Colts win streak could be result of facing bad teams but here’s why it doesn’t matter

The Indianapolis Colts are now 6-5 and in the playoff picture after winning their last three games. Entering Week 9, the Colts were on a three-game losing streak, and at 3-5, it started to seem like the season would quickly slip away. However, Indy quickly turned things around, matching the losing streak with a winning streak.

However, people are pointing out that these three wins came against the Carolina Panthers, New England Patriots, and Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Carolina is currently 1-11 and just fired head coach Frank Reich, the Patriots are 2-9 and rotating through quarterbacks, and the Buccaneers are 4-7. Clearly, all three teams are struggling. With that being the case, people are questioning the legitimacy of Indy’s status as contenders.

Sure, you can say that the Colts are benefiting from playing horrible teams. But, at the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter for a few reasons. For starters, Indianapolis is just beating the teams on its schedule. This isn’t college football; strength of record doesn’t determine if a team makes the playoffs. The other reason it doesn’t matter, and the main reason, is that Indy’s schedule isn’t going to get much harder.

Colts just have to keep winning against bad teams

Indianapolis’ last three opponents are struggling, but so are the majority of the team’s next six opponents. The Colts remaining games are against the 4-7 Tennessee Titans, the 5-6 Joe Burrow-less Cincinnati Bengals, the mediocre yet 7-4 Pittsburgh Steelers, the 5-6 Atlanta Falcons, the 5-7 Las Vegas Raiders, and the 6-5 Houston Texans who Indy has already defeated once.

So this worry about Indy benefiting from a weak schedule isn’t something to pay attention to because the schedule doesn’t get tougher. All the Colts need to do is keep beating these inferior opponents and get into the playoffs. Once in the postseason, anything can happen; the regular season becomes irrelevant. Plus, Indy has a win over the Baltimore Ravens, who are currently the No. 1 team in the AFC. That shows that the Colts can swing with anyone on any given day.

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