Rust

The Colts are in as good of a place as they could have hoped for. If I were a Colts fan at the start of the 2006 season, this is what I would have hoped for:

1. Not to be undefeated
2. Have as many wins as possible without being undefeated
3. Have competition forcing the Colts to play hard until the last game of the season

Here's my theory on rust: It's not the amount of time off in the NFL, it's the concept of having a game where you don't give 100%. (By the way, I'm not one of those people think you can give more than 100% - that extra boost you give yourself in crunch time, that's still 100%, and if you didn't do that you would only be about 94%).

But let me explain my main point. When playoff teams get bye weeks they almost always win. So an extra week off seems to be a good thing. But what hurts is when a team locks up HFA early in December, and then goes through gameday motions without actually playing like it means something. Then you lose focus, and intensity, and it's hard to turn it on again in the playoffs.