It was a good season, but a bad year

[Lucky Colts Fan 5,602]

Glad 2020 is over.

 

We made some noise.

 

Good season for the Colts.

 

[DEColtsLover36 850]

[ColtStrong2013 1,933]

True. And I have held the belief that this team, with Rivers coming in and leading a team he hadn’t played a minute with, during a pandemic with tons of restrictions, turned out pretty dang good. He was a huge upgrade, and the wins came. We are getting there. Cannot wait to watch Ballard and company work this offseason. 

[tucky89 46]

Maybe I was spoiled by the Manning era. But there was a time when I expected the Colts to win every game. SB or bust.

 

It's been way too long since we've been  in SB or bust mode.

[GoColts8818 4,688]

The Colts were a fun and welcome distraction to the hell that was 2020.  Couldn’t agree more.  I am glad they found a way to get the season in.  

[coming on strong 1,154]

what hurts so bad is the colts could of easily won the game. I expected the bills to win by 30  so i was calm during the first half of the game . When the colts kept it so close i really thought it was destiny and rivers would get his ring . if the colts can be a couple self inflicted mistakes away from beating the best team in the nfl they would easily win the super bow if they won yesterday .  I hope the colts can keep this team together the cap is a huge issue so many players are free agents next year it seems like half the team is a free agent and colts dont have a big salary cap to keep everyone .

[Bolts2Colts 303]

4 minutes ago, coming on strong said:

what hurts so bad is the colts could of easily won the game. I expected the bills to win by 30  so i was calm during the first half of the game . When the colts kept it so close i really thought it was destiny and rivers would get his ring . if the colts can be a couple self inflicted mistakes away from beating the best team in the nfl they would easily win the super bow if they won yesterday .  I hope the colts can keep this team together the cap is a huge issue so many players are free agents next year it seems like half the team is a free agent and colts dont have a big salary cap to keep everyone .

Agreed, they definitely weren’t outmatched. The way they played against Bills and Packers makes me believe they could have won it all. 
 

You always think oh they were so close it will be so easy to return even better next year but it can be so hard. Just look at 49ers. 

[coming on strong 1,154]

3 minutes ago, Bolts2Colts said:

Agreed, they definitely weren’t outmatched. The way they played against Bills and Packers makes me believe they could have won it all. 
 

You always think oh they were so close it will be so easy to return even better next year but it can be so hard. Just look at 49ers. 

If they can get some of these guys to take a pay cut and keep this team together next year the passing game will be so much better after a full season . cambell will be elite wr when he comes back pittman will be much better and colts an replace ty with a true number1 . add mack who was a elite running back with taylor i think the colts can have a top 5 offense and defense next year. this team is just to young this year to many young players at key spots .

[coming on strong 1,154]

6 minutes ago, Bolts2Colts said:

Agreed, they definitely weren’t outmatched. The way they played against Bills and Packers makes me believe they could have won it all. 
 

You always think oh they were so close it will be so easy to return even better next year but it can be so hard. Just look at 49ers. 

If pittman catches the 4th down touchdown that rivers threw perfectly in his hands colts are up 17 -7 at halftime .  If we make the chip shot field goal and turray doesnt go off sides plus taylor catches the check down to get into field goal range that is a extra 17 point swing on 4 easy mistakes . colts win 37 to 23

[2006Coltsbestever 22,278]

15 hours ago, tucky89 said:

Maybe I was spoiled by the Manning era. But there was a time when I expected the Colts to win every game. SB or bust.

 

It's been way too long since we've been  in SB or bust mode.

Nobody is Peyton Manning and I have accepted that, even with him we only went to 2 SB's and won 1 so I just enjoy entertaining good seasons at this point. This season was that. I enjoyed Luck's 1st 3 seasons and his 2018 season. We should've won yesterday but didn't, it was a great game and Buffalo fans sweating the rear off until the end  . They along with the media thought we would get blown out, we aren't Miami and not a pushover. 

[Smoke317 1,308]

29 minutes ago, coming on strong said:

If pittman catches the 4th down touchdown that rivers threw perfectly in his hands colts are up 17 -7 at halftime .  If we make the chip shot field goal and turray doesnt go off sides plus taylor catches the check down to get into field goal range that is a extra 17 point swing on 4 easy mistakes . colts win 37 to 23

You blamed everyone for their mistakes but Rivers. Go back and rewatch the plays. The pass to Pittman was far from perfect. There’s a picture of Pittman in a fully laid out dive and the pass was at his fingertips. So how was that perfect?  Put a little air under that and Pittman can run to it without any need to dive. Poor throw by Rivers.

 

Now for the drive where HotRod missed his fg. Taylor dropped an easy swing pass on 2nd down.  Clearly his fault.  3rd down Rivers AGAIN misses an open Pittman for an easy 1st down in the redzone that actually could have been another td if Rivers hits him in stride. Instead we had to go to 4th down and HotRod missed the fg.  So Taylor (a rookie) screwed up 2nd down. Rivers (future hall of famer) screwed up 3rd down. And HotRod (another rookie) screwed up the field goal.  All deserve blame.
 

But I hold my future hall of fame QB to a higher standard than 2 rookies in their first playoff games.  Turay’s play was inexcusable. Frank’s challenge was inexcusable. Overall, we beat ourselves with poor execution and focus.  That falls on the coaching staff.  If I had to rank the blame, I’d go Frank, Rivers, Turay, Taylor & Hines (drops).  Not saying they played terrible.  You check the stats you’d say Rivers, Taylor, & Hines played good.  Sure they did. Just not good enough when it mattered most. 

[coming on strong 1,154]

2 minutes ago, Smoke317 said:

You blamed everyone for their mistakes but Rivers. Go back and rewatch the plays. The pass to Pittman was far from perfect. There’s a picture of Pittman in a fully laid out dive and the pass was at his fingertips. So how was that perfect?  Put a little air under that and Pittman can run to it without any need to dive. Poor throw by Rivers.

 

Now for the drive where HotRod missed his fg. Taylor dropped an easy swing pass on 2nd down.  Clearly his fault.  3rd down Rivers AGAIN misses an open Pittman for an easy 1st down in the redzone that actually could have been another td if Rivers hits him in stride. Instead we had to go to 4th down and HotRod missed the fg.  So Taylor (a rookie) screwed up 2nd down. Rivers (future hall of famer) screwed up 3rd down. And HotRod (another rookie) screwed up the field goal.  All deserve blame.
 

But I hold my future hall of fame QB to a higher standard than 2 rookies in their first playoff games.  Turay’s play was inexcusable. Frank’s challenge was inexcusable. Overall, we beat ourselves with poor execution and focus.  That falls on the coaching staff.  If I had to rank the blame, I’d go Frank, Rivers, Turay, Taylor & Hines (drops).  Not saying they played terrible.  You check the stats you’d say Rivers, Taylor, & Hines played good.  Sure they did. Just not good enough when it mattered most. 

i have been one of the biggest rivers bashers on here the whole season . When he throws 309 and 2 touchdowns to no picks its hard to blame him though .    The pittman play the line broke down and rivers ran back and threw it off balance and it still hit pittmans hands he needs to catch that .  Bottom line is the chip shot field goal and the offsides cost the colts the game it would have been 27 to 23 on that last bills drive where the colts sacked allen and stripped him colts would of had the ball up by almost a touchdown with 2 minutes left  and the bills would of had one timeout . the colts with one first down win the game .

[Smonroe 2,323]

15 minutes ago, coming on strong said:

i have been one of the biggest rivers bashers on here the whole season . When he throws 309 and 2 touchdowns to no picks its hard to blame him though .    The pittman play the line broke down and rivers ran back and threw it off balance and it still hit pittmans hands he needs to catch that .  Bottom line is the chip shot field goal and the offsides cost the colts the game it would have been 27 to 23 on that last bills drive where the colts sacked allen and stripped him colts would of had the ball up by almost a touchdown with 2 minutes left  and the bills would of had one timeout . the colts with one first down win the game .

Don’t you think we’ve seen Rivers ceiling though?  He’s great at getting us into the right play.  He’s very accurate with short and midrange throws, and no one can argue about his competitiveness.  
 

But it’s pretty clear he doesn’t have the long ball anymore.  And his mobility....

 

I really like the guy, and I agree that we’re as good as the Bills (at least we were yesterday), but he’s not the future and he’s not going to be better next season.  I think we have to make the hard choice and move on.  

[coming on strong 1,154]

2 minutes ago, Smonroe said:

Don’t you think we’ve seen Rivers ceiling though?  He’s great at getting us into the right play.  He’s very accurate with short and midrange throws, and no one can argue about his competitiveness.  
 

But it’s pretty clear he doesn’t have the long ball anymore.  And his mobility....

 

I really like the guy, and I agree that we’re as good as the Bills (at least we were yesterday), but he’s not the future and he’s not going to be better next season.  I think we have to make the hard choice and move on.  

If the colts had better weapons i feel like rivers can have a 30 td season still and would of put up better stats.  The main problem is his deep ball is short . yesterday standing on the 50 yard line he couldnt get the hail mary to go in the endzone it was 5 yards short he cant throw deeper then 45 yards .

[coming on strong 1,154]

4 minutes ago, Smonroe said:

Don’t you think we’ve seen Rivers ceiling though?  He’s great at getting us into the right play.  He’s very accurate with short and midrange throws, and no one can argue about his competitiveness.  
 

But it’s pretty clear he doesn’t have the long ball anymore.  And his mobility....

 

I really like the guy, and I agree that we’re as good as the Bills (at least we were yesterday), but he’s not the future and he’s not going to be better next season.  I think we have to make the hard choice and move on.  

I think eason is gonna be great he is a first round talent and only played 2 years in college .  He only dropped due to rumors about him being lazy and not caring but ballard said it was false .  Next year he will be second string that means he gets all the reps when facing the defense to help them.  This year he only got mental help in scouting and watching film , but next year he gets tons of reps every day in practice a full offseason and preseason to watch him play .  I think by 2022 he will be ready and very good . sign rivers for one year we were two mistakes away from beating the best team in the nfl that proves the colts can win the super bowl with rivers . the year after that eason takes over

[Smoke317 1,308]

21 minutes ago, coming on strong said:

I think eason is gonna be great he is a first round talent and only played 2 years in college .  He only dropped due to rumors about him being lazy and not caring but ballard said it was false .  Next year he will be second string that means he gets all the reps when facing the defense to help them.  This year he only got mental help in scouting and watching film , but next year he gets tons of reps every day in practice a full offseason and preseason to watch him play .  I think by 2022 he will be ready and very good . sign rivers for one year we were two mistakes away from beating the best team in the nfl that proves the colts can win the super bowl with rivers . the year after that eason takes over

I’ve been pushing the stick with Eason narrative too.  Kid has never really gotten a chance to grow & play in the same system for multiple years since college.  He’s definitely got the arm talent & the pedigree. But think about this CoS. Just as we were 2 plays from beating Buffalo we were also 2 plays from getting swept by Houston and missing the playoffs with a 9-7 record. That would have been only 2 games better than a hard to watch Jacoby lead team that finished 9-7 with Vinny costing us 2-3 games...  So as good of a year as we had with Rivers, I think we still have more improving to do on the offensive side of the ball. No preseason or trading camp probably didn’t help this year. Gotta factor that in too. But this team is ready to win now.  We’ve gotta get the QB situation right. Be that Rivers, Eason, or whomever.