The NFL season was already a marathon before the league office added a 17th game to the schedule.
When you play a campaign that takes nearly half the year to fully complete, there are just naturally ups and downs in the waves that teams will face along the way. If you don’t accept that, you’re going to struggle.
If winning was easy, everybody would do it.
But it’s just not. Thus is life in the NFL.
There was one thing though that the Indianapolis Colts exhibited on Sunday Night Football this week that we just had not seen yet from Frank Reich’s team. It’s also a trait that diminished as the year went on last season.
Finding a way to win.
Great teams discover ways to steal wins. Sneaky dubs are some of the most fun to watch if you’re a sports fan. Just good enough teams find ways to lose some games, great teams win them.
That’s what the Colts finally did in a brutal setting. You’re telling me anybody in that locker room wanted to get a monsoon poured in their faces? No chance. They were on the road in pacific time for a night game, and they had an elongated flight immediately after it went final.
You better have hoped that the Colts were up to play yesterday considering the situation they’re in; But a team that was not bought into what they do would not have taken that W.
When we talked to Jeff Saturday on The Fan Morning Show earlier on Monday, I asked him what winning an ‘ugly’ one does for a locker room. He said it changes the complexion of what you do, now that you really believe.
Now here’s the deal. Before you take on the Buffalo Bills in New York on November 21, you’ve got three straight home games.
The biggest game against the Titans in recent memory, J-E-T-S Jets Jets Jets, and Urban Meyer’s (for now) Jaguars.
This should be a 6-4 football team when you walk into Buffalo.
Remember the playoffs last year? That’s a game against the Bills that the Colts did not find a way to win. Let’s see if they can show what they learned in Santa Clara for the big exam.
