Public Domain
Public Domain

The NFL playoffs are in full swing — and with the conclusion of Wild Card weekend, just four games reminded us of why we love this sport so dearly.

Every year, the NFL playoffs have delivered some of the most astonishing displays of any professional sport that leave you glued to your seat from start to finish.

 Every year, there’s always that one game. That one game that renders your personal lexicon to just one word: wow. That one game that you’ll take with you to the grave, etched in your memory as much as your own name. That one game that you’re thinking about right now.

This year, that game came early.

Whether it was the playoff jitters, bad play or an act of God, Andrew Luck and the Colts found themselves facing a huge 38-10 deficit to the Kansas City Chiefs at halftime. Though a team with a penchant for come-from-behind wins, this was enough of a hole to make even the most die-hard of Colts fans concede defeat. After all, how can you really say that they had a chance with a straight face after seeing their franchise quarterback singlehandedly turn the ball over three times?

 One Robert Mathis sack-fumble (surprise, surprise), an Andrew Luck fumblerooski, a pair of T.Y. Hilton touchdowns later, and with some bad clock management by Andy Reid, the stars seemingly aligned in Lucas Oil Stadium. The Colts capitalized on an absolute meltdown by Kansas City on the way to completing the second-largest comeback in NFL playoff history.

 Maybe the Colts got lucky on Saturday (no pun intended), but as the cliche goes, sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good. In fact, looking back, many of the recent Super Bowl champions picked up more than a few strokes of good fortune on their way to a Lombardi Trophy. The Baltimore Ravens emerged victorious from the quarterfinals last year in Denver thanks in part to a miracle Hail Mary that sent a surefire Broncos victory to overtime. The New York Giants snuck into the postseason by a hair in 2011, just to name a couple.

 Historically, momentum has also been a huge determining factor for playoff success. Indy won each of its last three regular season games by a margin of 16 or more points, and after Saturday’s huge win, it’s safe to say that the Colts have all the momentum in the world.

 Throughout most of the regular season, the Colts have been seen as an enigma of sorts, pulling off impressive victories over the likes of Denver and Seattle in one week, but getting steamrolled by seemingly inferior competition such as St. Louis and Buffalo the next. However, what we’ve seen of Andrew Luck’s squad in the past few weeks looks like a team that has it figured out, a team with an identity and championship swagger.

 Are the Indianapolis Colts the team that everyone slept on coming into this year’s playoffs? Over the last few years, we’ve seen teams embark on epic playoff runs that take the entire NFL contingent by storm. Call it luck, but sometimes, that’s all it takes to create something special.