Bold prediction? Colts won’t go 0-16

            When
I think about the 2008 Detroit Lions, the league’s only 0-16 team to this
point, I still don’t consider them to be a comically bad bunch. They were a bad
football team, make no mistake about it, but this was not the comedy-of-errors
group like the 1976 Buccaneers that made us laugh (mostly at John McKay’s dry
wit), cry, and wonder if we were witnessing history.

            That
Lions team gave up 522 points, so needless to say the defense might have pushed
the envelope of the Hall of Shame. But this year’s Indianapolis Colts team is
not that bad. They are a poor football
team without Peyton Manning, but not historically bad by any stretch (save,
perhaps, for their 62-7 annihilation at the hands of the New Orleans Saints in
Week 7).

            I
remember reading an article by Dave Hyde in the South-Florida Sun Sentinel back
in 2007 saying that the then-winless Dolphins would not turn the trick, in
large part because they simply weren’t comically bad in a Football Follies sort
of sense. Sure enough, with yours truly in attendance to support the visiting
Ravens, the Dolphins won in overtime for their first and only win of that
season.

            The
Colts’ remaining schedule is tough, but not unmanageable. A visit to Baltimore
likely won’t provide them any relief, but their last three games are all within
the AFC South, two of them at home.

            Will
either the Titans or Texans be the victim? Tennessee is a surprise team at 7-5,
but is suddenly facing a playoff pressure it surely wasn’t expecting. Houston
is 9-3 and winners of six straight, but will the magic run out with
third-string rookie QB T.J. Yates at the helm?

            And
then, of course, we have the finale – a road game against the Jaguars. Granted,
Jacksonville won the first meeting in Indy, 17-3, but the Jags are almost as
anemic offensively as the Colts, and looked rather awful on defense last night
against the Chargers.

            I
believe if they reach 0-15, North Florida will be the spot where imperfection
is avoided. Perhaps an even bigger question is whether Peyton Manning will be
back in the lineup by season’s end. If he is, that changes things drastically.

            It
also wouldn’t be overly surprising if they get it done against either Tennessee
or Houston simply given the fact they showed some signs of life late last week
against New England, albeit in relative “garbage time.”

            The
good news for Colts fans is that since two wins is inconceivable at this point,
they have all but locked up the Andrew Luck sweepstakes for next year.