PEYTON MANNING POSSIBLY OUT FOR THE SEASON!!! What kind of joke was this?
It had to be some kind of rumor...right? WRONG! To my surprise and disgust
Peyton Manning was most likely not going to be playing in the 2011-2012
NFL season.

I’m not going to lie, my first reaction was, “I need to find a new team,
pronto!” As if being a die-heart Cubs fan wasn’t enough, I now had to deal
with the sting of being a Colts fan. Talk about a low blow.

By the time Sunday finally rolled around I had seriously considered
setting my Peyton Manning jersey on fire at least thirteen times. However,
I realized, once a Colts fan, always a Colts fan, and if my team was going
down, well by George I was going down with them.

11:53am, seven minutes before game time. I sat down on the couch, grabbed
the remote and changed the channel to CBS. Yep, I was going through with
this. Somehow, deep down inside I managed to convince myself the Colts
were in fact going to beat the Houston Texans. By the end of the first
quarter the Texans had managed to score 17 points, leaving the Colts
hopeless.

Half time rolls around and the score is 34-0, there is no point in even
watching this game anymore. Then all of a sudden, TOUCHDOWN COLTS!!! (Hard
to believe I know.) That’s when I realized my team may not be a complete
failure.

After putting two and two together, I came to the conclusion that the
Colts are practically a brand new team. I honestly believe if they work
hard enough and quit saying they can’t do it without Manning, they will
have the potential to win a few games.

To start off, the Colts need to tighten up their offense; it lacks
confidence, appears extremely weak and has some major holes, leaving their
quarterback to defend for himself. Speaking of the quarterback, Collins
has the ability to be a good quarterback but he is trying too hard to be
Manning. That would explain the numerous over throws, interceptions and
fumbles throughout the game.

On another note, the Colts defense just needs to step back and regroup.
Their defense was built for speed, not to stop a run. Unfortunately that
doesn’t seem to be working for them; until they find a balance between the
two, the defense will continually have problems throughout the season.

By the end of the season, I feel the Colts will finally be playing to
their full potential, winning a few games here and there. Then by the time
Manning returns, the team will be looking for redemption, coming back as a
stronger, highly driven team, putting them in the position to be next
years Superbowl champions.