Johnny O gives a well thought out defense
What has glummed up the works, to state the obvious, is this whole regular-season-record thing. I get that the idea of 19-0 is enticing, but except when there’s a zero at the end of it, regular-season record in the NFL is pointless. Except in this rare case of 16-0, does anyone really remember a team’s record? Do you remember that the 1989 San Francisco 49ers went 10-6 in the regular season, or do you remember Joe Montana’s career-defining drive to beat the Bengals in the Super Bowl?
Do you remember the Green Bay Packers went 9-4-1 in 1967, or do you remember that they won the Ice Bowl in the postseason, and capped the greatest dynasty in NFL history with a fifth World Title in seven years in the second Super Bowl that postseason?
There’s a not-so-subtle irony here, and that’s this:
The Colts, a team criticized for a decade for failing to win in numerous postseasons after numerous successful regular seasons, is now being criticized for caring about the postseason.
Fans and media deal in quick hits, easy-to-digest soundbites, and when the Colts opted not to beat their chest and pursue a perfect season, the easy-to-digest criticisms were that they didn’t want to make history, that they were hypocritical in their thinking, or – perhaps silliest of all – that they betrayed their fans because they didn’t adhere to the wishes of a mob mentality that wanted 19-0 for message-board bragging rights and history. The reality is that the Colts wanted to make history — playoff history, the only history that to them matters.
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