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Originally Posted by Colts And Orioles
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In 2008, Matt Cassel stepped in and led the New England Patriots to an 11-5 record when starting quarterback when Tom Brady missed the season with an injury.
Those 2008 Patriots were essentially a playoff team, save for the fact that the stacked AFC that season made the Patriots only the 2nd team since the 16-game schedule was inaugurated in 1978 to fail to to qualify for the postseason (the 1985 Broncos also went 11-5 without a playoff berth.)
This article asserts that when Chris Ballard was hired as the Colts' GM almost 3 years ago, he made sure to point out that one player does not make a football team (a direct reference to star quarterback Andrew Luck.) Ballard wanted to build a complete team so that the weight of the franchise wouldn’t be placed entirely on Luck's shoulders, as it did with the way that the Colts' disastrous 2011 season played out when Peyton Manning missed that entire year with an injury.
So as much of a punch to the stomach that Andrew Luck's sudden retirement was to the Colts and their fans, we will all get to see if the 2019 Colts team that Ballard largely put together can somehow replicate the 2008 Patriots, the 1968 Colts (who went 13-1 and made it to the Super Bowl with Earl Morrall replacing Johnny Unitas at QB), or the 1972 Dolphins (who went 14-0 and won the Super Bowl with Earl Morrall filling in for the injured Bob Griese for more than half of the regular season, plus one-and-a-half of their 3 post-season games.)
If nothing else, it will be interesting to see how this all plays out.
Jacoby Brissett is No Andrew Luck, but His 'Story's is Just Starting' for the Colts
(By Mike Wells)
https://www.espn.com/blog/indianapol...ting-for-colts
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10 WEEKS LATER ) (Halfway Mark)
While the Colts lost yesterday in extremely frustrating fashion, the fact that the game went right down to the wire without Jacoby Brissett for the majority of the contest emphasizes the point that was made by Chris Ballard before the season started ........ that this is indeed a solid, competitive
TEAM, with or without Andrew Luck, and even more so, even without Jacoby Brissett.
Yes, the loss sucked, as did the disappointing overall performance against the Raiders, and the very winnable game that the Colts lost to the Chargers ........ even the win against the Broncos was somewhat disappointing in spite of the fact that the Colts won the game, considering how bad of a team that the Broncos are. But the bottom line appears to have been confirmed ........ whether it be Andrew Luck, Jacoby Brisett, or even Brian Hoyer taking the snaps from center, I don't think that there is a team in the league that looks at their schedule and presumes that they will get an easy win when they play the Colts. I don't think that even the best teams in the league (the Patriots, the Chiefs, the 49ers, the Packers, the Saints, etc) look at the Colts in that manner. And so at the halfway mark of the 2019 season, I suspect that Chris Ballard is very likely pleased with his effort to not make the Indianapolis Colts a one-man show.
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