Minshew Mania Has Taken Over, The Indianapolis Colts are Somehow Legitimate Playoff Contenders
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I've been slacking a bit with my Colts blogs this year. That's on me. I've been a bad Colts fan. But they've finally pulled me back in.
Despite being over .500 late into the season, I've had zero faith in this team. I'd fully given up once they dropped to 3-5 after getting blown out by Derek Carr and the Saints. Any defense who makes Derek Carr look like Tom Brady doesn't have what it takes to make a playoff push. But holy shit was I wrong. The Colts rattled off wins in their next 4 games, and all of the sudden, if the season ended now, they would be in the playoffs.
I'd almost given up again after a tough loss to the Bengals last week. Even more so after the Pittsburgh Steelers went up 13-0 in the blink of a horses eye today.
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Now was my "thanks for coming out tweet" meant to be a classic reverse jinx? Yes. Very much so. But I still thought it was over. Then out of nowhere the Colts came back. They start marching up and down the field with ease. Gardner Minshew is making plays, throwing touchdown passes. He played perfect (with the exception of that small incident where he attempted to get his best wide receiver murdered).
Trey Sermon and Tyler Goodson (?) are running all over one of the best defenses in the league. Filling in perfectly for Taylor and Moss. Which is huge, because I have zero confidence that they're going to get healthy. The Colts left so many points on the board too. Would have liked for them to score another TD or two instead of getting stopped on the goal line and settling for field goals. But that's football. The Colts are 8-6, and are back in the Wild Card spot (for now).
This fantastic Colts performance most likely has more to do with this version of the Pittsburgh Steelers being one of the most pathetic offenses we've seen in a decade, and less to do with the Colts being a real threat (boy do the Steelers suck).
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I'm not going to go as far as saying the Colts are any sort of threat to win the Super Bowl. That would be insane. But could they win a couple playoff games?…. Well… no… probably not that either. But 1 playoff game?! Maybe. Just maybe the Colts can sneak into the playoffs and pull off an upset. That's how I'm looking at the remainder of the Colts season. The Wild Card round of the playoffs is our Super Bowl. Anything beyond that is gravy.
To be honest, anything beyond that makes things very uncomfortable. If Gardner Minshew leads the Colts to the AFC Championship game, can you really bench him for a healthy Anthony Richardson next season? I think you have to go with Richardson still. He was pretty awesome himself when he was healthy. But that's not important now. Most teams would kill to have that dilemma.
One negative however.. I'm afraid kicker Matt Gay might be a problem. He had one incredible game against the Ravens where won the game hitting FOUR 50+ yard field goals. Aside from that he's been extremely unreliable. But we'll burn that bridge when it inevitably comes back to bite us in the ass and end our season.
Let's do this Colts. Let's get healthy and make the god damn playoffs. Zach Moss and Michael Pittman got hurt today. Jonathan Taylor didn't play. We need them healthy. Just tell your doctors to shoot them up with whatever they give Jim Irsay to get him out of bed every morning and they'll be ready to roll.