JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- The Indianapolis Colts officially know what rock bottom feels like this season.

It wasn’t at the start of the season, when the soap opera between coach Chuck Pagano and general manager Ryan Grigson was a daily watercooler topic. It wasn’t when quarterback Andrew Luck went down first with a right shoulder injury and then with kidney/abdomen injuries.

It happened Sunday afternoon at EverBank Field in Jacksonville. The Colts spent the week leading up to the game talking about rebounding from their poor performance against Pittsburgh in Week 13. Pagano even went as far as saying he was sliding all his chips in the middle of the table with his players.

If that’s the case, Pagano and the Colts left town broke after a 51-16 defeat in which they crawled into the fetal position after leading 13-3. And there should be no reason -- none, nada, zilch -- to believe the Colts are going to win the AFC South this season. Not after how they’ve played the past two weeks.

After two dismal losses, Chuck Pagano's future as Colts coach is as shaky as it has ever been. Logan Bowles/USA TODAY Sports

It was the type of performance that illustrated why it’s a long shot that Pagano will return as coach next season and showed the lack of depth on the Colts' roster.

And who put the roster together?

Grigson.

That’s why it shouldn’t be a sure thing that he’ll be back next season, either, despite being under contract for the 2016 season.

“We’re all going to come under fire,” Pagano said. “We can’t do anything about it. We made this bed. It starts with me and everybody else. We’re in this thing together. This team will stick together, I know that.

“This is going to sting, and it’s going to sting for a long time.”

Not only should Sunday’s loss sting the Colts, so should their 35-point loss to the Steelers the week before. This is the first time Indianapolis has allowed at least 45 points in back-to-back games since the final two games of the 1953 and 1954 seasons, according to ESPN Stats & Information.

"I got beat up one time as a kid. Came home and my brother beat my ass for getting beat,” Colts tight end Dwayne Allen said. “Got beat up again, my mom then whupped my ass. I made sure it wasn’t a third ass-whupping. Same situation we’re in now as a team."

Believe it or not, the Colts still think they can get things back on track. They’re believing what Pagano is telling them about it not being too late.

Pagano and several players tried to compare what occurred Sunday to what happened when the Colts were blown out 44-17 by the Jaguars in Jacksonville and went on to win the Super Bowl in the 2006 season.

Stop right there. It’s laughable that comparison is even being made.

The current Colts team isn’t 10-3 like the 2006 team was. The current team doesn’t have Peyton Manning or Tony Dungy either.

What the current team does have, though, is a lot of problems, from quarterback to offensive line to lack of preparation by the coaching staff.

"We're still digging," linebacker Robert Mathis said. "We just have to find that switch. When you win, everything is all right. When you lose, all hell breaks loose."

About the only thing the Colts got right Sunday was when they said they’re still in the mix for the AFC South title, which automatically gets them to the playoffs.

“We have to man up,” Allen said. “We’ve taken our bumps, our bruises and our ass-whuppings the last two weeks. Nobody in this locker room has quit. We have to dig down and grab a little bit of what our mamas and daddies gave us and go out and get the job done.”