Stop it. Just stop it. Don’t even meddle in the conversation.
Yes, everyone in Indiana and football fans around the world have been anticipating this coming Sunday’s game since the NFL schedule was released months ago. But not for a minute am I buying that the primary (on contributing) reason the Colts played poorly in San Diego on Monday night and lost to the Chargers was because they were looking ahead.
Those thoughts, said by many on Twitter and Indy sports-talk radio are foolish.
The players and coaches are professionals. Sure, they know when it is and likely understand the attention they’ll all receive. But they lost 19-9 to the Chargers on Monday because they didn’t play well and didn’t put themselves in position to win.
They had too many mindless errors — like false starts, or late hit after one of the aforementioned drops. They had too many drops on offense, and it wasn’t just one guy. They didn’t score one touchdown, and had to settle for three field goals from Adam Vinatieri, who drilled all three. They didn’t struggled to get off the field, allowing four straight 10-play drives while the offensive failed to have one. The Chargers dominated time of possession, having the ball nearly double the time (38:31 to 21:29). They failed to defend Chargers wide-out Eric Allen, who I’m guessing most Colts fans had never heard of until Monday night. And when LB Jerrell Freeman suffered a concussion then Mario Harvey, and others, struggled to pick up the slack.
Those reasons, and more, are why the Colts lost. Not because the Denver Broncos, err. Peyton Manning (and his much-anticipated return to Indianapolis), is in their rear-view mirror.