themunn wrote:volsunghawk wrote:CurryStopstheRuns wrote:
Thank you! I get so sick of hearing about how great Luck is because of them being 8-4 this season and so horrible last season while those same people blatantly overlook the fact that the Colts threw their season away so they could draft Luck. They were not even the worst team last season.
Yup, the Colts coaches instructed their players to throw the season so they could get Luck. Those coaches are probably really enjoying coaching him.
What? They were all fired?
Oh, then it must have been the Colts' front office that came up with the plan and forced the coaches and players to go along with it. Good job, front office.
What? They were all fired, too?
Oh, then it must have been the Colts' ownership that convinced the front office, the coaching staff, and the players to all go against everything they work for each season and throw games so they could get Luck for the team and kiss their jobs goodbye as a result.
Yeah, that makes total sense.

I think they were nudged in that direction by the owner. And I think the players had it in the back of their minds too.
Take the game against Detroit on Sunday. If the Lions took the field with 2.30 left last year and the Colts only had 2 time outs, do you think the defense would have stepped up and made the stop with enough time to give Painter a
chance (albeit one he was unlikely to convert) to win?
No way.
I don't care how good your QB is, you don't go from a 10-6 team to a team that flat out isn't competitive in one off-season when he gets injured. If the talent around Manning was that bad and he made them competitive, then going to a team with the talent the Broncos have should result in a 19-0 season - I mean, Luck is 2 games away from matching the 10-6 result that Manning had in 2010, and only one game behind him in the AFC right now. Basically we're saying the talent of the Colts was SO bad and still IS SO bad that Luck must be a better QB than Peyton Manning.
First off, yes, Manning is THAT good. And Polian built that Colts team - the ENTIRE team philosophy - off of what Manning brought to the table. That Indy defense was never built to force stops and come from behind. It was built for speed and on the premise that Manning and his offense would put the other team in a hole. And since Manning had only ever missed one SNAP to injury in his career, it was a gamble that paid off for years.
When Manning was finally unavailable, the whole thing fell apart. Polian deserved the lion's share of the blame for failing to build a more flexible roster, but the coaching staff deserves some as well. Caldwell was never a HC in anything but name. Manning still ran things there. So the team lost essentially its key player AND its leadership in one fell swoop.
For the record, the Broncos are now 9-3, and it's a legit winning record - not the smoke and mirrors they had last season with Tebow. And that's after he recovered from four neck/spinal surgeries. No, they're not on pace for 19-0, but they've won 7 in a row and Manning is playing dominant football. That's what he's done his whole career, and he'll probably do it for at least a handful more years.
As for Luck, the Colts are benefiting from an easier schedule than they normally play, better coaching (Arians is a good QB developer), and the added emotional kick they get from playing for their cancer-stricken HC. If you think that the only new thing on the Colts is Luck, then you haven't been paying attention.
My wife is from Indiana, and I am surrounded by Colts fans every holiday when we visit. I've paid pretty close attention to the Colts franchise over the years, and I'll tell you right now that your conspiracy theory is ridiculously off base. Polian wouldn't have gone for it in any way because it cost his kid a job and made both of them look incompetent.
Additionally, you remember that complete lack of quality QBs that led to us trading for Whitehurst and signing Jackson the last couple of years? That's one big reason the Colts didn't have a suitable backup available other than Curtis Painter and Dan Orlovsky. They've been drafting low for a decade and never had a shot at a guy to develop behind Manning. With Manning in the house, they were perpetually in "win now" mode, so the future always took a back seat to reloading the offense and patching up the D.