Colts deserve a mulligan for poor ‘05 finish

By Mike Ivanitch  |   Tuesday, August 22, 2006  |  Comments( 2 )

Indianapolis Colts
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You've seen the questions in articles all throughout the offseason and even now as the 2006 NFL campaign draws near. Are the Indianapolis Colts on the decline after their poor finish on the field in 2005? Have they peaked? Is their window closing on that elusive Super Bowl win?

Maybe those writers are onto something. Every decade since Nixon has had one or two hard-luck teams that get to the playoffs regularly but never wins the big one -- in the '70s it was the Minnesota Vikings, in the '80s the Denver Broncos and in the '90s, the Buffalo Bills.

While the Colts could be the next in line for that dubious honor, I think it's too early to say. I know, the offense slowed a bit last year, they let Edgerrin James sign with Arizona, and 34-year-old Marvin Harrison's reception total went down for the third season in a row. But don't forget they won 13 straight games in '05 and scored a gagillion points the year before.

Here's what I think happened last season. The Colts were on autopilot, coasting through their schedule like Walter Payton through a Detroit defense when, on Dec. 23, shocking news hit them like a tidal wave -- Tony Dungy's son James died suddenly at the age of 18. The young man who had most certainly been like a little brother to many of the Colts' players was gone -- tragically and suddenly taken from their world for seemingly no reason, his death heaping a heavy dose of reality on the team.

I have not lost a child in my life and won't pretend to know what that feels like. But I have lost a parent -- as I'm sure many people reading this article have -- and I know that a death in the family like that makes you stop and think about life on a much bigger and profound scale than the way you perceived it the day before. The details of your job seem much less important, you find it hard to concentrate, and you appreciate the people who are still around you for just being there -- even those you maybe didn't like so much before your personal loss.

I imagine that to a lesser or greater extent, Dungy's personal loss made each member of the Indianapolis Colts stop and think about their mortality, their individual families, maybe their own deceased loved ones. And perhaps at that point, the 2005 season, the 13-game winning streak or the road to the Super Bowl didn't seem that important for a few days and maybe weeks last winter.

The offensive output from last season bears that out. In their first 14 games the Colts scored an average of 30.1 points. In their final four games (including their playoff loss to the Steelers) -- 16.2.

True, other factors could, and probably did, affect the team's on-field results down the stretch, but likely none of them more than the death of the head coach's son.

If you're a fan of the team, a fantasy geek or a Las Vegas gambler, give the Colts a mulligan for last January's debacle. Their final four games should have an asterisk next to them. They still have great young talent on both sides of the ball, including a 6-foot-5, 230-pound quarterback in his prime with a laser, rocket arm (sorry, Sprint).

This team is fine. And there is no reason to believe 2006 won't be just as successful for the Colts as the last few years have been. Reserve your playoff tickets, draft Manning and Harrison, and go with "the over" every week. Now that the team's 2005 personal loss is fading into memory, it's back to the business of winning football games for the Indianapolis Colts.

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