Seahawks will provide a measuring stick for the Colts

Today, the undefeated Seahawks travel to Indianapolis to play a solid Colts team. For the Seahawks, today’s game is simply another challenging matchup that should tell us a little more about the fortitude of the Seahawks on the road. For the Colts, today’s game is much more.

The Colts have been a bit of a confusing team this year. Earlier this season, the Colts were taken to the brink of defeat by the Oakland Raiders. Just a couple weeks later, the Colts were manhandling the San Francisco 49ers, a team widely considered a Super Bowl contender.

Because of the wide range of play exhibited by the Colts, it’s still unclear where exactly they fall in the playoff race. In a weak AFC South division, it’s possible the Colts could win their division, making an entrance into the playoffs much easier.

Obviously, the Colts would prefer to win their division outright, but one would believe the Houston Texans will get their act together at some point this season. If that’s the case, the Colts would likely fall back to being the second best team in the South, complicating their playoff projection with the need for a wildcard position.

Even the Colts’ personnel moves of late have been somewhat confusing. In an effort to bring in a top-tier runner, the Colts unloaded their first round selection in the 2014 draft for Trent Richardson, the Browns’ former first round pick. The problem, of course, is that Richardson’s play in the NFL has never warranted such a high selection, meaning the Browns were lucky to get any first round selection as compensation for Richardson.

The Colts have been rebuilt from the base of their organization up since the end of the Manning era. Yes, they have a top young passer, but they’ve shown far more interest in playing great defense and running the ball under head coach Chuck Pagano. While today’s game won’t tell us everything we want to know about the direction of the Colts, it will give us a measurement of exactly where the Colts rank against the NFL’s best teams.

About Shane Clemons

Shane Clemons came from humble beginnings creating his own Jaguars blog before moving on to SBNation as a featured writer for the Jaguars. He then moved to Bloguin where he briefly covered the AFC South before taking over Bloguin's Jaguars blog. Since the inception of This Given Sunday, Shane has served as an editor for the site, doing his best not to mess up a good thing.

Quantcast