Author Archives: Kent Sterling

Colts playoff hopes dim after utter collapse in Baltimore

Carson Wentz played his career best game last night.

Sickening.  Pitiful.  Heartbreaking.

The Colts overtime loss to the Ravens was all those things.  Any night, losing after leading 22-3 with 18 minutes left in regulation would be galling.  At 1-3 on the road with playoff hopes on the line, it’s the kind of result that ends careers, a season, and devalues a meticulously built culture.

Quarterback Carson Wentz played arguably the best game of his career, and the defense held the Ravens to fewer than 100 yards on the ground for the first time in 44 games.  Cornerbacks were hurt, the defense went soft, and Frank Reich trusted kicker Roberto Blankenship over his hand-picked QB and the very efficient offense that put his Colts in a position to win in the first place.

Every season, Colts fans indulge in Super Bowl dreams, but they likely sailed wide left as Blankenship’s game-winning field goal attempt to end regulation did the same. According to Sports Betting Dime, the reigning champion Bucs have moved into the favorite spot as Super Bowl odds-on favorite (+500), and the Colts have now dropped into a group with the Miami Dolphins (+10000) – the only team the Colts have vanquished this season.

It’s worth remembering that the Colts found a way to rebound from an even more horrific 1-5 start to earn a 2018 playoff berth and actually win a wild card round game in Reich’s first season.  This year, such a turnaround seems a very long field goal try given the remaining schedule includes games at Buffalo, against Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Bucs, and in Glendale against the suddenly excellent Arizona Cardinals.  Unless the Colts can win one of those three, the ceiling for the season record is 10-7, which seems the minimum likely to win a competitively compromised AFC South.

Furious fans want Blankenship waived, defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus fired, and general manager Chris Ballard held accountable for a roster full of flaws.  The biggest question mark entering the season was whether Carson Wentz could bounce back to play at the level needed to lift the Colts toward another postseason. Despite foot surgery, two ankle sprains, and a five-day Covid quarantine, Wentz has been plenty good – posting a triple digit passer rating in three games.

The defense has suffered a spate of injuries at corner, safety, and defensive end.  That didn’t help Eberflus’s bend/don’t break shell zone as it allowed the Ravens to score touchdowns on its final four possessions.  Sure, if Blankenship makes a kick, fans would (mostly) forget the Colts being gouged by a suddenly comfortable Lamar Jackson, but the collapse certainly underscored the flaws of the scheme and personnel.

With 12 games left in the season, the Colts aren’t dead as far as a playoff berth, but the chances of earning one took a major blow in the loss to the Ravens.  The Colts showed what they are capable of on the offensive side of the ball, but also what they are incapable of doing on the other side of the ball.

As the schedule theoretically eases, the Colts need to embrace the urgency that a 1-4 start mandates.  It’s not likely this season ends with a meaningful victory, but on Octorber 12th, it is way too early to call the rest of the 2021 season meaningless.  Sometimes you need to search for the meaning, but in the NFL it is never too hard to find.

That will either make the rest of the season a fun march into winter, or a difficult debacle that will require roster and staff responses to change the competitive dynamic of a team that once held such promise.

Ben Simmons to the Pacers is a terrible idea in many ways – here are four!

Ben Simmons looks terrible in this Pacers jersey, or more correctly – that Pacers jersey is a poor fit for Ben Simmons.

Ben Simmons to the Indiana Pacers?  Oh, hell no!

These rumors must have been planted by Simmons’ agent to try to create a market out of this air for the disgruntled Philadelphia 76er, right?  There is no way the Pacers do something this silly.  Kevin Pritchard is a lot of things as a team president, but silly is not among them.

Here are five great reasons why trading for Simmons would be the height of lunacy (if you need more than these five, I have plenty more.  Just email me for the complete list, which is longer than Martin Luther’s 95 Theses against the Catholic Church):

  • Simmons can’t shoot, and he won’t shoot!  In four seasons, Simmons has attempted a grand total of 34 three-point shots, of which he made five.  FIVE!  From the foul line, he is also inept, making less than 60% of his free throws.  The difference between Simmons hitting 59.7% and  80% – the kind of average you want in a guy playing the point – is almost precisely one point per game over his career.
  • Over his four seasons, Simmons has not progressed.  His per game and per 36 minutes averages have dipped in many instances and stayed static in others.  Simmons is what he is, and shows little likelihood of becoming a true franchise level player.
  • Simmons is disgruntled, and that tends to travel with a player wherever he goes.  If he is going to sit rather than join his teammates to prepare for the 2021-2022 season, what might set him off here to do the same thing?  After both Paul George and Victor Oladipo asked to be dealt to a sanctuary far from Indy, Pritchard is wary of investing in a petulant guy who is not fully “gruntled.”
  • The price would be steep.  Simmons costs an average of $35.5M per year, and because of the salary cap, the Pacers would have to cobble together parts equalling roughly $27M to make the trade compliant with NBA rules.  It would likely be more than that to keep the Pacers under the salary cap threshold, which they have always been and will always be.

It’s not that Simmons is a bad player.  In four seasons, he’s been an all-star three times, and a first team All Defense member twice.  If Simmons could shoot, he would be one of the best five players in the NBA.  But he is not.

It’s very likely these rumors of Simmons to the Pacers are nothing more than ridiculous bleating proffered by the Simmons camp to gin up a little interest.  They sure don’t want their meal ticket to forfeit giant chunks of money for following through on his threat to never play for the 76ers again.

But on the off chance this smoke isn’t coming from arson within the Simmons cabal of advisors, for the love of James Naismith, Pritchard must not pull the trigger on a deal to bring a fatally flawed player to a city where shooters are king.

Indiana fans are smart – they have heard coaches say the same thing since they were born – “If you can’t shoot, you can’t play.”  Ben Simmons can’t, so he shouldn’t.  At least not in Indiana!