MVN - Most Valuable Network

Broncos Should Provide a Solid Assessment of ’07 Colts

While the Colts consistently end up on top at the end of their games, more often than not the scores are nail-bitingly close. I predicted after their blow-out of the Saints in the season opener that this year would be different, whereas in recent years the Colts seemed to only do what they needed to get by, but after squeaking by Tennessee 22-20 and having a tough outing against the Texans on Sunday that ended 30-24, it’s time, once again, to reassess the situation, and the Denver Broncos provide a perfect measuring stick to see how good this Colts team really is.

Keep in mind we’re only coming up on Week 4 , and that no one really knows anything at this point, but there’s a lot to be said about the Colts so far, especially after last night now that their first two opponents, the Saints and Titans, have played each other too.

The first thing to point out is that playing a divisional opponent on the road is awful tough. The Colts have frustrated and tormented their fellow AFC South opponents for so long now that both the fans and the teams themselves have had just about enough. When they Colts play the Titans or the Jags or the Texans on the road, the stadium is deafening from before kick-off until after the final snap. It’s always a very hostile environment. Equally important is the familiarity between the organizations involved, especially when you think about how long Jeff Fisher and Jack Del Rio have been playing the Colts and, for the most part, losing. Accordingly, these teams, which are all very capable teams and which are, as a group, stronger than they’ve been in years, have also had more opportunities than other teams to sort of test the waters against the Colts, and they should, therefore, and naturally, by now, always have a decent shot at upsetting the Colts, especially when playing them at home.

In fact, of the four losses the Colts suffered last season, which were, by the way, the only four losses they’ve suffered in their last 23 games, three of them were to Indy’s divisional rivals, and all were road games. That’s pretty impressive.

So what’s that say about 2007?

Well, for one thing, two of the three divisional road games they play this year have already been played and the Colts came home victorious, which, based on the way 2006 played out, is as encouraging news as any fan could ask for. (Plus, If they can beat the Jaguars in Jacksonville in Week 6, which today it looks like they should, considering the Texans and Titans both appear, again at least to this point, to be better than the Jags, there’s a good chance the November Fourth match-up between Indy and New England, the game of the year without question, will feature two undefeated teams, perhaps the last two left.)

Sorry to get ahead of myself there, I just can’t stop thinking about that game, can you?

What makes the Colts difficult to assess so far is how horrible the New Orleans Saints have been playing. We’ve already established divisional road games are entirely different creatures, so there’s only so much you can take from a contest that ends 22-20, good or bad, win or lose, and the only other game to look to for analysis right now is the season opener.

Up until about the second quarter of that game, in most people’s mind there was a good chance these two teams could very possibly meet again come February. Now that notion is laughable. When it was over, nobody knew if the Colts were really that good or if the Saints were just that bad; so far, only the latter has since been proven to be true.

It’s great to think the Colts were able to beat the Titans, a team that was also capable of laying quite a beating on the Saints themselves, but, once again, they are a division opponent, and what’s worse, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers beat the Aint’s by the same exact score as the Titans did in Week 2 – 31-14! All the sudden Indy’s 41 points don’t seem all that meaningful.

So along come the Broncos, a team that always has a solid defense, that got off to a quick start by winning close back-to-back games on last second field goals, and, what’s most important right now, they aren’t in the AFC South and they aren’t from New Orleans.

Then we’ll see what we’re really working with here.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 25th, 2007 at 1:27 pm and is filed under Colts Chat, Titans, Colts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.