Colts Power Rankings – Week 4

Each week, we’ll be scouring the net for team rankings, from football experts, covering the previous week, and discussing them here. Do the experts know what they’re talking about? Can they back up their rankings, or are they just repeating the same lines we’ve hear over and over (Colts can’t run. They’re soft. Manning can’t win the big one)? Let’s see what they have to say this week.

Average Ranking: 8.33 (previously 4.47)
Note: I’ve removed WhatIf Sports from the rankings.

CBS Sports – Pete Prisco – 10th (-8): They have two losses in the division, which is really unusual. The defense just hasn’t had a good first quarter. Anybody see Dwight Freeney last week?
(I saw Dwight. But we didn’t speak. He was busy fighting double- and triple-teams.)

Cold Hard Football Facts – 8th (-5): Not counting the two mail-in games at the end of last season, Peyton Manning has 38 touchdown passes and 4,802 yards passing over his last 16 games.
(Impressive stats by Peyton, but I’m trying to figure out how it relates to a loss of five spots.)

ESPN – Kuharsky – 9th (-6): Giveaways in red zone were killer in Jacksonville.
(Sure. Let’s blame this loss on the offense.)

Fox Sports – 8th (-6): The offense is not the problem with this football team. They are in great shape on that side of the ball. The defense continues to perform at an inconsistent level, however. The injuries are starting to take a big toll on their ability to stop opposing offenses from moving the ball.
(Fair and Balanced. See what i did there?)

National Football Post – 10th (-9): The numbers are there for Peyton Manning, but the Colts’ defense is suspect.
(From 1st to 10th. From too high to too low. At least they’re consistent.)

NFL.com’s Collective Brain Trust – 7th (-3):
(No explanation = no comment.)

Michael Silver – 9th (+1): Is it fair to say that this team is ‘No. 9 with a Bullitt’?
(Clever, Michael. But the real question is ‘What number are they without a Bullitt’?)

Sporting News – 10th (-4): Speaking of Indy, 2-2 is a most unfamiliar position. They better be ready for the Chiefs’ running game.
(How can they get ready? Half the team is on IR.)

Sports Illustrated – Don Banks – 5th last week:
(Don missed his deadline this week. He must be busy looking for some way justify the most recent decision of his favorite coach, Bill. Mark my words; while everyone else is thinking ‘What the heck is Belichick doing?’, Don’s take will be ‘Gutsy move by the wily veteran’.)

Sports Illustrated – Peter King – 8th (-1): Kansas City travels to Indianapolis Sunday. The Colts will be upset, and I don’t believe we’ll see an upset.
(Nice to see Peter doesn’t over-react to the recent loss. I wish I could say the same.)

USA Today – 7th (-5):
(I guess newspaper profits are down, they couldn’t afford to comment.)

Walter Football – 6th (-1): I love all of this ‘What’s wrong with the Colts?’ chatter on ESPN. What’s wrong with the Colts is that they had two fluky turnovers in the red zone, and otherwise would have beaten Jacksonville. They’re fine.
(Props for having more confidence in this team’s ability to recover than I have.)

WEEI in Boston – 8th (-6): The story of the game Sunday was the baffling timeout call by coach Jim Caldwell in the final minute to allow the Jaguars a little more time to set up kicker Josh Scobee for a game-winning field goal. The Colts also need to improve their 29th-ranked run defense.
(Hmmm… Folks in Boston are questioning the wisdom of our coach when theirs just let the best WR in the game go. Does that seem wrong to you?)