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USA Today Sports Media Group
USA Today Sports Media Group
Sport
Kevin Hickey

Tony Dungy on how Colts can turn around from 7-9 season

To say it was a whirlwind of a season for the Indianapolis Colts would be an understatement. The emotions Colts fans went through could not have been easy.

First, it started with the retirement of Andrew Luck, which was emotional in its own right. Then, the Colts got off to a 5-2 start. Maybe there’s some hope after all. It all came crashing down with a 2-7 finish in what would be a massive implosion during the second half of the season.

It was an odd season for the Colts. But they will be looking to turn things around with a big offseason coming up. Former head coach Tony Dungy offered his words on how they can do that.

“I think they just need to stay on course, and not deviate. And a lot of things happened, of course, with Andrew (Luck) not being there — that was a big adjustment that we had to make — but I think that’s gonna come,” Dungy said on the Colts’ weekly radio show. “We had some injuries; obviously T.Y. (Hilton) not being 100 percent all year, Eric Ebron going down in the middle of the year and Jacoby Brissett getting hurt, Marlon Mack missing time.”

It was a big adjustment for the entire organization after Luck retired. While the offensive schematics didn’t have to change all that much, the expectation in production had to be lowered substantially. That wound up coming to fruition during the 2019 season.

But even with all of that going down during the campaign, Dungy continues to believe that sticking with the process and trusting the formula Chris Ballard has put in place is the right move.

“So it’s easy to say, ‘Well we need to do this, we need to do that because we had a losing record,’ but I think just staying the course, the defense will continue to grow, I love what Coach (Matt) Eberflus is doing with that defense — and so I think it’s just staying the course,” said Dungy.

The Colts have a big offseason coming up. They have the second-most salary cap space and nine picks in the 2020 draft.

If it were up to Dungy, the Colts would continue to trust in the process that Ballard has set in his first three years as general manager.

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