Doyel: Super Bowl or bust for Colts
What begins this weekend at a small Division III football stadium in a small Indiana town can end in one place, and one place only, for this season — this upcoming Colts season — to be a success.
The end date: Feb. 7. 2016.
The place: Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif.
The name: Super Bowl 50.
That is the burden on the Colts as they open training camp at Anderson University, and not a burden any of us put on them. It’s the burden the franchise put on itself with a three-year run in which it drafted quarterback Andrew Luck, reached the playoffs every year — advancing farther each year — and followed last year’s AFC Championship Game appearance with a huge offseason.
The Colts have come too far on the field, and made too many major acquisitions this past offseason — Frank Gore, Andre Johnson, Trent Cole, more, so much more – for anything less. Qualifying for the 2015 postseason, even winning a single playoff game, would be regression. Reaching the AFC title game would be standing pat.
This is not harsh. This is fair.
This season is Super Bowl, or this season is bust.
* * *
It starts at the top, and doesn’t so much trickle downhill as it pours, gushing from the owner to the general manager to the coach to the players:
This franchise needs to get to the Super Bowl, and soon, or this franchise has squandered this opportunity.
The Colts committed tens of millions this offseason to sign a group of free agents headlined by players whose time is today, not tomorrow. Ten-year veteran NFL running back Frank Gore doesn’t have much time left. Neither does receiver Andre Johnson (12 NFL seasons), outside linebacker Trent Cole (10), offensive tackle Todd Herremans (10), defensive lineman Kendall Langford (seven) or safety Dwight Lowery (seven).
For three years the Colts have been building with an eye on tomorrow. Tomorrow has arrived, but it won’t last long. Which is why owner Jim Irsay wasn’t even trying to mask his desire for a Super Bowl title — OK, more than one — in May.
Irsay said the Colts entered the offseason looking “at how do we build this roster over the next three years to really be able to go on a run where you can win two Super Bowls in a row, to where you can really be dominant.”
Super Bowl? General Manager Ryan Grigson said “every move we make has that in mind.”
The 45-7 loss to the Patriots in the 2014 AFC Championship Game was determined, as so many of this team’s huge losses over the years have been determined, by the Colts’ inability to stop the run. The Colts can score, and they have a secondary featuring one of the best cornerbacks in the game (Vontae Davis) and a Pro Bowl safety (Mike Adams). But if they can’t stop the run, they can’t get to the Super Bowl. And coach Chuck Pagano, entering the final year of his contract, has been listening to his owner and general manager talk about the Super Bowl.
"We either get it fixed,” Pagano said of the team’s Super Bowl-obstructing weakness at rushing defense, “or it will be somebody else getting it fixed."
The players, of course, are on board. Those who will talk about it, anyway. We’ll hear more once camp starts, but new right tackle Herremans told NFL.com’s Michael Silver that the Colts wooed him by making this clear:
“They are looking to win the Super Bowl – right now,” Herremans said.
When Gore and Johnson visited the Colts during free agency, Irsay put the Colts’ 2006 Lombardi Trophy on his desk. When Gore and Johnson were texting about their NFL suitors in the coming days, Gore sealed the deal by hitting “send” on the following message to his former college teammate:
“I think we can win the Super Bowl if we go to Indy.”
* * *
What’s happening here isn’t merely a mathematical progression, though the progression is obvious:
2012: Reached playoffs.
2013: Reached playoffs, won a game to get to AFC semifinals.
2014: Reached playoffs, won two games to get to AFC final.
What comes next? Reaching the Super Bowl, obviously. This is not a franchise that peaked last season. Nor is the AFC particularly devastating this season. In fact, the Colts look to have their best team in years at a time the conference is there for the taking.
The AFC South is abysmal. Nothing more to say, other than this: The Colts play in that abysmal division. The AFC North is brutal, and those teams will stress each other out and beat each other up. The AFC West is led by Denver, and the Broncos are ferocious, but Peyton Manning is one year older and coming off a season where his winter decline was notable. Nothing lasts forever, though my word is Peyton giving that axiom a run.
In the AFC East, the favorite Patriots look to face four games without quarterback Tom Brady, and a fifth game — Brady’s first — at Lucas Oil Stadium. By the time that stretch is over, the Patriots might have lost the inside track to home-field advantage in the playoffs.
But enough about the competition. The Colts aren’t hoping to back into Super Bowl 50. They’re in position to rampage there. They have one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL (Luck), handing it to the best (Gore) and deepest (Boom Herron, Vick Ballard, Josh Robinson) group of running backs he has ever played with. He will throw to two obviously dominant receivers (Johnson, T.Y. Hilton), one possibly dominant receiver (No. 1 draft choice Phillip Dorsett) and two others with promise (Duron Carter, Donte Moncrief).
The Colts might have the best pair of tight ends in the league (Coby Fleener, Dwayne Allen) and definitely have the best pair of specialists in the NFL, perhaps ever (kicker Adam Vinatieri, punter Pat McAfee). The offensive line doesn’t look special, but it doesn’t look anything like the train wreck of last season. So that’s an upgrade.
Defense? Looks better. Doesn’t look great, but better. It has been bolstered by the additions of free agents Cole, Langford and Lowery, the draft selections of tackles Henry Anderson and David Parry, the return to health of tackle Art Jones and linebacker Jerrell Freeman, and the imminent return of superstar pass-rusher Robert Mathis.
The curtain rises this weekend in Anderson, at a humble facility that seats 4,200 fans in a humble town of about 56,000. The show must go into January and beyond, ending — win or lose – at a $1.2 billion stadium that opened last year in the Bay Area metropolis of 7.7 million people.
There is one more thing to write, the continuation of the progression noted above:
2015: Super Bowl. Or bust.
Find Star columnist Gregg Doyel on Twitter at@GreggDoyelStar or atwww.facebook.com/gregg.doyel
COLTS CAMP
Location: Anderson University, 1100 E. 5th Street, Anderson, IN 46012
Directions: Take exit 26 off Interstate 69. Take a left on State Road 9/Scatterfield Road and go 5 miles. Turn left onto East 8th Street, then make a right onto Walnut Street.
Parking: $5 per vehicle.
Colts City: Open everyday their is practice. It includes interactive inflatables, sponsor booths, social media tent, give-a-ways, Colts In Motion traveling museum, Play 60 Zone, Colts Pro Shop, concessions, Goodwill collection (all donors receiver a Colts seat cushion).
(Schedule is subject to change)
Sunday-Tuesday
12:30-5 p.m.: Colts City
1:55-4:40 p.m.: Practice
Wednesday
5-9:30 p.m.: Colts City
6:25-9:10 p.m.: Practice
Thursday
No practice
Friday-Aug. 10
12:30-5 p.m.: Colts City
1:55-4:40 p.m.: Practice
Aug. 11
No practice
Aug. 12-13
12:30-5 p.m.: Colts City
1:55-4:40 p.m.: Practice
Friday, Aug. 14
12:30-5 p.m.: Colts City
1:55-4:10 p.m.: Practice