10 biggest surprise NFL teams thus far on the season
By Andrew Garda
Indianapolis Colts: 0-2
We’ll start off with what might be the biggest disappointment this season. If you expected the Colts to be winless two weeks into this season, congratulations. The rest of us are pretty shocked this happened.
In retrospect though, the Indianapolis Colts might have been primed for this implosion. They didn’t really focus much on the offensive line. The offensive players they added were well past their prime. The defense was still a question mark even though they added talent.
What really has us stumped though has been the way that quarterback Andrew Luck has looked in those two losses. Sure, part of his discombobulated look is because the offensive line struggled tremendously against the Buffalo Bills and New York Jets, but it’s more than that. Even when he has protection, Luck just looks wrong.
We always talk about how good Luck is, but tend to ignore some of his flaws. We’re seeing those chinks in the armor under a spotlight now because he’s in a funk. He has always had a bit of the Brett Favre/Gunslinger mentality, which can definitely go horribly awry.
However, he seemed to rise above it and for every one bad decision 100 others have worked out. That’s how the gunslinger thing works. So we watched the greatness and never really paid much attention to the flaws, or the youth of the guy.
This year, the offense isn’t clicking. It isn’t giving him time to throw the ball, his receivers are dropping balls and his defense is tripping all over itself.
Which leads Luck to put too much pressure on himself and do too much and when that fails, he ends up turning the ball over four times in one game as he did last Monday night against the Jets.
There’s no quick fix here. Luck needs to get himself together, sure, and the offense needs to protect him and produce for him. The defense needs to pick up the pace.
However, at the end of the day, this comes down to what Luck is doing and what’s in his head. He needs to chill out and calm down.
If he can do that, the ship could be righted.
Next: Cincinnati Bengals: 2-0