Hey...I've Seen This Before!

C'mon Colts. I mean, I know you were having trouble following up the Super Bowl win, but don't recycle material. The Colts losing in the playoffs? Seen it. One and done seems to be a growing trend for the Colts. Sometimes the breaks are bad, but this time, it was the other team who had the injury problem. LaDanian Tomlinson went down with a knee injury. Phillip Rivers was hurt due to, well, sucking. He wasn't even touched, and it's FieldTurf. Of course, this injury is a benefit. Phillip Rivers is one of the worst quarterbacks in the league. We know that Antonio Gates was hurt, and Lorenzo Neal missed the game. The Colts had everyone not on injured reserve in this game. It is amazing that they lost to such an undermanned team. It shows motivation. Last year, the Colts had no motivation. They were just a normal team. Guess what. They won it all. In 2005, they could have played for the Dungy family. They lost to a Steelers team that was just not as talented. The Colts don't respond well to motivation. I know it's weird, but it's true. Next year, the Colts can hope for NOTHING. They don't need any trouble with the coaches. They don't need high expectations. They need NOTHING. However, there are more outrageous reasons why the Colts lost. Little patterns I have noticed that are a coincidence.

The Year After

Last year, the Colts were coming off of a disappointing year where they were the number one seed in the AFC. They won it all the next year. Eh. That's just once. Or is it. When the Colts lost even when they had home field advantage, the Steelers beat them on their amazing run to the Super Bowl. The year before, they went 15-1 in Ben Roethlisberger's first year. This is a trend that has been going on for a while. The Patriots had the best record in the AFC in 2003, and they won the championship in 2004. However, the Patriots did win the championship in 2003, which is a snag in the pattern. In recent history, this seems to be more than a coincidence. The Chargers were 14-2 last year, and maybe they are on a mission. If the Chargers would somehow win it all, this would have to be mentioned in the main stream media. 4 times in 5 years? That would be too much to ignore.

Football Gods

I don't know who the football gods are, but they must have decided that one was enough for the Colts. I know every team has injuries and blah, blah, blah, but the Colts were without Marvin Harrison, Anthony Gonzalez, Joseph Addai, Dallas Clark, Tony Ugoh, Ryan Diem, Robert Mathis, Raheem Brock, Dwight Freeney, Rob Morris, Tyjuan Hagler, Freddie Keiaho, Antoine Bethea, Tim Jennings, Dante Hughes, and Bob Sanders at some point in the year. I would like to see the Patriots win a game without Randy Moss, Donte Stallworth, Ben Watson, Matt Light, Logan Mankins, Richard Seymour, Michael Vrabel, Tedy Bruschi, and Vince Wilfork for a road game. That's what the Colts had to deal with against the Chargers. Sure, it didn't mean anything in the playoffs, but what about momentum. You can't continue to build momentum when everyone is missing games. This showed in the playoffs. The Chargers did not have very many injuries until the playoffs. They had the momentum. The football gods decided that the regular season wasn't enough. They needed for Joseph Addai, Kenton Keith, Jake Scott, Reggie Wayne, and Bob Sanders to get banged up. The football gods show no mercy.

DO NOT REST THE STARTERS!

This may not be a reason why they lost, but it is a reason why they didn't win. Let me elaborate. The Giants and Chargers are not the best teams in the league, but they are on a roll and in their conference championships. You know why. They played their starters. Eli Manning is on fire, and the Chargers defense is unstoppable. They didn't rest their starters. This is a simple reason why the Chargers dominated the Colts yesterday.

I have nothing left to say but, Super Bowl XLIII here we come!