In summer, people were already declaring the Colts Super Bowl champions. They had just signed veteran players such as Andre Johnson and Frank Gore at wide receiver and running back so that they would win a championship before they rode into the sunset. Andrew Luck had proven that he was one of the top quarterback's in the league and with Peyton Manning along with Tom Brady both on the backside of their career's it was time for someone else to be the face of the league. Going along with that receiver T.Y. Hilton and tight end Cody Fleener were supposed to also be part of arguably the most unstoppable offense in NFL history.
All of this excitement before the season started and here we are almost two weeks in the season, and the Colts are sitting at an unimpressive 3-4 record with their only three wins in arguably the worst division in NFL history. So after all of this hype, what is the problem with the Indianapolis Colts?
Let us start by looking at the offense. Indianapolis has turned into the place where running backs come to die. A couple years ago, Trent Richardson was brought in from the Cleveland Browns and was pretty much a mistake right away. It seemed that almost every time he got the ball, he was either putting it back on the ground or getting back to the line of scrimmage if he was lucky.
This year, the Colts took possible hall - of - famer Frank Gore from San Francisco, and he has not been much better. While Gore did have a solid game against the Texans where he went over one-hundred yards, Gore has struggled for most of the season fumbling the ball inside the red-zone multiple times that have taken points off the board for the Colts, and has possibly costed a couple games for him. However, lets not put all of the blame on Gore, because there are five men on the offensive line who are supposed to be paving the way for him. The offensive line though has not been there. This has been the story of the Colts organization the last couple of years: there is no offensive line. This reason may have to do something with Andrew Luck being sidelined with an injury for a couple weeks earlier this year. Luck this year has struggled majorly and has continuously turned the ball over which has not been unusual of him, but being his third year into his career many people would have figured that he would have been making smarter decisions by now. Instead in the five games that he has played in, Luck has thrown eleven touchdowns while throwing nine interceptions which is one of the tops in the league.
The Colts defense has not helped very much either giving up 174 points this year in the first seven games. With this number, the defense has provided little chance for the offense to get on board, because they cannot get off the field. While the schedule has been tough for the Colts this year, there should be no excuses on why they have played this poorly. If they want to get back to playing at a championship level, their whole team will have to turn their mindset around and start winning games. While they will most likely get into the playoffs because of their division being so poor, the Colts will have to fix a lot of problems unless they want to be sent home early.
