The Colts took a lead over the Titans with 38 seconds left in the first half on Sunday and held it into the fourth quarter, but a DeMarco Murray touchdown with just under six minutes to go sent them to their eighth loss of the season.
It was the eighth time that the Colts led a game at halftime this year, which is tied for second in the league, and the sixth time that they lost that lead, which is two away from tying the record for a single season. At his press conference on Monday, coach Chuck Pagano said, via Zak Keefer of the Indianapolis Star, the team has found “some really unique ways to screw it up” before being asked if he felt like the string of blown leads was something out of the movie Groundhog Day.
As this video from Keefer’s colleague Clark Wade makes clear, Pagano is quite familiar with the movie and, after singing a little Sonny and Cher, said that he does feel like everyone is waiting for the other shoe to drop when the Colts take a lead.
“It’s everybody. It’s you guys. It’s the fans,” Pagano said. “It’s everybody driving up there. It’s everybody in the NFL community. There’s a storm in the Atlantic, a hurricane, whatever you wanna call it. When’s it going to hit landfall? It’s coming. Third quarter? Middle of the third? It’s getting late third, they’re up 10. Gotta happen sometime. It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy right now.”
Pagano went on to talk more about hurricanes -- the video is really worth a watch -- in a free-flowing answer that suggests a man who has run out of ways to answer the same questions. It’s not the first time Pagano’s press conferences have taken on that feeling at the end of a losing season, but the presence of new General Manager Chris Ballard and a need to revitalize the organization may mean that it will be someone else’s job before much longer.