwho ranks second on the team in both sacks (6.5) and quarterback hits (13) despite missing essentially 6 games due to a high ankle sprain, and veteran center l Ryan Kelly, lwho has 4 previous Pro Bowl nods but missed 7 games this year, are alternates.

o

o


The Colts and Jim Irsay Could Have Made Major Changes ...... Here’s Why They Chose Continuity Instead

(By James Boyd)

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/604...chris-ballard/

o

I don’t have a subscription. Can you paraphrase?

Nothing really insightful. Ballard was kept because GM job isn’t as attractive when you are forced to keep a HC and QB you may not believe in. Even if a candidate takes it it likely means it’s a wasted year and HC and QB may not really get full support they need. Steichen is kept because as much as AR has struggled you don’t want him having to learn a new system. AR is basically in what is likely a make or break year. General tone on Ballard was negative, mentions him having 9 lives and AR likely won’t get the same number of chances.