Author Archives: Kent Sterling

Indianapolis Colts – Coach Rick Venturi with the Keys for the Colts vs. Seahawks Game

by Kent Sterling

The Seahawks are 4-0 instead of 3-1 because of a strange come from behind win last week against the Houston Texans. The Texans were one good decision by Matt Schaub away from a win in Houston last Sunday after asserting some dominance over the Seahawks.

The Texans showed a nice blueprint for reigning in the Seahawks offense, and an inexplicably poor choice to throw into Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman’s area led to the pick six that sent the game to overtime.

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Despite their spotless record, the Seahawks are not perfect. They are areas of great strength like their defensive backfield, the interior defensive line, and bovine strong running back Marshawn Lynch. The weaknesses include quarterback Russell Wilson when contained and the offensive tackles, who are susceptible to speed rushers. Guess what Colts DE Robert Mathis likes to do?

It’s going to be an early day for the Seahawks, but does that matter to a professional football player paid to be ready regardless of the game time. In Seattle, the game will start at 10a, and the team will likely have to be up at 5a. That’s early for men living the NFL lifestyle. It shouldn’t matter, but it does.

If the Seahawks win, it won’t be because of the game time. It will be because of the Legion of Doom, the weak tackles, strong legs of Lynch, and elusiveness of Russell Wilson. If the Colts win, it will be because the Colts found the holes Venturi describes in their defense, Mathis being able to scoot around the weak and slow tackles, and the linebackers finishing Lynch with each carry.

Coach Rick Venturi has spent a life dissecting offenses, and building innovative defensive schemes to combat them. Today, he shared the results of his week of plotting against the Seahawks.

Today’s Ahead of the Curve (9a-11a) Sets Record for Great Greasts – Crean, Pegano, Luck, Copeland, Wynn, and Venturi

by Kent Sterling

Hosting “Ahead of the Curve” on 1070 the Fan in Indy and www.1070thefan.com on the web is the best way I can think of to start my weekend, and Fox 59 sports director Chris Hagan and I hope that listening to us while you are in the car or getting ready to roll for a fun weekend is worthwhile for you too.

Today’s show might be the most incredible in the history of Indianapolis sportstalk radio. Well, that sounds ridiculous, but on a weekend that finds home games from the Hoosiers, Pacers, Colts, and last night’s rollicking Hoosier Hysteria fun at Assembly Hall, we have it all covered.

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As the Hoosiers prep for their Big Ten opener against Penn State, wide receiver and kick returner Shane Wynn (10:30a) will tell you how the Hoosiers used the bye week to enhance their chances to beat the Nittany Lions.

Chuck Pagano and Andrew Luck gave Chris their thoughts on the what the Colts need to focus on to match up with the undefeated Seattle Seahawks. They will air at 9:15a.

The Pacers have an almost completely rebuilt second unit and one of the keys to that group, Chris Copeland (10:15a), talks about his first preseason with the Pacers.

Tom Crean (9:45a) and highly touted freshman Stanford Robinson (10:00a) will talk how ready the Hoosiers are and will be to defend their Big Ten title.

And there is more.

The great Rick Venturi has spent the week as though he was preparing to play the Seahawks, and at 10:45a he will share his game plan. Coach Venturi has become the football analyst that Indy has always wanted. His insight is always uniqur because it’s generated through the same hard work that made him one of the best defensive coordinators in the NFL for a quarter century.

Add the Six-Pack and Boiling Point, and that is a show too big to be contained in just two hours, but we’ll try. We have to squeeze it all in in 120 minutes because the pregame for the Hoosiers starts at 11a, and there is no pushing that show around.

After the game and the always excellent Jeremy Gray with the Hoosiers post game, I’ll be back with Mattt Surface for the American Standard College Football Review on 1070 the Fan.

Hoosier Hysteria – Electric Assembly Hall Ready for Whatever This Season Will Be

by Kent Sterling

First big crowd of the year at Assembly Hall for Hoosier Hysteria.

There is something special about Assembly Hall. It used to be a bizarre building that was mistakenly designed to accommodate concerts played to one side or the other.

What it has become is a shrine to basketball at a place that understands and appreciates the game better than anywhere in the world.

It was Bob Knight’s house for 29 years, but he hasn’t been back since the idiocy of a zero-tolerance policy was enacted and enforced over 13 years ago. This building belongs to Tom Crean and the players he brings in to build on the legacy established by McCracken, Leonard, Schlundt, Bellamy, Buckner, May, Benson, Thomas, Woodson, Tolbert, Wittman, Kitchell, Dakich, Alford, Smart, Cheaney, Graham(s), Guyton, Evans, Haston, Jeffries, Fife, Oladipo, Hulls, and Zeller.

There are programs with rosters of players and coaches that can certainly rival those, but there is something undeniably special about basketball in this state and in this building. Despite being built for a multitude of purposes, it stands as an imperfect but thoroughly unique theater for exactly what it holds and displays – the hearts, efforts, and banners of Indiana’s shared love of basketball.

There are no suites for donors or boxes filled with boosters, just a wooden floor bracketed with hoops at the ends and 17,472 Hoosiers who support the guys with Indiana on their chest and only a number on the front.

When I walk into Assembly Hall, I think about the night Dan Dakich set the great Paulie Balst and I up with a couple of nice seats, and this was before there was any level of legitimate security in the building, and we walked across the court toward Dan talking to his dad on the bench. We thanked him for the ducats, and he introduced us to his dad. We sat down like we owned the place next to Mr. Dakich.

With every minute that passed I became more and more worried that Knight was going to walk through the tunnel and find us in his seats. Mr. Dakich was a cool customer, chatting with us, and I stopping hearing anything he and Paulie said. My eyes were glued to the tunnel with eight minutes left on the clock prior to tip. Finally, knowing the Mr. Dakich had been down this road before, I asked why he wasn’t worried about Knight seeing a bunch of strangers on his bench.

He said, “Knight comes out at the same time before every game. We’ve got a couple of minutes.” He seemed sure of himself, but I still could think of nothing else. I was probably 30, and getting caught trespassing on Coach Knight’s chairs paralyzed my thoughts.

Finally, Mr. Dakich said, “Pretty good time to go now.” As we got to the corner of the floor, out came Knight. I’ve never been that relieved.

Like Assembly Hall, the basketball isn’t always perfect but the experience of watching a game here is. For a long time, people campaigned to build a new and improved home for Indiana Basketball – one with suites, video boards, and all the amenities of a new arena. Something like the Yum! Center in Louisville would be nice.

It would be nice, but you don’t mess with imperfection.

Hoosier Hysteria at Indiana – Learning Takes Time; There Is No Substitute for Experience

by Kent Sterling

Assembly Hall is packed tonight with students who will be fully functional adults in 15 years – give or take.

This post is not about the fortunes of the Indiana Hoosiers in 2013-2014. No, this is about the thousands of students who have packed into Assembly Hall to watch the festivities.

Being a college student sucks. For all the fun, energy, and free time, being in college presupposes that you are not nearly ready to navigate the challenges presented by a world run by people with the kind of responsibilities that would make the average Sigma Chi wither.

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I’m sitting in Assembly Hall on the campus of Indiana University looking into the sea of young fresh faces at tonight’s Hoosier Hysteria opening night for the 2013-2014 Indiana Basketball season, and I can’t help but think about how strangely bereft of wisdom they are.

It sucks being a student – whether it’s in high school, college, or even an entry level employee. The assumption is that everyone knows more, and that’s a little presumptuous. Who are these teachers, professors, and bosses to believe they know more than you?

How the hell much is there to know after all?

The Dan Dakich Show is primarily about sports, but it also deals with life in a way that can grind the gears of the young because Dan tells all kinds of truths – wonderful, awful, pleasant, and those that fly in the face of what many believe. Today, Dan had a chat about learning, and how the teachers who are demanding get the most out of their students.

Current college students didn’t enjoy hearing that perspective, and let Dan know about it via Twitter, text, and any other social media tool in their arsenal. Students, and I was exactly the same way when I was stumbling through Ballentine Hall trying to find H106 in Room 013 with Professor Juergens, like to believe because they look like adults that they actually are adults. College is a game, and grades are the reward for winning. Accommodating profs meant easy Bs,and the pricks would force me to work for Cs were to be avoided. Learning was not a big part of my agenda, nor is it for many.

And I’m afraid the majority of kids in Assembly Hall tonight are here to prolong time prior to the headaches and thrills of providing for a family. In real life failure isn’t represented by an F. It comes in the form of a foreclosure.

The stakes of adulthood bring wisdom, and that’s what Dan was talking about today. The unkind coddling of students does nothing to prepare them for what lies ahead. Everyone doesn’t get a trophy in real life. They get raises, severance, pain, joy, accomplishment, and failure. And the safety net is very thin.

The teachers who demand your best work are those you remember forever because through their yearning to pull you toward your potential, you grow into someone ready for challenges – real challenges, not writing a 5,000 word opus on the reasons Roosevelt screwed the pooch at Yalta in two hours after polishing off half a fifth of Wild Turkey the night before.

Teachers who are friends are useless as it’s not the information that is truly important, but the ability to focus, learn, and produce.

One of the best teachers I ever had was a guy named John Hastings. He taught eighth grade physics and chemistry simultaneously, and looked like a bald Woody Hayes. He presented the information, and demanded that we learn it. I worked my ass off for Mr. Hastings to get a B-. One day, long after school ended, I waited for my Mom to pick me up. Mr. Hastings came to the door and waited for what I assume was his ride. I tried to chat him up a little bit, and told him what a good teacher he was. He looked at me with a combination of confusion and indifference, squinted, and left without a word.

There would be no friendship, or even a moment when he let his guard down. No, the reward for knowing Mr. Hastings would be in pushing myself harder than I otherwise would have, and in every other science class I took all the way through college where I walked in the door already knowing everything that would be presented.

School is not about grammar, algebra, and Erlenmeyer flasks. It’s about discipline, and without that, you have no chance to be a functional adult. Colleges are not doing a consistently good jobs of instilling discipline, and one of the reasons is that a rising percentage of teachers would rather be friends than demand attentive and disciplined learning.

That’s the lesson Dan was trying to teach today.

Developing wisdom is significantly more difficult and takes a much longer time than learning college level calculus. It takes a certain amount of success, failure, responsibility, and pondering. It requires making tough decisions, like whether to fire a friend for the longterm good of the company. It takes deciding whether following a directive that runs counter to your morality is made palatable by the smile on your children’s faces when they learn the family can now afford a bigger house. It requires making the call of whether or not to own up to a mistake or throw a co-worker under the bus because you have a house payment to make.

You don’t learn who you are in college. That comes much later, and that’s what Dan was saying. It’s not an insult, but an absolute truth. Adulthood is not chronological; it’s behavioral, and it cannot be rushed.

College is like everything else – you get out of it what you put in. Those who push you to invest heavily should be embraced. Those who don’t should be shunned. You have enough friends. Teachers and professors who make you feel like they “get” you should send you running to drop and add.

Hoosier Hysteria – Assistant Steve McClain Talks About What He Expects from the Hoosiers

by Kent Sterling

There is a pressing question for everyone associated with the 2013-2014 Indiana University basketball team, and that is “What are your expectations for this year’s team?”

It’s kind of a silly question because there isn’t a sane coach or player associated with this or any other team who will quantify it with a number of wins regardless of how many players return. When a team loses 80% of its offense, vague responses are the expectation for an answer.

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But the question has to be asked because people who follow the program have no idea what the hell this group will look like once they take the floor for real.

Indiana has one of the best group of freshman in the country, and a lot of what might happen hinges upon the development of Noah Vonleh, Troy Williams, Stanford Robinson, Luke Fischer, Devin Davis, and Collin Hartman.

The returning guys include Will Sheehey, Yogi Ferrell, and Austin Etherington, and they will be expected to both lead and produce.

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IU assistant coach sat down to talk about the Hoosiers. His answer about expectations was the most specific I got from anyone at Assembly Hall. It discussed a result, rather than solely the desire to see improvement through diligence.

I also brought up an episode that a group of media knuckleheads went threw a couple of years ago where McClain degraded me for my lack of length (which is fine for banging finger tips against a keyboard and golf, but not an asset for basketball).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ym35Y9daSas

Hoosier Hysteria will be held tonight in Assembly Hall. Gates open at 5p, and the event itself will begin at 7:30p. Afterward, the team will sign autographs for an hour in the concourse. Bring one item for players to sign, and bring a nonperishable (canned) food item for the Hoosier Hills food Bank.

Interestingly, I have hired three of the four hosts for the night’s activities. Eddie White, Chuck Crabb, and Jeremy Gray all proved me right in my belief they are very talented. The fourth host, Chuck Crabb, was a legend before I ever earned a position where I could have hired him.

Humanity Will Miss Salvation Army Major Robert Scott

by Kent Sterling

Wouldn’t it be nice if good people didn’t die? There just aren’t enough people who care more about others than they do themselves to not hate it when they are taken from us.

Bob Scott was a big man with a loud laugh, hands like jai alai cestas, and a lightning fast gait. He was a major part of the heart that drives The Salvation Army to be there for you when no when else chooses to be. [Before you send a comment about the capitalization of “The” in The Salvation Army, it was Bob who unapologetically and loudly corrected a memo I wrote over a decade ago when I neglected to use a capital T.]

The WIBC Radiothon to Benefit The Salvation Army simply would not exist without him. Don Steele, JoAnn Remender, Jon Quick, and so many others made that thing go during the years before it started to operate under its own momentum. There is still great work being done, but back in the day when we didn’t have any idea what we were doing, it was Bob who led the charge into the unknown as though doing good was a shield from all harm that could befall a broadcast.

There are people who are driven to sate their hungers. Others are baffled by the mass of humanity and shrink from it. Others, like Bob, trust that helping others is exactly how a worthwhile life is spent and they kind of keep the lamp lit for the rest of us. We can trust that human beings are primarily benevolent creatures because of the way Bob and others live their lives.

I thought so much of Bob that when I was afraid that my son had not grown to understand the joy of helping others – he wasn’t selfish or callous, but we had never made it a point to being aggressive in our charitable exploits and I feared Ryan would grow up believing every life is as ideal as his – I asked if Bob wouldn’t mind shepherding Ryan around for a day to the various facilities where The Salvation Army selflessly helps others.

He did it, and Ryan learned a lot about the responsibility we have to one another that day. Bob would always ask about Ryan after that, and I believe Ryan is a better man today because of his time spent with Bob.

So many of us are.

Cubs Graceless in Tossing “We miss you” Ron Santo Card, But What Do You Expect?

by Kent Sterling

The sign reads, “We’ll miss you, Ron!” Not so much anymore, I guess.

To fans, the Cubs are a passion, and the former players are heroes. To Cubs management, the team is a business, and the former players are assets to leverage. When they die, a period of mourning is observed. As it lapses, all memorabilia representing that player is tossed into a dumpster. Or so it seems.

That hypothesis seemed safe until I saw a picture of a Carlos Marmol banner among the Ron Santo stuff in the dumpster. Minus the useless appendage he calls a right arm, Marmol is alive and in limbo on the Los Angeles Dodgers 40-man roster.

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That some intern was tasked with cleaning out a storage unit is not a surprise. That the person who monitors the interns likely told the kid to empty it to the walls isn’t surprising either. The only surprising part of this is that the swag was tossed in the trash instead of placed on eBay for auction.

A front office willing to turn the outfield of a baseball shrine into a drive-in movie theater for a couple of hundred bucks certainly would see value in some of that stuff. Maybe they are a little thin-skinned over earning a rep for profit mongering, what with some of the highest average ticket prices while hiring triple-A level talent.

They were obviously too callous to call Jeff Santo to gauge the family’s interest in the card, and never gave any thought about auctioning it with the proceeds going to JDRF – Santo’s charity of choice. Attention to detail is at the root of many of the Cubs issues, including the field not being of adequate length to safely host the Northwestern vs. Illinois game in 2010 before doing the deal to move the game to the Friendly Confines. The game was played using only one of the end zones. (The Cubs recently entered into another deal, but are sure that renovations allowing the removal of dugouts will allow the games to be played in both directions. Hurray!)

Crane Kenney, the genius behind the football debacle and Cubs president of business operations, called Jeff Santo personally to apologize, and that might be the most meaningful contribution to the organization he has ever made. If I ever have the time to put together a post highlighting people who have done the most harm to a franchise this has suffered more than any other in its 137 years, Kenney will be in the top three.

The Cubs violated the first rule of business – don’t let an accountant or lawyer into the room as plans are being debated. With lawyers, their feedback is always through the prism of liability, and accountants only see financial risk but enjoy pretending they know something about the business and people. And NEVER put an accountant in charge. Kenney is an attorney who acts like an accountant. Bang and bang.

If someone running the business side had an ounce of empathy, they would make sure that part of the Cubs front office understood that baseball is a people business, and that bean counters are best kept out of people management.

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To make matters worse, Cubs spokesman Julian Green lied about the team retrieving the memorabilia when the truth was that Beth Murphy (of the Murphy’s Right Field Bleachers Murphys) had rescued it after seeing it in the dumpster while walking her dog. She plans to give it to Santo this weekend. In the end, the right thing was done through no effort from the Cubs. This mirrors the fan experience at Wrigley. People are still able to have fun there, but other than cleaner bathrooms and fancier sandwiches, it has nothing to do with the Cubs – on the field or off.

Of course, this was an innocent mistake – as most mistakes are. It was not the intention of the Cubs to piss off Cubs fans who continue to revere Santo. That’s the problem. Organizations never try to lose, anger, offend, or disenfranchise. Some just can’t help it.

Indianapolis Grand Prix – It’s a Good Start, But the Growth of Events for the Month Can’t Stop There

by Kent Sterling

If Mark Miles wants full stands and a return to national relevance for the Indy 500, he needs to champion what he’s great at – doing something cool every time the gates are open.

For 15 years, May at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway lasting an entire month has been a ridiculous concept that only Indy 500 traditionalists have embraced.

Practice days are unnecessary exercises that provide nothing to compel attendance, and Bump Day has ceased to feature bumping. Qualifications were reduced to the weekend before the race, and contrivances have propped up Pole Day to try to build enough late drama to keep people in their seats until the end of the day.

Carb Day attendance is driven by a concert from a reasonably popular band and the ability to pack a cooler full of intoxicants to make the day of fun an economical win.

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The buses filled with school children on a field trip to the IMS to watch practice probably do more to reinforce the notion of contextually bereft purposelessness than to engage them as future fans.

There are useless antique car shows, autograph signings, and other entries that fill the calendar of events, but none of them urge an ordinary race fan to leave the comfort of his or her home to drive to the World’s Greatest Race Course.

Mark Miles was hired by the Hulman Family as CEO of Hulman & Company because he is a really good host. He understands how to throw a party, and if the Indianapolis Motor Speedway is going to be open for 12 days during May, it needs to host 12 great parties. Cars going around in circles for no reason other than to go around in circles wastes everyone’s time. Building a series of dramatic events that prompt people to hop out of the Barcalounger, pack a cooler, and drive to a very crowded place for a day of fun is Miles’ charge.

The first big move is the almost too logical step of hosting a road race on a road course that cost a lot of money to build, but lies dormant minus a poorly attended Moto-GP race. This gives the May another cool day, raising the number to four. The Indianapolis Grand Prix will be held on May 10th, and the Indianapolis 500 will be run May 25th.

What happens in between becomes the ongoing challenge for Miles and his crew.

There is talk of a major concert on the day before the race, but that talk has been a tradition for a generation. The problem always comes down to money. Booking the kind of act that will motivate attendance is expensive. If they can book a Kid Rock level act for Carb Day and a beyond household name act for Indy 500 eve, that would give people five legit reasons to come out.

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Traditionalists are pissed because they believe the road race will detract for the Indianapolis 500 as a standalone Greatest Spectacle in Racing. If you ever wanted to go back in time to talk to the people who ran passenger train companies in the 1930s, and refused to adapt as plane travel put them out of business, these lunkheads are as close as you’ll get.

Nimble wins in business, and listening to boobs who would rather turn back the clock than move boldly toward the future has put the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in the irrelevant position it currently occupies in the national consciousness. The defenders of the glory days need to be steadfastly ignored.

History for the Indianapolis 500 is a huge part of the fabric of this community, but that’s why we listen to Donald Davidson on “Talk of Gasoline Alley.” A full week of practice for the sake of tradition when one day would suffice is the kind of stupid that causes seats to go unfilled on race day.

The cars are in Indy on May 8th, and the drivers can be too. Why not hold a race on a circuit that would just lay there vacant otherwise?

NASCAR holds no abiding interest for me, but the way they structure Speed Week is really smart. Something happens at Daytona almost everyday, and pointless circling doesn’t count. They qualify for the qualification races, and then race for the pole. Sports networks broadcast from there everyday – not because they are contractually obligated to (although they are), but because there is something worth watching when the cameras are on.

The powers that be at Indy have forced networks who want to do business with them to spend hours of air time showing nothing, and that has done great harm to the reputation of the event and facility. Every second a network broadcasts live from the IMS must provide something interesting for viewers – not to build audience, but to avoid catastrophic damage to the brand. If not, people click over, are disappointed, and never return (to the broadcast or the event itself). They learn that the Indianapolis 500 is dull – that nothing happens there.

We know that the opposite is the case. Standing in Turn One as the green flag drops to start the Indianapolis 500 is the most thrilling place to be in sports – and that means all sports. Nothing that will ever happen in a Super Bowl or World Series can top that for a goosebump moment.

And I never, ever would have written this when I worked at WIBC Radio – the local flagship for the Indianapolis 500, but that race needs to be carried on live and local TV. The logic that televising an event reduces gate is as antiquated as the Marmon Wasp Ray Harroun drove for six hours, 42 minutes, and eight seconds to win the first 500 mile race in 1911 (or three years after the Chicago Cubs won their last World Series). The Chicago Blackhawks were the last major league sports franchise to blackout home games, and lifting that blackout is largely credited for the resurgence in the team’s popularity.

Miles likes to say that doing something just because it’s cool is how great events are built. The Indianapolis Motor Speedway doesn’t need lights, but it needs a lot of cool. With the Indianapolis Grand Prix, Pole Day, Carb Day, and Race Day, it’s four days down, eight to go.

Indiana Basketball – Freshman Luke Fischer Talks About Being a Hoosier

by Kent Sterling

Indiana was down a kid who shares a lot of the same features as Luke Fischer, so the freshman should fill a void.

I haven’t been to Wisconsin recently, but when I was there last I must have been in the one place where the streets aren’t filled with 6’10” – 7’0″ tall white kids who can shoot a basketball.

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The roster of the University of Wisconsin basketball team has been filled with these guys forever, and finally Indiana got one. Luke Fischer is by all accounts a very good player, who will help the Hoosiers as soon as his sprained shoulder heals. That should be within a month.

I spoke to Luke the other day, and he’s an engaging kid who is definitely happy to be a Hoosier and is looking forward to playing against Bo Ryan and the Wisconsin Badgers. It’s been awhile since Indiana beat Wisconsin, and Fischer’s friends are not shy about reminding him of that.

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The last time Fischer lost a high school game was at the end of his sophomore season (March 15, 2011). Since then, he led Germantown to 56 straight wins. What that will mean for Indiana is anyone’s guess, but if Fischer likes to lose, he sure doesn’t know how.

Learning to win requires winning, and Fischer has compiled more wins than just about anyone the last two years.

He’s also a very engaging and smart kid.

Indianapolis Colts – Five Keys to Beating the Seattle Seahawks

by Kent Sterling

Sending Russell Wilson and the stupid Seahawks jerseys home with a loss is a tall order for the Colts.

The Seattle Seahawks are undefeated, and it’s no accident. For all the ink devoted to second year quarterback Russell Wilson, the defense is the star of this team, and their ability to overcome adversity is a constant.

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Seattle’s defense has a number of very good players, but two are the best in the game at their positions. Richard Sherman is incredibly effective at cornerback. There are shutdown corners, and then there is Sherman. He has 14 picks in his last 20 games, including a pick six with 2:40 left in a game that was all but lost in Houston last Sunday. That pick tied the game, and the Seahawks won in overtime.

He isn’t targeted often, but when he is, the tariff can be steep.

The other playmaker who is dominant is defensive tackle Brandon Mebane. Most DTs exist in relative anonymity, paid to occupy blockers and stuff the run. Mebane disrupts for a very tricky Seattle front four. They move a bit, and in obvious passing situations the ends will sometimes slide wider. That spacing opens holes for Mebane to go to work.

Prior to the game against the Texans, the Seahawks had only allowed 27 points in their first three games. They are stout, opportunistic, and fast.

Offensively, the Seahawks have two distinct weapons – quarterback Russell Wilson and running back Marshawn Lynch. Wilson’s numbers are never gaudy, but he can keep plays alive with his legs, and even against the vaunted pass rush of the Texans was able to spin, spring, dink, and dunk to keep drives alive as the Seahawks clawed their way back into the game against the Texans in which they had been dominated.

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Wilson has thrown for 300 yards or more only once in his 20 regular season starts, and was only 12-23 for 123 yards and one pick last week against the Texans. Still, the Seahawks won.

Lynch has yet to run for 100 yards of better this season, but his yards per carry average has advanced with each game this season from 2.53 to 3.50 to 4.06 to 5.76. He is a relentless and strong runner who gets paid for what he does after contact. The legs keep driving, and stiff arms will repel single tacklers. His only action against the Colts in his career came in Buffalo in the final game of the 2009 season, in which he had one carry for no yards and one catch for two before being pulled in the Bills 30-7 win.

Here are the five keys for the Colts to win this game and move their record to 4-1:

There is not an amount of points that is enough. Regardless of the size of the Colts lead, they must continue to score points. The Seahawks are relentless in their belief that good things will eventually happen. That starts with the annoying (for everyone but Seahawks fans) and relentlessly upbeat coach Pete Carroll, who reminds me more and more of Dick Vermeil in style and appearance.

Score early. This game will start at 10a Seattle time, and while it should be easy for professionals to adjust to the time change for a Sunday game after traveling on Friday afternoon, biological clocks of NFL players can be a little flaky. 10a isn’t too bad, but the buses will roll to Lucas Oil Stadium about three hours before. The Colts might be able to get a jump on the Seahawks, much as the Texans did last week in another early road game. If that happens, the Colts need to continue to play with consistent energy so that when the Seahawks awaken, they are ready to counter.

When Lynch gets the ball, bring friends. Just as Hillary Clinton believes raising a child takes a village, tackling Lynch takes a defensive unit. Gang tackling is the only way to bring this guy to the ground. No rushing attempt ends for Lynch until he is down. His runs aren’t pretty, but they are violently effective. The Colts need to be like the security staff at Kroch’s & Bretano’s when Uncle Leo is caught shoplifting on “Seinfeld.” They need to “Swarm! Swarm! Swarm!”

Corral Russell Wilson. He’s been sacked 13 times this season, but it’s not really the resulting sacks that make hemming him inside the pocket worthwhile. Wilson can be an effective passer, but he’s a dynamic runner. Forcing him to throw under duress will cause positive defensive opportunities. Allowing him to slip outside will give the Seahawks first downs they would otherwise not earn. The Seahawks offensive line is racked with injuries to left tackle Russell Okung, right tackle Breno Giacomini and center Max Unger, and Wilson has had to run for his life more than any quarterback in the NFL other than Michael Vick.

Use Donald Brown. This is not an overreaction to Brown’s productive game last Sunday against Jacksonville, but a strategic decision to use a guy with specific skills against a defense that may be susceptible to them. The Seahawks defense is relentless in their pursuit of the ball, and in that effort can over-pursue the flow of a play. Counters to Brown are a good option for a team with an interior offensive line that will have a tough time matching up with Mebane and friends. Running well will be paramount as the “Legion of Boom” combined with the pass rush of the Seahawks have produced the lowest opposing quarterback rating in the NFL – 60.7. Granted 25% of their defensive statistics have been skewed by playing the Jaguars, but the Seahawks pass defense is the best in the NFL.