Many were confused after the Indianapolis Colts beat the Las Vegas Raiders 25-20.
There isn't much debate about what that result means for the Raiders and their coach.
The national reaction to the game.
Everyone who doubted Jeff Saturday, this victory is for you.
There is a team called the Colts.
I don't know how to feel about Jeff Saturday winning his first game. Maybe Colts owner Jim Irsay is a genius and Saturday is a really good football coach, that's one of the many possibilities I have in my head. Maybe Saturday's headset was just a doctored up Fisher-Price Chatter Telephone connected to nothing, and John Fox was in charge? Maybe it is not hard to coach a football game in the National Football League. A larger sample size is needed.
There is a team called the Raiders.
This is about as bad as it gets for the Broncos because they lost a game to a person who has never coached at any level in the league before.
If only for a week, the Colts defeated the Raiders, who have lost three in a row and five of six. The case can be made that the Raiders have been the most disappointing team in the league. Losing to an Indianapolis team that had lost three in a row and was breaking in a new coach made the loss even worse.
Getting his players and coaches to believe in each other was the most important thing that Saturday did. The only way to quiet the discontent within the Las Vegas locker room is to win.
There is a team called the Colts.
It was a great Sunday for Jeff. His hiring as the Indianapolis Colts' interim head coach caused shock, ridicule, outrage and anger, among other things. The man who accepted a job offer and handled a fraught situation with his signature class ended the week with a single point.
There is a team called the Raiders.
The Colts may be in better shape than the Silver and Black, who lost their coach four years ago after he backed out on the Indianapolis job.
Jeff Saturday has a higher winning percentage than any other Colts player. He had a week to talk to the children. I gave him the chance to fire back at his detractors, but he wouldn't do it because he understood why they were firing. He told me after the win over the Raiders that he loved coaching. I understand why people are questioning this. I have been watching the coaches on our staff for the last week and they are doing a great job. It was like watching a musical performance.
There is a team called the Raiders.
In the last three weeks, the Raiders have been shut out by the Saints, blown a 17-point lead to the Jags, and lost a head coach in his first game. A 2-7 Raiders team that has given up 20-plus points in every game this season, has a quarterback upset over the team's performance, and has no sense of direction on either side of the ball.
This is not a good football team. The Raiders made the playoffs last year and added two new players. He is not an NFL head coach.
The article was originally published on Indianapolis Star.
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