INDIANAPOLIS -- Michael Pittman Jr. arrived in the NFL with high hopes. And when he made the playoffs as a rookie with the Indianapolis Colts in 2020, the wide receiver thought it would be the first of many forays into the postseason.
"I thought it was going to be like an every-year thing," Pittman said. "[I thought] 'Oh, this wasn't that bad. We're going to come back next year and the year after that.' And then quickly I was humbled because it's not like that."
Now, four years later, Pittman has come to appreciate how fleeting postseason opportunities can be. That brief playoff exposure in 2020 -- the Colts lost in the opening round to the Buffalo Bills -- remains Pittman's only playoff experience.
The Colts have spent the intervening seasons trying to find their way. And, so far, those paths have not led to the postseason.
This reality is why the next five games are so critical for Indianapolis. The Colts are 5-7, disappointing considering their lofty preseason goals. But they are not eliminated from playoff contention -- and have a friendly schedule during the final stretch of the season -- if they can resolve the things on their growing list of issues and avoid a late-season failure.
The slate begins with Sunday's road game against the New England Patriots (1 p.m., ET, CBS) and features just one opponent with a winning record. The Colts' five remaining opponents include some of the worst teams in the NFL, with a combined record of 17-40. Only the Denver Broncos -- who are one of the teams the Colts are battling in the wild-card race -- are above .500 at 7-5. The other four opponents, the Patriots, Tennessee Titans, New York Giants and Jacksonville Jaguars, are a combined 25 games under .500.
But the margin for error is slim. Using projections from ESPN's Football Power Index, the Colts have a 23% chance of making the postseason.
"Everything is still ahead of us," linebacker Zaire Franklin said. "We're in a special, unique position ... Why not go on a run? Why not? Why not us? Why not? I've done it before.
"To be honest with you, I hate that I'm always in this position, but I've been there before, and I think the reality of the situation is that it just takes one. It takes one play. It just takes one game. It just takes one to get the ball rolling, to get this momentum shifted, to get that energy back and get it rolling and get into the dance."
Franklin's reference to past years is notable. The Colts have been notoriously slow starters early in seasons, and that's put them in difficult situations. Even in 2018, the last season in which the Colts won a playoff game, they had to mount a remarkable comeback from a 1-5 start to clinch a wild-card berth. The Colts started 0-2 this season and are now paying a price for it.
But even when the Colts haven't started slowly, they have suffered some noteworthy failures with the playoffs on the line. Those letdowns have compounded the sting of making just two playoff appearances in the past nine seasons.
In 2021, the Colts infamously lost a Week 18 game against the 3-14 Jaguars that knocked Indianapolis out of the postseason and helped hasten the departure of quarterback Carson Wentz. Last season, the Colts hosted the Houston Texans for a season finale that would decide the winner of the AFC South. The Colts lost when a would-be game-winning drive fizzled in the red zone.
"The older I get, I start to realize the importance of every little thing to get to the playoffs," Pittman said. "Because it's so difficult in this league, and there's so many teams every single year that are good teams that just don't make it. So, if we could close out strong and finish and get to the playoffs, that would be huge. And, then, you never know what happens from there because, like I said, momentum is king, and if we could get rolling, we'll be hard to stop."
The Colts' 9-8 record last season raised expectations for 2024, especially when they elected to re-sign the core of their team and returned their entire starting lineup intact. Their current position calls into question whether they'll fall short of those expectations. But there's one surefire way to change the current narrative around the team: Make the playoffs for the first time in four seasons.
"At the end of the day," Franklin said, "as long as you get in the dance, that's all that matters."