but are already a winner
Fans were happy with the Colts on Sunday, when they downed the Bengals 26 10. Fans should love the Colts next week, too regardless of the outcome Gregg Doyel writes. Here, defensive end Cory Redding screamed in celebration after Sunday game.(Photo: Mike Fender / The Star)They're playing with house money now, the Colts. By winning 11 regular season games and the AFC South and then a playoff game at home, they've done what they needed to do, had to do, and now this football season can be seen as a success. And anything they do from here on out starting Sunday at Denver, and even (gulp) beyond is a bonus.
That's not how the Colts are seeing it, believe that. But this story isn't about them.
It's about you.
About you, me, all of us who care about the Colts and think about them, dwell on them, measure them and judge them. Fans, media. nfl jerseys china
And for us, for you, the Colts are now playing with house money. I'm not trying to be condescending to the Colts, but fair. The sky is not falling, the season is not failing, the world is not ending. If they lose Sunday, villagers should not show up at the Colts facility on 56th Street with rocks and torches.
(No, the villagers here would never do such a thing. It's a metaphor. Work with me, huh?)
If they win in Denver, as they could for crying out loud, did you see that throw Andrew Luck made Sunday against the Bengals? that's a bonus. That's a gift. That makes the season not merely a success, a meeting of expectations, but it would make this season an overachievement. Already the Colts of 2014 have been something to remember fondly, but if they beat the Broncos on Sunday to advance to the AFC championship game, that would make the Colts of 2014 one of the better stories in franchise history. wholesale nfl jerseys
Now that you know what I think, you need to know why. And maybe the explanation can help you get your brain where it needs to be for Sunday's game, if it isn't here that the season has been an ice cream sundae, and that the Broncos are just a chance to put a cherry on top. china wholesale nfl jerseys
Again, this isn't about the Colts and what they're thinking. Nor should any of this be what the Colts are thinking. What an insult to them, to you, for the Colts to think they've squeezed everything they could from this season. Realistically they have wrung the rind mostly dry, but there's juice left and they have to believe to make it happen. And they do believe. I saw that victorious locker room Sunday, and it was calm. Looked like a locker room in October, not January. The Colts have beliefs and expectations, and they should keep them.
Us? We should relax.
The Colts have done what they needed to do. This isn't where any of us were back in October when the Colts were 5 2 and winners of five in a row and considered among the best teams in the AFC, maybe one spot behind Denver. A lot has changed since then, from Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning's slide to the New England Patriots' surge to the additional information and perspective that a full season allows. When the Colts were 5 2 and winners of five in a row, we didn't know then what we know now. cheap nfl jerseys