Channeling his inner Vic

If Johnny O starts making snarky comments about UF, I’ll get worried

The truth, though, is if I’d known how this season would play out, I’m not sure I wouldn’t have agreed with those who saw this as the end of the run. The improved version of the Colts I foresaw included a lineup with DT Ed Johnson, CB Marlin Jackson, CB Kelvin Hayden and, of course, S Bob Sanders. OT Tony Ugoh played a key role in that envisioned team, and I figured, too, OG Mike Pollak would have to improved. I figured, too, that WR Anthony Gonzalez would need to be an 80-reception, 1,100-yard receiver. I figured most of those players would have to be playing key roles for the Colts to contend for the AFC South title.

Instead, they have clinched the division with five games to play. None of those players has been a key player. If Hayden doesn’t start in his first game back after being out five games with a knee injury, not one of them will start Sunday, and it’s possible only Hayden will be active.

I’m probably repeating past posts earlier this week, but it’s just really striking what has gone on in Indianapolis the last 13 months. The Colts haven’t lost a regular-season game since last October. They have won through a coaching change, and through roster changes that would have most teams out of the playoffs, making excuses and perhaps preparing for another coaching change. They have done it by coming from behing 10 times during the streak, and they have done it by coming from beind in the fourth quarter each of the last five weeks. Twice in the last five weeks, the Colts have trailed by 17 points, and each time, they have won.

On many levels, including some logical ones, there’s no way the streak should have happened. Certainly no one could have predicted it. And while many are predicting that this is the week it ends, something tells me it won’t. Not this week, anyway.