Defense on the rise for Colts

As always, the date on the sports calendar dictated the topics of this month’s questions.
With the NFL season now in full swing, readers wondered about surprises in general and the surprising development that the Indianapolis Colts defense has been fairly stout recently. The Major League Baseball playoffs also sparked a query, and, as always, Jay County High School athletics made the list.
I’ll start with the question about the Colts.
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Is the emergence of the Indianapolis Colts’ defense over the past two weeks for real or merely a result of playing two sub-par football teams?
—Joseph Vormohr, Indianapolis

It’s a little of both.
Last week’s total dominance of Jacksonville was a result of the Jaguars being the worst team in football. It’s really not even close.
The Jaguars rank last in the NFL in total offense. They are more than 300 yards behind the 29th-ranked team (St. Louis) and have gained less than half as many yards as both Denver and Philadelphia.
Jacksonville has scored just 7.8 points per game through the first four weeks. Every other team has averaged at least 11 points.
The dismantling of San Francisco in week three was far more impressive.
The 49ers are the defending NFC champions. Their offense is not great, but it’s solid.
And despite the epic struggles going on in Jacksonville, giving up single-digit points in consecutive weeks is always impressive.
See Insight page 9
Continued from page 10
The Colts’ defense was a massive weakness last season. It’s not a strength yet, but it’s improving.
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How many Major League Baseball teams have been last in their division at the All-Star game to then come back and win the division?
—Nathan Miller, Wanamaker

The only team to accomplish the feat in the current six-division system, which has been in use since 1994, was the 1995 Seattle Mariners.
The American League West was wide open at the All-Star Break, with the California Angels and Texas Rangers sharing the division lead at 39-30. Seattle was in last place, but just one game under .500 with a 34-35 record.
The Mariners rallied to go 44-31 in the second half of the strike-shortened 144-game season, finishing in a tie for the division lead with California. Seattle beat the Angels 9-1 in the one-game playoff for the division title.
After falling behind two games to none in the five-game American League Division Series, the Mariners rallied to beat the New York Yankees with Randy Johnson picking up the game-five win in relief in the 11th inning.
Seattle lost the American League Championship Series to Cleveland in four games.
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After four weeks in the books in the NFL, what are your top three surprises?
—Jason McGraw Portland

The biggest surprise in terms of a successful team is Kansas City. I wasn’t buying the Andy Reid and Alex Smith hype that made the Chiefs a popular sleeper pick for a lot of NFL experts. So far, they have proven me wrong.
On the other end of the spectrum, I wasn’t expecting Atlanta to struggle as much as it has in the early going. The defending NFC South champions are 1-3. But the Falcons schedule has been fairly difficult and they have a chance to bounce back as they play their next four against the New York Jets, Tampa Bay, Arizona and Carolina, which have a combined 5-10 record.
Finally, it’s probably not right to call him a surprise, but what Peyton Manning is doing in Denver must be acknowledged. He’s thrown 16 touchdowns and no interceptions, and completed 75 percent of his passes. At age 37, he’s got a chance to put together the greatest quarterbacking season of all time.
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How many Jay County High School graduates have returned to coach at JCHS? Who is the eldest?
—Jan Simmons, Portland

Of the head coaches currently leading Patriot teams, 10 are graduates of Jay County High School or the schools that preceded it.
That list includes Alan Bailey (boys soccer), Abby Champ (girls soccer), Chris Krieg (girls basketball), James Myers (wrestling), Lora Schlosser (gymnastics), Doug Arbuckle (softball) and Greg Garringer (boys track), who are all former Patriots.
Butch Gray (boys and girls golf) and Mindy Weaver (cheerleading) graduated from Portland High School, and Lea Selvey (baseball) is a Redkey graduate.
Of the other coaches, there are two from Blackford, and one each from Delta, Kokomo, Bishop Luers and DeKalb Central.
The youngest coach in the group is Abby Champ, who graduated from JCHS in 2002. The elder statesman of the coaching group is Butch Gray, a 1969 graduate of PHS.[[In-content Ad]]