The Indianapolis Colts have now gone beyond simply having trouble in pass protection. They can’t stop the run. They can’t stop the pass. Andrew Luck is, relative to how good he can be, is struggling.
In short, the Indianapolis Colts suck. The entire AFC South sucks. The Colts are only 3-4 instead of worse because they’ve had three games against AFC South opponents and won each of them.
The Colts aren’t just a bad defensive team (bottom-third in the NFL, mind you) but they’re a pretty poor offensive team (bottom-third, again), worse on the ground (which is particularly bad when you consider their offensive line problems) and more.
And the Colts offseason was a disaster. No one questioned the additions of Frank Gore and Andre Johnson — they were good signings — but once that was done, Indianapolis used its first-round pick on a wide receiver, and didn’t take an offensive lineman (the team’s biggest need area!) until the seventh round.
The result has been a miserable season of sacks, hits and pressures for Andrew Luck, and catastrophic consequences.
I know I said before that Luck was struggling. Scratch that — he’s regressing. He’s on pace to throw his highest interception total of his career, his numbers are universally the worst of his career or close to it (comparable only to the year he was a rookie), and… well, you get the idea Considering that the one thing distinguishing Indianapolis was Luck’s emergence as one of the few “elite” quarterbacks in the NFL, letting him get beat up and knocked around and having him turn into a not-so-great quarterback instead of an elite one is galling.
Also problematic is the fact the Colts literally can’t beat anybody. Not one team in the AFC South could switch divisions and not be the worst team in that division. Right now, the Jacksonville Jaguars, a team I had ranked No. 32 in my power rankings this week, are the best team in the division besides the Colts.
Indianapolis may yet limp into the playoffs on the heels of such weak competition, but how permanent is the damage they’re taking now. In a year or two, when second-year quarterback Blake Bortles really comes into his own, will the Colts be able to stand up to Jacksonville? If Houston gets a real quarterback in town, will the Colts be able to knock the Texans back?
It’s official: the Colts suck. And I’m not sure one offseason will be enough to fix them.
