Not all members of the Indianapolis Colts were overly upset with the team’s epic collapse on Sunday night against the Houston Texans. One man, running back Frank Gore, most definitely was.
“I didn’t come here for this,” Gore said, per Gregg Doyel of The Indianapolis Star.“I came here to get into the tournament.”
There’s nothing wrong with Gore’s take. He’s a veteran nearing the end of his career, hoping to return to a Super Bowl. He’s also had a strong season, rushing for 434 yards and was particularly strong on Sunday, totaling 106. Unfortunately, that effort was wasted.
The problem isn’t that Gore was so upset. No, the problem is that, according to Doyel, Gore was “the only one who seemed genuinely disgusted.”
What?
If the Texans were clearly the better team on Sunday, that may be excusable. Heck, even if the Colts just played terrible and were blown out, we may be able to make sense out of that attitude.
But none of that applied to Sunday’s loss. That was not simply a winnable game that Indianapolis blew. That was a game that the Colts not only had won, but won rather easily. Brock Osweiler looked completely lost under center for the Texans. Indianapolis led by 14 points with five minutes left. Had the Colts held on, they would have found themselves in a three-way for first place in the AFC South. Instead, the Indianapolis sits in dead last.
Let that digest for a second.
The AFC South is the worst division in the NFL. By the end of the year, it may well be won with an 9-7 or even 8-8 record. The Colts are in last place in that division, and one member of the team is upset?
There’s a reason that this team has fallen so hard since losing the AFC Championship following the 2014 season. Ryan Grigson has done an abysmal job building the team and there doesn’t seem to be any desperation.
Players and coaches should be frustrated at this point. Why wouldn’t they be? More of them need to find an attitude similar to Gore’s.