The Indianapolis Colts have a chance to make the playoffs on Saturday night if they can beat the Texans, as a win would guarantee them a Wild Card berth (either the 6 or 7 seed in the AFC). A win and a Jaguars loss to the Titans would hand Indianapolis the AFC South title and give them a home game in the Wild Card round of the playoffs.
That’s quite the rise for a team that went 4-12-1 a year ago and saw its top pick and hopeful franchise quarterback, Anthony Richardson, suffer a season-ending shoulder injury. New Colts head coach Shane Steichen has been given a lot of the credit for their turnaround, as they just seem like a team that’s well-coached, on the same page, and does the little things necessary to give themselves a chance in games. Last season that was not particularly the case, but they also were pretty clearly tanking for much of the second half of the season.
Part of that tank was firing Frank Reich and bringing in franchise legend Jeff Saturday fresh off of the ESPN set with no coaching experience beyond the high school level to be the interim head coach. That experiment didn’t go particularly well, with the Colts moving on and Saturday returning to his role with ESPN this season. On Wednesday morning, Saturday was on Get Up! and, unsurprisingly, made his bold declaration that the Colts would win the AFC South this weekend. Mike Greenberg then unleashed a quip that I’m sure he’s been sitting on all season, waiting for the right time to prod his colleague, saying they’re “so well coached this year.”
Mike Greenberg after Jeff Saturday picked the Colts to win the AFC South this weekend: "They're well coached this year" 😂 pic.twitter.com/tnOK3LF59y
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) January 3, 2024
It’s a very good line delivery from Greenberg, who I have no doubt has been waiting patiently for a chance to make that comment to Saturday on air. Saturday, for his part, found it very funny and gave a hearty laugh, as I think he even knows his turn as an NFL head coach last year was truly wild — even if he really did want to succeed at it and do it long-term.