INDIANAPOLIS -- The Indianapolis Colts entered the season with the type of favorable schedule that potentially allowed them to hover around .500 as they waited for quarterback Andrew Luck to possibly return.
The Colts failed at doing that, as they’re currently 2-5, which is their worst start through seven games since opening the 2011 season 0-7. It won't get any easier for them in the coming weeks.
The Colts’ next three games are at Cincinnati, at Houston and Pittsburgh, which has won three straight over coach Chuck Pagano's squad by at least 17 points in each game, before they reach their bye in Week 11.
Indianapolis could possibly be 2-8 at that point.
“This is football and it’s a lot of parallel’s in football and life, sometimes you get knocked on your ass, you have to get up,” Colts safety Darius Butler said. “You don’t have a choice. You get fired, you have to get up and find a way to eat. That’s what it is. We have to find a way to eat.”
Nothing was supposed to be easy for the Colt this season. Not with Luck out, not with first-year general manager Chris Ballard slowly trying to fix the roster and a quarterback starting the past six games after being acquired a week before the regular season started.
Pagano is sounding like a broken record following each loss. And the constant struggle is showing on his body and you hear it in his voice when he talks.
“It’s on me. I didn’t have them ready to play," Pagano said. "Period.”
How come the coach didn't have his team ready to play?
“Trying to figure that out,” he said.
And to add to what seems to be a growing list of problems, receiver T.Y. Hilton started pointing fingers when the called out the offensive line after quarterback Jacoby Brissett was sacked 10 times during their 27-0 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sunday.
“We’ve got to take some pride up front and block for him,” Hilton said. “What if we put them back there and take those hits? We’ve got to start up front. Once we get the O-line going and back in rhythm, we will be fine.”
The Colts, under Pagano at least, have often avoided any sideshows, rather choosing to keep things inside the locker room instead of making their dirty laundry public. This is supposed to be a time where the Colts should be trying to stay together. But Hilton, while what he said has some merit to it, could cause some friction inside the locker room with his comments because he singled out a certain group instead of making it about the team.
Things are bound to get worse before they get better for what was once a prideful Colts organization. There’s no finish line in sight when it comes to Luck’s return after he was shut down from practicing due to soreness in right shoulder last week. Then the Colts lost starting cornerback Rashaan Melvin (concussion), linebacker John Simon (stinger), safety Malik Hooker (knee) and center Ryan Kelly (hamstring) to injury Sunday.
The one positive -- there’s only one at this point for Indianapolis -- the more it losses, the better position it’ll be in for a higher first-round draft pick next spring for its rebuilding project.
“We’ll show up and we’ll go back to work,” Pagano said. “That’s what you do. When you get your ass knocked down, you get up off the mat and you fight. Period. You don’t tuck your tail like a coward. You fight. You put it all on the line, this is what you open yourself up to. So what, now what? We’re all going to go through some stuff, right? And you better be ready. And we’ll be ready.”