What once looked like a lost season has suddenly turned on a dime for a Colts roster who has steadily began to pick up steam heading into the home stretch. The team is celebrating it latest victory against the Atlanta Falcons lead by the teams cagey veteran, Matt Hasselbeck.
To say that Matt Hasselbeck has been exceeding expectations is a huge a understatement. Talk on radio and television has centered around the notion if the Colts would be better without Andrew Luck due to Hasselbeck’s exceptional play, after all, he has lead the team to 4 of their 6 wins. The short answer is yes for the moment, but no once Luck has healed sufficiently to play the game they way he needs to. Anyone who thinks the team should cut bait with Luck and go with Hasselbeck for the foreseeable future are delusional. Luck has way too much talent as witnessed by his first three seasons with team. Yes he turned the ball over way too often this season, but between the poor protection and offensive scheme that was failing, most would have struggled in that position. Let’s stop this talk! At the same time let’s be thankful that the organization decided that going without a suitable back up was not an option. Kudos to the front office for bringing him despite what some thought was too expensive of a price.
Late last week, prior to the Atlanta game the team signed Daniel “Boom” Herron back to the roster again to be the third back on the team. Well that move turned out to be prophetic in that coming out of the game the team moved Ahmad Bradshaw to the IR for the third time in three seasons. Bradshaw since being signed to the roster has been a great redzone target, similar to last season roll before injury ended his season (sound familiar). Herron will now move up to be the back up Frank Gore, while the third slot will be filled by Zurlon Tipton who was signed after moving Bradshaw to the IR (Tipton was waived to make room for Herron late last week).
Catching up from news from last week, it was announced that the Colts will be playing over in London in 2016 as part of the NFL’s series of games there. The NFL has been dipping it’s feet in the market to test viability of adding a permanent team and also a way to grow the product in a market that seems to garner some interest from fans. The best news is the Colts won’t be losing a home game as the “Glitter Kitties” (Jacksonville Jaguars) will be hosting them. The NFL has been looking for ways to get some of the better franchises across the pond in front of Londoners. Luck has a history with the city as he spent some time there while his dad was running NFL Europe. The Colts also have a fan base over there, so it should be an exciting time for all involved.
Finally, I wanted to point out the play of Donte Moncrief who has quietly began to fight with TY Hilton as the best receiver on the team. Moncrief has been consistently getting the ball and making the most out of each catch. Don’t get me wrong, TY is great and is threat when he can get behind the defense, but Moncrief has been using his size and athleticism to keep the team moving at the times when it needs someone the most to make that play that moves the game forward. Hasselbeck has great chemistry with Moncrief and has been finding him when he absolutely needs to keep the chains moving. I felt that we would see his growth but was slightly concerned that he might get over-shadowed by Andre Johnson and Phillip Dorsett, but thankfully that has not been the case. Donte is beginning to get people to notice his abilities on the field, which should help others get open. Too bad the defenses (good for us) have not been able to stop him.
