Chuck Pagano has been on the hot seat all season and the Indianapolis Colts have been pressured to fire their head coach. Jim Irsay has yet to make that decision, but after the Colts’ first win against the Cleveland Browns, the team must make the decision to let their coach go.
Why would a team fire their head coach after picking up their first win of the season and improving to 1-2?
Quite simply, the Colts almost game a game away that they led 31-14 at one point. Indianapolis ended up winning the game by a final score of 31-28, but there is no way that the Browns should have gotten that close to a massive comeback victory. Pagano and his coaching staff began playing an incredibly safe game.
Jacoby Brissett and the Colts’ offense looked dangerous in the first half, putting up 28 points on the Browns. He was testing the Cleveland defense with the deep ball and coming away with a lot of success. What changed in the second half was the Colts playing not to lose, taking the aggressiveness out of their offense and only scoring three points in the entire half.
Smallest crowd for a Chuck Pagano postgame presser ever. If not for four stalwarts, place would have been empty. #Colts pic.twitter.com/s8yy0uYo96
— Kent Sterling (@KentSterling) September 24, 2017
Coming away with a win is a major plus for the Colts, but the way they won the game shows that they will not go places with Pagano leading the way. Had they been playing a team like the Arizona Cardinals, who they had a 10-point lead over last week in the fourth quarter, the Colts very well could have let yet another lead slip away by playing conservative football.
Firing a head coach in the middle of a season is never easy for a team. Indianapolis has stuck with Pagano through his major health problems and lackluster seasons since losing to New England in the AFC Championship game, but it is time to fire him and start something new.
CLE-IND may be a bigger indictment of Chuck Pagano than IND-LAR. And that's saying something.
— Collin (@cmccollo) September 24, 2017
There is a very good chance that the Colts will let Pagano coach out the rest of the season and then make a move. Finding a good coach to replace Pagano at this in the season is nearly impossible.
All of that being said, Pagano once again showed why the Colts must move on from him if they want to get back to being a playoff contender. He may be a great person and a good motivator, but his game plans are awful and playing this conservatively and nearly blowing yet another win is just another mark against him.
Do you think the Indianapolis Colts will fire Chuck Pagano at the end of the season? Who do you think would be the best candidates to replace him? Let us know your thoughts in the comment box below!