Has Andrew’s Luck run out?

         At every level of sports, there have always been disputes and discrepancies of varying degrees. It comes with the territory. The very nature of competition has a way of bringing out the best and worst in us. While the topic of arguments aren’t exactly the same among teams, one thing remains constant, and that is the cure to these ill feelings. Winning. There’s just something about looking up at the scoreboard and seeing your team with more points than the opponent that seems to put all surface and underlying issues at ease. The head coach and star player can manage to shelve their Alpha male personalities in favor of the objective being achieved. Teammates can forget all about that gorgeous model they were ready to kill each other over, and fans can magically find it in their hearts to no longer figuratively ask for everyone’s head on a platter.

            The Indianapolis Colts are no different. After two upset losses to less than stellar former AFC East rivals Buffalo Bills and New York Jets, the Colts front office is left looking for answers. The questions are currently pointing at Head Coach Chuck Pagano. Interestingly enough, these questions have been aimed at him since before the 0-2 start in which his job security was surprisingly in question after being one game away from the Super Bowl. Like a stack of dominoes, once he was pushed by the front office, he pushed his starting quarterback, 4^th year man out of Stanford, Andrew Luck.

            “Been the case for three years now, has it not? Should be more comfortable dealing with it…He’s got to take care of the football. Make great decisions. It’s not that hard. It’s not trigonometry,” said Pagano when asked about the offensive line and his starting quarterback. We can look at this statement one of two ways. Pagano is saying Luck should be accustomed to a less than acceptable offensive line, or the front office should be more concerned about fixing that than they should be about his duties as coach. As far as the second half of the statement, that’s self-explanatory. Luck has got to be smarter and take better care of the football.

            The trigonometry jab may have been a bit much because while no math whiz myself, I have ZERO doubt that being an NFL quarterback is easily ten times more difficult than a math class. With that said, it’s also not like Luck took great care of the football in Monday night’s 20-7 loss to the Jets either as evidenced by his four turnovers (three INT’s and one fumble). While that stat is horrific and makes a game almost impossible to win, is Luck truly as terrible as he is being portrayed? In all of his full seasons so far, he has led the Colts to the playoffs, including a run to the AFC championship after an 0-2 start. The team has finished each of those seasons with 11 wins. He has thrown for at least 3,600 yards, 21 touchdowns, and has had a passer rating of no less than 76.5.

            Those stats aren’t too bad for someone drafted number one overall or the middle of the seventh round. They’re also not bad for someone who defeated his legendary predecessor by the name of Peyton Manning in 2015’s divisional playoff. Some may point to his most recent performance as evidence of long overdue criticism, and that is certainly their prerogative. Some may even continue to call the team a “mess.” However you choose to view the horseshoes of Nap Town, the numbers prove Pagano shouldn’t be on the hot seat, and Andrew’s above average performance up to this point has been everything but lucky.