Nearly every public online Sportsbook out there right now has the Indianapolis Colts over/under for wins at 9.5.
Surely, most people are taking the over.
“Philip Rivers got us 11 wins! Why can’t Carson Wentz?”
“The bottom half of the AFC South is absolutely terrible, that’s a lock!”
“Matt Eberflus‘ defense is going to carry us to a title!”
While all of that may be true, there is some pretty intense pressure on the Colts to perform in 2021. Wentz is on his revenge tour, T.Y. Hilton has something to prove, and the three-headed running back monster of Jonathan Taylor, Marlon Mack, and Nyheim Hines is hungry.
But most importantly, this is year number four of Frank Reich and Chris Ballard together. If they don’t eclipse the double-digit win marker, somebody will be in a whole lot of trouble.
And that somebody will hear from Jim Irsay.
How do the Blue and White manage those expectations though? That’s what Kevin Bowen asked Reich on The Dan Dakich Show Wednesday afternoon. KB sat in for DD and welcomed the head man of the Colts for a post-OTAs chat.
“You want to climb the mountain and hit multiple goals like taking control of the AFC South,” Reich said. “We say here are the goals that we need to accomplish, and here are the check points like the sub goals we need to hit along the way. We’re very process-oriented here, but it’s not like we don’t ever talk about that stuff.”
No matter what goal Reich is talking about though, most and if not all of them are going to start with the play of Wentz under center.
Irsay gave a press conference a couple months back where he made that exact point; Where the 2021 Colts go will live and die with their new quarterback.
“We have to make sure that we put ourselves in a consistent position as many times as we can when the ball is snapped,” Reich added. “Once the pressure comes, a lot of times you have to ad-lib. What we’re trying to do is create the basis and foundation so when everything is right and in time, we’re as consistent as possible.”
The storylines for the Blue and White in this upcoming campaign are as enticing as ever.
You can see the Super Bowl aspirations, but you can also sense the naiveness in some areas.
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