Are the Colts the NFL's St. Louis Cardinals?
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by user Phoenix Superfan
Looking for a dark horse Super Bowl winner? Look no further than the Indianapolis Colts. It may seem odd to call one of the most successful teams of the 21st century a dark horse, but nobody is picking them. Most analysts have them as the fourth best team in the AFC, which is probably accurate based on talent and regular season statistics. If you like to think out of the box a little bit however, you can easily draw a number of parallels between the Colts and the 2006 World Series Champion St. Louis Cardinals.
1. Both have been offensive juggernauts for years and have racked up gaudy regular season records.
2. Both have highly regarded coaches who have famously not lived up to expectations in the post season.
3. Like the Colts the Cardinals had not won a championship despite their regular season success and had a history of losing playoffs series in which they were favored.
4. This was considered the worst Cardinals team of the last few years since they barely broke .500 and struggled to win their division. This is considered the worst Colts team of the decade due to the loss of Edgerrin James and the 32nd ranked run defense.
5. The Cardinals backed into the playoffs going 11-17 after September 1st. The Colts backed into the playoffs going 2-3 over their last 5 games.
6. The Cardinals got their season back on track beating an inferior San Diego team in the first round, and went on to face the Mets and Tigers to whom they were supposed to lose. Indianapolis may have gotten their season back on track by beating an inferior Kansas City team in the first round. Now they go on the road to face a Baltimore team that they are supposed to lose to. If they can win today, then they just might be able to carry that momentum into San Diego/New England and pull of a huge upset.
All season long I have heard analysts on every station clamoring about who is going to be this year’s Steeler’s. Maybe the question they should have been asking is, “who are football’s Cardinals.”
