Colts or Cruds?

 So remember last week, when Your Indianapolis Colts gagged away a 19-point lead on the road with little more than a quarter to play, and lost in overtime to the Ravens?

Sure you do. It was Apocalypse Now in Indy: Our kicker can't kick! Lamar Jackson toyed with our D like a kitten with a ball of string! We're 1-4 and the head coach needs to go, the GM and coordinators need to go, and WHY THE HELL DID WE TRADE FOR CARSON WENTZ BECAUSE HE'S ONLY GOING TO GET HURT AGAIN!!

Well ... the Colts are now 2-4. And THEY'RE GOING TO THE SUPER BOWL!!

OK. So Overreaction Whiplash is not quite that extreme. 

But the tone sure is different in the wake of the Colts' 31-3 ball-peening of the Texans yesterday. Suddenly they're the Colts again, and not the Cruds.

Suddenly Jonathan Taylor, who ran for 145 yards and two scores, is a force to be reckoned with at running back, a poor man's Derrick Henry. Suddenly people notice that, by golly, Carson Wentz has quietly put up three straight games with quarterback ratings in the 100s. Suddenly the defense is a ball-hawkin', offense-smotherin' machine, forcing three turnovers and completely holding in check fearsome Texans quarterback Davis Mills.

Um ...

OK. So Davis Mills is not exactly fearsome.

He's not exactly Lamar Jackson. He's not even Andrew Jackson. In fact he doesn't resemble Lamar Jackson in any way except for the fact they both play the same position.

Which brings us to the slow-the-roll portion of our program. Or, perhaps, more accurately, the Why Was Everyone Acting Like They Were Answering A Casting Call For A Disaster Flick Last Week? portion of our program.

Yes, the historic gag-arooni against the Ravens was disaster-like, but the Ravens are now 5-1 after dismantling the Chargers yesterday, and might be the best team in the AFC. And if the Colts were 1-4, they were pretty much supposed to be 1-4, given how depleted they were by injury, and given the front-loaded schedule. 

Now?

Now they're starting to get people back -- Quenton Nelson, Braden Smith, T.Y. Hilton, Kwity Paye. 

Now they get the Jets, the Jaguars and the underperforming Titans in the next month. 

Now their performance in all three phases is bound to go up, because the fourth phase -- the schedule -- is looking up.

They won't beat the Bills. They won't beat the Buccaneers or the Cardinals. But they've got a decent chance, as they get healthier, to beat almost everyone else.

Which means they finish, say, 9-8 and win the AFC South -- which, let's fact it, is utter trash.

You know what people say: No one can turn your season around faster than the Texans.

Or the Jags. Or the Titans. Or the Texans again.