MVN: Most Valuable Network

Preface: My cable company, being the idiots that they are, refused to agree to a deal with my local CBS affiliate, thereby ending my regional broadcasts of Colts games. Due to these unfortunate circumstances, I must ramble on about the bigger picture rather than provide a detailed summary of the game.

What an interesting year this is turning out to be. The Indianapolis Colts are 2-2 and could very, very easily be 0-4. And what’s more is that if the Jacksonville Jaguars don’t get a terrible pass interference call last week, the Colts are sitting at 3-1.

Pretty wild stuff.

I’ll tell you one thing, though. I stopped caring how you get a W as long as you get one, because in this league, they’re extremely hard to come by. If today doesn’t prove that (cough Houston), I don’t know what does.

No, it wasn’t pretty. And its not always going to be. A lot of Colts fans have it backwards. We’re spoiled in the regular season and we just keep getting disappointed in the regular season. Yes, I know, we won a Super Bowl two years ago. But the Colts and the New England Patriots have been heads and shoulders above every other team in this league. The Patriots have four rings to show four it. Get my drift?

Look, all I’m saying is that this team is simply better when they are extreme underdogs. Except for the Super Bowl, I can’t think of the last time we played well in the playoffs when we were the favorites. We won 12 games again last year, making history in the process, and then lost to backups at home in the playoffs.

Oh, by the way…that team that beat us…with their backups…they got off to a 1-3 start and ended up one-game short of the Super Bowl. Which reminds me of the Colts when they won. Don’t you remember hitting rock bottom? Giving up 700 billion rushing yards to the Jags? Well we got hot at the right time, we won some tough games on the road, and we were the best team when it mattered most.

That’s the key, its when you get hot. The Texans were hot all day, except for the last three minutes. You don’t give the Colts three minutes. But these days, you can’t give anything to anybody in the playoffs.

Bob Sanders? You gotta figure he’s going to get hurt at some point every year. With the way that guy plays, he’s not looking down the barrel at too many 16-game seasons in his career. Yes, we miss him terribly. But he’ll come back, full strength, and we’ll get on a roll. Meanwhile, our depth improves at the rising Melvin Bullitt sees more and more of the field.

Like I said before…a win is a win and you just don’t get picky about it. I predict the Colts will hobble to a 10-6, maybe 11-5 finish which may or may be good enough to win the division. But the schedule doesn’t get too much easier with Tennessee circled on our calendars for week 8 after hosting Baltimore and traveling to Lambeau.

What is wrong with the Indianapolis Colts? Is it really just rustiness on the part of Peyton Manning and others who missed valuable time in training camp? There’s a good chance that whatever is wrong with the Colts, we’ll have a clear understanding of what that is after today’s game against the host Minnesota Vikings. This is a young Vikings team that should make a very tough game for the Colts, but if the Colts impose their style of football on this team (something they were never able to do against the Chicago Bears in week one) they should win the game. This is a very big if. This is no slap in the face to the Vikings.  All I’m saying is that the Vikings are a very young team going up against a team with personnel that essentially won the Super Bowl two years ago.  Now I realize that... Read more

Hold your horses (pretty ‘punny’ right?). Despite what’s been the ugliest game the Indianapolis Colts have played since…well since their last game of ’07 against the San Diego Chargers, this is not Apocalypto. No, these Colts, as always, will bounce back…right? I think that Sunday was a testament to the “Any Given Sunday” rule of the National Football League which stipulates in article 1, section 1 “Any given team, with any given record, may defeat any given opponent with any given record on any given Sunday (or Thursday, Saturday, or Monday). I think for maybe the first time in a while, the Colts showed up and thought that the Chicago Bears would just lay down and give us the game. And certainly, the Colts played that way, too. On the big run by Chicago running back Matt Forte to give the Bears their lead for good, it was a third... Read more

From the Midway's Ryan Tennant and NFL Outsider's Patrick Patterson and Anthony Hall blog live as the Chicago Bears face the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday night.... Read more

The New England Patriots were not the only team to suffer an extremely disappointing loss last year.  After somehow winning 13 games, a banged-up Indianapolis Colts team found themselves in prime position for another shot at the Pats whom had previously defeated them at home earlier in the year. Perhaps the Colts got just a bit ahead of themselves. After defeating the Tennessee Titans 17-6 at home in the Wildcard, the San Diego Chargers took all of the air, and the noise, out of the RCA Dome's last hoorah in the Divisional playoffs by beating the Colts 28-24 despite their own glaring ailments. So where does that leave the Colts this year? And what does a Colts fan make of the glaring injuries to the well-oiled machine that is the Colts offense? I’m thinking of a name…that starts with a ‘P’…can you guess it? Peyton Manning Quarterback Peyton Manning is... Read more

This is the fourth installment in a 13-part series  covering undrafted free agents signed by the Colts. Learning about the Colts' new players is a pleasure. But in a way, it's also sad. Let's face it, despite the Colts' track record with finding diamonds in the rough, most of these guys are not going to make the team. There are draft picks the Colts have invested in. Realistically, there just aren't that many open roster spots. I think we all realize this: just because the Colts signed a guy, doesn't mean that player will be around for long once training camp begins. But when you read about guys like Rudy Burgess, you just want him to make the team. Now, unlike the case of Eric Foster (resident YouTube star among The Undrafteds), Burgess doesn't have any big videos that I've seen. However, I did find this little gem, last year's... Read more

 This is the third installment in a 13-part series concerning undrafted free agents signed by the Colts.  I'll say this for Adam Trafalis: for a while, I didn't think he existed. Search after search on Google, Yahoo, and the San Jose State football website turned up no results for a quarterback named Adam Trafalis. I was beginning to think this guy was imaginary. It was as if the Colts signed a college football player who never actually played college football. Then, thank the Lord, I saw the error of my ways: Adam TRAFalis does not exist. But Adam TaFRALIS does. You'll find tons of information about the latter; virtually nothing about the former. I misspelled his name. Over. And over. And over again. I finally got it right! And, lo, what did I discover about Adam Tafralis, former quarterback for the mighty San Jose Spartans? Well, for starters, San Jose's... Read more

This is the second installment in a 13-part series on the undrafted free agents signed by the Colts. I have to admit: the more I read about Eric Foster, the more I like him. The more I read about Eric Foster, the more I'm convinced he's a guy to watch. The more I read about Eric Foster, the more I want to see him on the roster. If anything, he'll at least provide some entertainment value. After all, he's already a YouTube star: Ah, yes...YouTube. Foster is a pretty interesting guy. During his senior year in high school, he committed to Rutgers. Head Coach Greg Schiano called it a gamble, recalling that Foster and several other Rutgers prospects were agreeing to go to a college that had basically zero respectability. Said Schiano: "They certainly took a real leap of faith with us at that point, coming off of a 1-11... Read more

This is the first entry in a 13-part series concerning free agents signed by the Colts. After a good run with "Meet Your New Colts," (MYNC), I have a spinoff of sorts. They're "The Undrafteds," the guys who were passed over in the NFL Draft. That doesn't mean they're not good. It doesn't mean they can't compete. It doesn't mean they weren't courted by various NFL teams. It simply means that, come draft day, they didn't get "the call." Over the last five years or so, my opinion of undrafted players has changed quite a bit. So has my opinion of late-round draft picks. Maybe it's stories like Terrell "TD" Davis or Tom "Pretty Boy" Brady (both were sixth rounders). Maybe it's because of Bill Polian's track record of making every draft pick and free agent signing count for something. I don't know. What I do know, though, is those... Read more

I was recently contacted by Brian Chylinski of the University of Buffalo's fan website. He wrote through email that he and many other Buffalo Bulls fans are extremely pumped that "Big Jamey" Richard will be wearing a Colts jersey. Here's his email: Before you write about the 7th round pick c/g from Univ of Buffalo-Jamey Richard,I wanted to invite you over to www.ubfan.com. It's a not for profit Buffalo Bulls site (and the ONLY UB sports website). We have a bunch of posts concerning Big Jamey. I think you are getting a player with some great days ahead of him. He stayed strong and positive during some vicious beatings at UB and will surprise people. (Similar to Ramon Guzman last year) There was only one problem with Brian's email! I received it after I had already posted my thoughts on "Big Jamey." So, due to his urging, I checked out... Read more

The biggest game of them all is coming to Indianapolis in 2012 (of course, that's assuming this whole brewing NFL labor dispute thing doesn't spoil it). I'm not really sure who to "thank" for this. You could thank Shooter from Hoosiers, who apparently delivered an impassioned video message extolling the virtues of Indianapolis as a host city for an event that is truly world class. You could thank former Mayor Bart Peterson, who for years touted Indianapolis as a world-class city capable of hosting such a spectacle. He was instrumental in keeping the Colts in Indianapolis and helping them secure a new stadium. You could thank current Mayor Greg Ballard, who picked up on the threads of last year's failed Super Bowl attempt and decided to give it another go. You could thank 32 members of the class of 2012, who traveled to all 32 NFL cities (even enemy territory... Read more