Reich: Poor 2018 Start Helping Current Colts Maintain '1-0' Mentality
Take a trip down memory lane to the 2018 season for the Indianapolis Colts.
Spurned by New England Patriots' offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels at the last second for the head coaching job, the Colts turned to former NFL quarterback and Philadelphia Eagles' offensive coordinator Frank Reich for the job fresh off of a Super Bowl championship with Philadelphia.
Things seemed to be heading in the right direction, but the train derailed quickly in the early part of the season as the Colts stumbled to an 1-5 start, dropping four in a row to head into the Week 7 matchup as one of the worst teams in the NFL.
Four seasons later, Reich and the Colts are staring at another tough start in Indianapolis as the Colts currently sit at 0-3 on the season with the Miami Dolphins, Baltimore Ravens, Houston Texans and San Francisco 49ers are lined up in the next month ahead for Indianapolis.
While it's unlikely the Colts find themselves winless after the next month of play, they could be staring at another 1-5 start under Reich, all but putting them on the outside looking in for the playoffs.
Or would they be?
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That 2018 season saw Indianapolis rebound from 1-5 to win nine of the next 10 games, earn a Wild Card berth and top the AFC South rival Texans in the Wild Card Round before falling to the Kansas City Chiefs in the Divisional Round.
Could that experience help the current crop of Colts? Reich certainly believes so.
“There’s no question. I mean all of those experiences help. Not just that, but others that we’ve all been through in football and even non-football related, about overcoming obstacles. We’ll use all those things, and what do you learn? You learn you have to take it day-by-day, week-by-week – that 1-0 mentality," Reich said to reporters during his media availability Wednesday. "One of the things I learned and I’m just continuing to remind myself is yes, we are incredibly wired in on results. We live in a results-oriented business. We know that that’s at the top of the food chain as far as the list of important things. It’s just around here, when you’re 0-3, what happens is you get reminded that the best way to get the results you want is to focus on the expectations and commitment that you have to each other and to getting better every day. When you get obsessed with, ‘I’ve got to win,’ I just think that that creates dynamics that aren’t healthy, when you obsess on the results.
"Our formula here, what we’ve had the most success with is being reminded we have a commitment to each other, we have a commitment to getting better every day and that will get us the results that we want over the long haul.”
As Reich likes to say, the focus is on getting 1% better every day. While the Colts desperately need a win in Week 4, he's right in the fact that the Colts can't be so focused on winning that they come up short meeting other healthy habits that ultimately lead to a win on the scoreboard.
However you feel about Reich as a play caller or a coach overall, he's invaluable as a leader, thanks to his experience as a player on a number of teams that found themselves behind the 8-ball often, attempting to bounce back.
He's the right man to have at the helm in choppy waters. We'll see if that continues to ring true early in the 2021 season, starting with the Week 4 matchup in Miami.
Have thoughts on Frank Reich and the frame of mind for the Colts moving forward? Drop a line in the comments section below letting us know how you feel!
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