Last week's 24-9 loss to the Baltimore Ravens ended a fairy tale season for the Colts, but as the playoff door closes, the offseason door opens.

The Colts are set to embark on one of the most fascinating offseason periods in recent franchise history. With Ryan Grigson at the helm, the Colts are bound to be aggressive in their spending, which is something former GM Bill Polian never really believed in.

When trying to identify potential free agency targets, it's always interesting to pinpoint players that have ties with the organization. During this “new era” for the Colts, they've already shown a willingness to sign players that have been 'their guys'.

For instance, when Chuck Pagano was made head coach, he brought Tom Zbikowski and Cory Redding with him from Baltimore (not in a Mayflower truck, though), whilst we've also seen Trai Essex, Mewelde Moore and Weslye Saunders join the team having worked with offensive co-ordinator Bruce Arians in Pittsburgh.

So with a rumoured $47m of cap space to spend this offseason, it's likely that we'll see some more players enter the building that have previous connections with our coaches.

Last offseason, new general manager Ryan Grigson used free agency to fill holes in the Colts’ roster. Grigson filled some of the starting spots with players with previous experiences with people on the Colts’ staff. Grigson signed players like Tom Zbikowski, Mike McGlynn, and Cory Redding to short, vet contracts to play for the Colts, filling voids with vets for the 2012 season.

One such veteran was the Philadelphia Eagles’ second round pick in 2006: offensive tackle Winston Justice.

Justice started for the Eagles in 2009 and 2010 (played 16 and 13 games), but was benched for Todd Herremans in 2011, and struggled with knee injuries throughout the season. Grigson, a former personnel man for Philadelphia, thought Justice could regain his poise in 2012 as a starter at right tackle, and traded for Justice (swapping 6^th round picks in the 2012 draft).

Now, with the 2012 season finished with the Colts’ loss to the Baltimore Ravens, it’s time to review anybody and everybody. We looked at impending free agent Donnie Avery last week, now we move to Winston Justice.

He did something, and that’s enough for me.

A year ago at this time, I was clinging to my last hope that the Colts would retain the services of Peyton Manning, trade the #1 overall pick, and load up the team with #18 at the helm.  I thought about it daily… hourly… and cried on air like a little girl when it didn’t happen.  You see, while I’ve been a Colts fan since the days of Jeff George and Jim Harbaugh, thankyouverymuch, I became a rabid fan because of Manning.  I invested a lot of emotional capital in the goofy, “Aw, shucks” quarterback, grew to love the way he guided the offense, suffered when he was disappointed after a loss, was quick to point out how good HE was despite not having a full complement of top-notch, healthy players.  I joined the crazy world of blogging and podcasting because of Peyton, purchased on-line sports content because of Peyton, memorized weekly NFL schedules because of Peyton, donned a blue #18 jersey to watch every single Colts game because of Peyton.

So when it was clear that Andrew Luck – another #12?  from my cross-town rival STANFORD?!?! – would be the next signal caller for the Colts, I was certainly intrigued.  But there was no way I was putting Peyton in an “Archive” folder on my computer.  As it turns out, Peyton has been my laptop background and screen saver since early 2007.  Every day for almost 6 years, I’ve opened my computer to see Peyton in a Colts uniform, eyes downfield, about to pat the ball in anticipation of a throw whose outcome has long been decided and which I don’t even remember.  When the screen saver spins up, it cycles through a number of football pictures, a third of which are of Peyton, another 20% or so of Reggie Wayne, and the rest various pictures of Colts (and some Cal) players in the midst of making great plays in memorable games.  (I admit that for the most part I choose not to keep pictures from games which the Colts lost, but every once in a while I can’t pass up a good one.)

Well, we’ve discussed how the Colts’ receivers let Andrew Luck down on Sunday, and now I’d like to move into one last topic for that game.

As I said earlier this week, it’s my belief that this was a fantastic performance from Luck, one of his best games of the year, and the best performance from a rookie quarterback this past weekend (one of the most impressive rookie playoff performances of all time, in my humble opinion).

One of the reasons why the performance was as impressive as it was is the lack of protection Luck received all game. The Colts tried to mitigate that pressure by calling a lot of quick passes, yet the Ravens still managed to pick up three sacks and pressure Luck on anywhere from 15-21 plays (depending on how you measure pressure).

I went back and looked at how often Luck was pressured and how he handled it, and came away impressed.

The Colts season may have ended Sunday, but that doesn't mean our shows will! Join Greg and Rohan as they look back at the final game of the Colts season, take a look at their favorite memories from the 2012 campaign, and look forward to the 2013 off-season.

As this season winds down for the Indianapolis Colts it's time to review the roster, position-by-position, as we attempt to quantify the team's needs in the offseason.

It is clear that the offensive and defensive lines along with the secondary need a complete overhaul. Past that it gets a bit hazy but there's one group that stands out as a liablity: wide receiver.

Join Colts Authority Radio as Scott Kacsmar and Kyle Rodriguez discuss the first week of the playoffs and preview the divisional round. 

Andrew Luck’s record-breaking rookie season came to a disappointing end in a 24-9 loss in Baltimore in the AFC Wild Card round. Even in defeat, Luck set rookie playoff records with 28 completions and 54 pass attempts, while throwing for the most yards (288) since Sammy Baugh way back in 1937.

But the experienced Ravens were too much for the Colts, and the weaknesses of the offensive line and the defense were too much to overcome. The receivers also struggled with a season-worst number of dropped passes. Also not helping matters was offensive coordinator and potential Coach of the Year winner Bruce Arians missing the game after an illness.

It wouldn’t be the postseason without the Colts doing something unusual in defeat, as they became the first team to gain over 400 yards of offense – 419 to be exact – and score fewer than 10 points. The nine points match a season low.

No one thought Luck would get his first taste of the postseason this soon, and the experience can only be invaluable moving forward. While his performance may have been spotty, the nation was able to watch a team that relied on their rookie quarterback to carry them to this point.

Now we head into the offseason to see how the Colts can help Luck get better for 2013, but before that we look at the final game of his memorable rookie season.

Drive No. 1

Drive Stats: 15:00 left (1st quarter), tied 0-0. 4 plays, 16 yards (punt).

Colts won the coin toss and elected to receive. You would not have known Arians was missing, as the Colts started with an end around to Donnie Avery. This one actually worked well for a 15-yard gain. Not much else would work for Avery this day.

Moving to the empty backfield/shotgun, Coby Fleener was unable to snatch Luck’s quick pass to the right flat on a pick play. This would be a sign of things to come. The bubble screen to T.Y. Hilton only gained a yard, as he was tackled by Paul Kruger, who had a big game. On 3rd and 9, the Ravens brought six and Luck’s pass was tipped at the line by Ed Reed. The pass fell incomplete and the Colts punted. Three quick passes, but almost no production.

Well, that was a fun ride. The Colts' miraculous journey to the playoffs ended in a fairly comprehensive victory by the Ravens last week in Baltimore. The young Colts team which had rose up against all-comers reverted to their true talent level, and as a result it wasn't a particularly enjoyable game for the spectator.

Nonetheless, there are undoubtedly huge positives to take from the Colts journey this year, and - having following the defense specifically all year - it's perhaps time to review their overall performance, consider decisions made in-season and examine how we can progress this offseason.

My thoughts regarding the defense as we entered the year were pessimistic to say the least - transforming from a Tampa 2 4-3 unit to an aggressive, blitz-happy 3-4 hybrid front under the tutelage of Chuck Pagano and Greg Manusky. Personnel-wise, there were only two players whom I felt completely comfortable with in terms of the adjustment and how they would fare - Antoine Bethea and Robert Mathis. The rest of the Front 7 could either be termed undersized or simply a bad fit for a 3-4 scheme. As such, the Colts took measures to inoculate themselves against complete defensive implosion via the acquisition of Brandon McKinney (NT) and Cory Redding (DE) from Baltimore, with the trade for Vontae Davis on the back end providing an infusion of raw talent where it was clearly required. I feel breaking down the year by position group is going to be the easiest way to do this, so i'll begin.

The Colts’ lost their first playoff game in the Grigson/Pagano/Luck era on Sunday, falling to the Ravens 24-9. The Colts were in a position to get back in the game or take a lead several times in the second half, but simply could not get the ball over the goalline. The lack of touchdowns combined with Cassius Vaughn and a porous run defense was too much for the young Colts team to overcome.

For the game, Andrew Luck played brilliantly, evading mass amounts of pressure and making strong throws despite rarely seeing a clean pocket. Nevertheless, some naysayers looked at Luck’s final stats (28-54, 288 yards and one interception), and either blamed the lack of scoring on him, or dismissed it as a typical, inefficient 2012 Luck game.

I don’t buy either of that. Luck was, as I said above, nothing less than brilliant throughout the game, as he received little to no help from his offensive line and receiving targets. I’ll take a closer look at the protection later this week, but today I want to look at how the Colts’ receivers hurt the offense on Sunday, especially in the second half.