How Good Are the Indianapolis Colts?

The Indianapolis Colts are 4-1 and have already racked up impressive wins against the San Fransico 49ers and the Seattle Seahawks. With their one loss coming in a close game to the Miami Dolphins. But how good is this team?

With a media that is obssessed with the Denver Broncos and the NFC West, the young team in Inidana is not getting much love. So unless you are an avid NFL fan you probably don't know too much about this Colts team. Many thought that season was a fluke, that was sparked off the ChuckStrong movement that consumed the city and most of the country. Many didn't believe that Andrew Luck would be able to continue his record breaking play.

This team after a rough start against the Oakland Raiders and a loss the Dolphins many were beginning to believe that last season was just a fluke and this was going to be an average team. Then this team traded to get Cleveland Browns running back Trent Richardson, which got some buzz around this team. Then the Colts went across the country and put it to the 49ers. Went to Jacksonville and destroyed the Jaguars. Now this week they played a very tough game against the undefeated Seattle Seahawk. Behind some bery stellar play from Andrew Luck and TY Hilton this team came out with the win.

But how has a team playing so well and defeating teams many analysts picked to win the Super Bowl going under the radar? Mainly, because this team just wins and their stars don't talk about it. If the players on this team won't talk about how they are managing to win these games I will.

A lot of it comes down to the improvements that general manager Ryan Grigson made to this team in the off season. Adding reciever Darius Heyward-Bay to an already talented recieving core to give another deep threat. Then revamping the defensive line with Ricky Jean-Francois and Erick Walden who have been doing a good job containing opponents running backs, with the exception of Marshawn Lynch this week. Then they added Greg Toler and Laron Landry to the secondary to fill in some of the holes that teams exploited last season.

This defensive unit which was alright but not great in any category now has an elite secondary and an improved defensive line. The offense has the weapons now that keep defenses honest in the run and the pass game.

The next question is how good can this team be and where can they go? I think this team is the best one lose team in the league and easily the 4th best team in the league behind the three unbeaten teams. Next week the Colts play the San Diego Chargers and is the match up everyone is waiting for the return of Peyton Manning to Indianapolis. This could be a huge measuring stick to how far this team could go. A win in this game would tell the rest of the league that this team is going to be competing for homefield advantage in the AFC.

After next weeks game I will put up a preview of the Colts vs Broncos game, which will be the highlight of every sports show all week all over the country.

NCAA Football Matchup of Week: Alabama vs Texas A&M

This game made Johny Manziel a household name and gave him that breakout game that put him in the Heisman discussion. The rest after that is history. Now about 12 months removed from that game will we see a deja vu or another classic Alabama beat down. These teams have changed a lot since the match up so we shall see if this game will live up the hype.

Everyone has heard about all the controversy surrounding Johny Manziel since winning the Heisman last year and the suspension he was given during the first half of the Rice game. After that Texas A&M has looked good but not nearly as stellar as they had last season. They lost Luke Joeckel to the NFL and his loss cannot be underestimated. A good offensive line can make any quarterback look great. Manziel is plenty good enough without that offensive line but I'm not sure if he is enough to beat Alabama single-handily. Especially after losing 3 of his 4 best receivers last year. One thing that Texas A&M did last year to Alabama was shock them. They came out to a very quick lead and then as the game went on Alabama adjusted and honestly probably should have won that game late. But because of their lack of preparation to start the game Manziel was able to have his way and create a lead they just weren't able to overcome.

Alabama. Has dominated college football for the past two years. Their offensive line could probably be a very good NFL offensive line. If you don't agree with me see how much time Senior Quarterback AJ McCarron has to find his receivers. It doesn't matter how much time his offensive line gives him if he couldn't throw a good ball, but that is not an issue with McCarron who might be one of the more accurate quarterbacks with time in the NCAA. They also have a stud running back in the backfield TJ Yeldon. Again who might be a product of an amazing offensive line. Defensively, again they are very dominant led by linebacker CJ Mosley. They however might not be as good losing a lot of the players to the NFL especially cornerback Dee Milner. We will see if these new players at these positions will be able to continue Alabama defensively dominance.

Looking at both of these teams I think this game is going to be closer to a blowout. Alabama has been dominating teams for 2 years except for the exception of this team last year. I think Alabama will be ready for Manziel this year, no surprises. If A&M has any chance of winning Manziel will have to another Heisman performance but I'm not sure if he has the supporting cast to do it. But never doubt Manziel ever on the field or off the field. Even though I think Alabama should blow out A&M I think this game will be fairly close.

Alabama 28
Texas A&M 21

NFL Matchup of the Week: Giants vs Cowboys

I am going to try to do this every week of the NFL season. But my match up of the week is going to the Giants vs Cowboys. Not because either of these teams are a pre-season favorites to win the Super Bowl, but the fact that both of these teams have something to prove. Neither team made the playoffs last year which is incredibly frustrating for the fans of these storied franchises.

This summer owner Jerry Jones put all of his eggs in quarterback Tony Romo's basket. We have all heard about Romo's career and now it is almost annoying everytime someone writes about it. So I'm going to avoid it. Romo is a good quarterback who takes risks when he throws the ball, he should limit these kinds of throws, enough said. I think the Cowboys now have a good running back Demarco Murray in the backfield hopefully he can stay healthy and relieve some of the pressure on the passing game. Dez Bryant if healthy has shown he can be a star in this league with amazing hands and break away speed and having Miles Austin on the other side should create trouble for opposing team's secondaries every week. Jason Witten had another great season breaking a thousand yards recieving and a hundred catches. The defense should be a little improved with lineback Sean Lee coming back who missed most of last season. And hopefully last years first round draft pick Morris Claiborne can prove he is that shut down corner that the team drafted. To have a successful season this year and win this game this defense needs play bend don't break. This offense will be fine they just need to make sure the defense doesn't give up too many big plays, so the offense can use the running game instead of forcing Romo to throw every down.

The New York Giants can't seem to put two good seasons together. Win a Super Bowl miss the playoffs. It is almost comical. The Giants offensively again will rely on Eli Manning without a truly proven running back and the injury concern with Hakeem Nicks. Eli will have to try to do his best Peyton Manning impression make unknown recievers into household names. Defensively, if Jason Pierre-Paul is able to comeback healthy the pairing of him and Justin Tuck will create trouble for opposing quarterbacks for another season. In the secondary Prince Anukamara should be able to show the talent the team thought they were getting before an injury kept him from playing all last season. The Giants key to this game and season is going to be what player on offense is going to emerge as a threat? This team needs one more major threat to make this offense truly dangerous and keep secondaries off their star wideouts.

I think this game is going to be very good going down to the wire. This being said I think the Giants' defense is going to be able to make that one stop in the end to secure a victory and spoil the fun at Jerry World again.

Giants 21 Cowboys 17

Why a Team Nobody Expects Will Win the Super Bowl

This off season a lot of teams have been making a lot of moves but they haven’t necessarily been great moves and there have also been a multitude of big injuries with big stars. For example the San Francisco 49ers added Anquan Boldin which is a good pick up, unfortunately they also lost star receiver Michael Crabtree who was the number one target for new starter Collin Kaepernick last season. The loss of Crabtreee on the end is going to be tough to replace, the receiving core was weak in the first place this makes it even weaker. Do not get me wrong this offense will be plenty dangerous with the dual threat of Kaepernick, Frank Gore who still has some gas left in the tank, and the leader Vernon Davis in the middle. But they will be nowhere near as scary as they good have been. That offense with that monster defense could have spelled disaster for any team that had to play them.

Let’s stay in that division and take a look at the Seattle Seahawks a surprising team last year led by rookie sensation Russel Wilson will not sneak up on any teams this year. In fact, they were one of the favorites going into the season especially with the addition of Percy Harvin. That’s where the problem comes in Harvin has been very injury prone his entire career and it already looks like he is going to miss some time heading into this season. Again not a devastating blow but one that definitely hurts. Having Sidney Rice and Harvin opposite of each other on the field would have made opposing secondary’s think twice before committing a back to stop that devastating running game led by Marshawn Lynch.

Now that we have looked at how the top teams in the NFC have changed this off-season let’s look at the AFC.

The Super Bowl champs are not the same team that won a title 6 months ago. They lost countless veterans on both sides of the ball many of these guys’ staples in a very consistent organization. It will be impossible to replace what Ray Lewis brought to the field if it is his leadership, his presence, and his overall skill of the game he will be greatly missed. Now throw in you lost safety Ed Reed to the Houston Texans and Anquan Boldin to the 49ers. There will be a lot of question marks on this team and will be very interesting to see how they answer them and if they answer them correctly.

Another team always in the conversation for a Super Bowl the New England Patriots. Everybody, no matter if you are sports fan or not you have heard what has happened to this organization this summer with Aaron Hernandez. Along with this Robert Gronkowski looks to be missing more time with forearm and back problems. Losing tight ends is one thing but losing the go-to receiver in Wes Welker is another thing. Without the help on the edge it will be very interesting to see where Brady delivers that ball this season.

This season is going to be wide open expect a lot of 9-7 and 8-8 win teams to make the playoffs this year with no clear cut favorite. There is no super team this year just a lot of good teams fighting for a chance to play for that trophy.

Will the Moves This Team Made Make Them a Playoff Team?

This off season the Detroit Pistons have been very busy adding a lot of new players to their roster. The Pistons drafted Kentavious Caldwell-Pope with the number eight pick in the draft. They signed forward Josh Smith to a max contract and recently traded away Brandon Knight in exchange for Brandon Jennings from the Milwaukee Bucks.They also signed veteran Chauncey Billups to lead this very young team. Will all the new faces bring back past glory to this franchise?

With all these additions many people forgot a lot of the young talent this team already had like Rodney Stuckey, Greg Monroe, and emerging center Andre Drummond. Unless you closely follow the NBA you may have never heard of these players, that has nothing to do with their talent it mainly has to do with this team not being competitive since the Big 5 of Billups, Richard Hamilton, Tayshaun Prince, Rasheed Wallace, and Ben Wallace left. Stuckey has been with the Pistons since being drafted in 2007. I'm a big Pacer fan so I have been able to watch Stuckey play the Pacers throughout his career. Last year was not one of his best seasons but at 6-5 he has been forced to play point guard when he is truly a two guard. He has a knack for overpowering smaller guards and getting to the rim. With the addition of Brandon Jennings it will relieve the pressure of being the teams primary ball handler and focus on attacking the rim.

Greg Monroe is an incredibly versatile big man who has proven he is a 15 and 10 guy every night. He is able to take bigger defenders off the dribble and reminds me of a young Amare Stoudemire. He also was forced to play out of position, he played a lot of center where is truly more of an over-sized forward than a center. One of his major glaring weaknesses is his defense, but with the emergence of Andre Drummond who is a very athletic center who is going to be a great weak side blocker that will make Monroe look a lot better. Drummond who was incredibly hyped coming out of high school did not really live up to the hype in his one year at the University of Connecticut. During his first year in the NBA he had a decent year but showed glimpses during Summer League. He will be able to use his athleticism to rebound well and has shown he can finish with big time dunks around the rim. The front court for the Piston is looking set for the years to come if the Monroe/Drummond experiment is able to work.

As said before the Pistons signed Josh Smith to a max contract meaning that management believes he is going to be the face of the franchise. He was a good player but not a franchise player in Atlanta. He is a very good defensive player, good rebounder, and great finisher at the rim. His one glaring weakness is his perimeter shooting which looks like is going to be a weakness for this entire team. I think he is going to get a chance he didn't have in Atlanta and that is to be the face of the franchise and fans in Detroit will welcome a star they haven't had in a while.

The newest and probably most surprising addition to this team is Brandon Jennings from the Milwaukee Bucks. He was a very good scorer for the Bucks he was not necessarily able to lead the team like some people thought. He will be able to get mentoring from Chauncey Billups something he wasn't able to get at his old destination. If Jennings takes advantage of this opportunity he will be able to take the next step to becoming an elite scoring point guard in the NBA.

We have taken a look at the big talent on this team that we expect to make big contributions now it comes down to my prediction of what they are going to do next year. The East outside the top four teams is an absolute toss up who will be the other four to make the playoffs. I think that at best this team could be the fifth team in the East if they are able mesh with the talent and athleticism in the front court and the ability to penetrate with the talent in the back court. The worst case scenario is Brandon Jennings and Josh Smith are not able to get a long as the stars on the team. And the Monroe/Drummond front court could just be too many big bodies in the post for either to be effective. I think they will finish sixth or seventh in the East and will be a team that nobody wants to play in the first round of the playoffs.

Who's The Best Team in the NBA

Now that all the big moves have been made this off season the NBA landscape looks like it is pretty much set in place. The Brooklyn Nets executed a draft night trade to acquire Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, and Jason Terry. They also signed veteran forward Andrei Kirilenko and resigned Andray Blatche to finish out their roster. The Los Angeles Clippers traded to get JJ Redick and Jared Dudley to add some shooters to the roster and resigned their franchise point guard Chris Paul. The Houston Rockets signed the biggest free agent of this class Dwight Howard. The Miami Heat didn't make any moves which is a great move for them.

Even with all these big moves I do not think any of these teams are the best team in the league the best team in the league in my opinion are the Indiana Pacers. Yep you can refresh the page I said the Indiana Pacers the team that took the Miami Heat to Game 7 this year in the Eastern Conference Finals. This is a true team in every sense of the word. They have no mega-star but they have a lot of really solid players that just know how to win.

We are going to look at the starting line-up that is all coming back looking to continue the success they had last year. This starting lineup has no real glaring weakness every player has his own strengths and no huge glaring weaknesses. George Hill the first year point guard had a good year last year as a full time starter. He is not a true point guard he is more a scoring guard who happens to play point. He could improve his ball handling and setting up his teammates. If he does this he will take the next step towards becoming an elite NBA point guard. Lance Stephenson also known as "Born Ready" was ready for starting lineup. He proved a lot of critics wrong that he could not defend or play under control. I mean at times he does play out of control but he was able to channel this at times in the fast break to blow by defenders and get to the rim. His area to improve is his outside shooting, he needs to be able to hit the open three pointer in the corner. He needs to do this especially if he wants to make sure he starting day one instead of Danny Granger, we will talk about this later in the article. Paul George, had a breakout season last year and put his name on the map with his playoff series against the Heat. He is a lock down defender, his three point shot improved, his ball handling improved overall his game is very complete. He has room to improve in the strength department and creating his own shot. I think next year Paul George will be an MVP candidate if he makes some minor improvements to his game. David West is the enforcer the glue that keeps this team together. Had a very productive year and his mid-range game and ability to finish through contact is something all championship teams need to have. Roy Hibbert, the big man middle pre All-Star break was having a very disappointing year but after the All-Star break and in the playoffs was playing like the best center in the game. If he is able to put together a whole season like he did in the playoffs the Pacers will have the best center in the game in their starting five.

The bench got revamped only two player returning player from last years bench is center Ian Mahimi and Orlando Johnson, everybody else was either traded or not resigned. The Pacers signed guards CJ Watson and Donald Sloan. Watson looks like he will get most of the time behind Hill and will hopefully be an upgrade over DJ Augistin who was inconsistent to say the least. Augistin made the transition from starter to the bench last year and he was not the same player. Watson is a career back up and hopefully he can replicate the type of seasons he had backing up Derrick Rose in Chicago for the Pacers. The Pacers drafted Solomon Hill who showed in Summer League that he can play either the 2 or the 3 for the second unit. The Pacers signed Chris Copeland from rival New York Knicks to bring some more scoring punch off the bench. During his rookie year he shot incredibly well from three point land and was able to create off the dribble to an extent again something that was non-existent last year. The most recent acquisition was Luis Scola from the Phoenix Suns. This brought in a veteran big man who has shown throughout his career that he can play the four or the five. He is able to hit the 15-17 foot jump shot with a much greater consistency than Tyler Hansbrough was able to and has other crafty post moves he can go to when he needs to score. All of these acquisitions will hopefully move this teams bench from 28th in bench scoring to somewhere in the top 10.

One thing the Pacers were missing all of last season too was Danny Granger who was sidelined with a knee injury. He is coming back to this roster and if he comes back to 100% the Pacers added an All-Star caliber player without losing any assets. The real question heading into the season is: will he be healthy and if so will he start? These are great questions to have. If he comes off the bench hopefully he can become a JR Smith type sixth man a starter who just comes off the bench. Or if he does start he stretches floor providing Hibbert and West more space to operate and moves the explosive pace changing Stephenson to the bench.

This team made some great additions without losing any contributors from last seasons squad that took the Heat to 7 games. Give this young core another year to mesh together and add scorers like Granger back in the mix and Scola and Copeland you are looking at a lot more firepower to a team that sure does make it hard for other teams to score if you score a lot of points and make sure your opponent doesn't you will win a lot of games. And I think that is exactly what the Pacers are going to do next year.

I Can't Wait to Watch This Team Play

The NBA this off-season has made the best teams better and the worst teams even worse. There is one exception to this and this is a team that nobody is talking about that is going to be very interesting to watch next year is the New Orleans Pelicans. Yes, you read that correct the New Orleans Pelicans, formerly known as the New Orleans Hornets. This team has a lot of talent that no one seems to recognize, it may be a little disorganized talent but there is a lot of talent on this roster.

Some teams in the NBA try to build teams with many wing players like the Miami Heat, or a lot of post players like the Indiana Pacers, the Pelicans have built a team of guards and lot of them at that. They traded their first round pick to the Philadelphia 76ers for Jrue Holiday, they signed free agent Tyreke Evans, and they already had Eric Gordon and Austin Rivers. I'm not sure if they plan on trading some of these assets if not this team will be trying a unique and uncommon style next year.

This team also has very mobile big men too that will fit this style in Anthony Davis, Ryan Anderson, Greg Stiesma, and Jason Smith. This week Anderson and Davis have been down in Las Vegas trying out to be on the USA Men's Basketball team for next summer's World Cup. Anderson has been doing what he has done his whole career hit threes and rebound. Davis however has been turning heads with his improved perimeter game knocking down threes and 15-17 foot jumpers with ease. These two will help clear the lane and allow the guards on his team to penetrate and kick for wide open jumpers. Davis as everyone knows can run the floor very well and will be able to be very effective when this team gets into the fast break.

Offensively, this team reminds me a lot of the Phoenix Suns during the prime of Steve Nash's career. Put five athletes on the court and run up and down and score as many points as they can. Just like the Suns had no problem scoring I don't think this team will in the slightest the real questions come on the defensive side of the ball. They have decent size in the starting lineup but no real depth there. When they run into teams like the Houston Rockets, Indiana Pacers, and the Chicago Bulls that constantly apply pressure on teams in the paint it could cause a lot of problems. They will have to make sure they know their style which is going to be play with a high tempo and stretch the court. The best defense for the Pelicans is going to be a high tempo offense.

For this team to be successful the players will have to realize their scoring will go down. A lot of these players were the man at their previous like Evans in Sacramento, Holiday in Philadelphia, and to an extent Davis at Kentucky. This team has the potential to do a lot with the talent and athleticism it possess. But everything is going to come down to team play spread the ball on offense and play together on the defensive side of the ball. I think the Pelicans will be able to make some noise and make into the playoffs.

Tell me what you think in the comments below!