Zak Keefer

zak.keefer@indystar.com

Bears at Colts, 1 p.m. Sunday, Fox

LONDON – T.Y. Hilton strode through the locker room with Sam Cooke’s lyrics bouncing from his lips.

“A change is gggonna commmme,” Hilton sang. “A change is gggonna commmme.”

Hopeful, those five words. Dangerous, too. Hilton seemed confident as he crooned the R&B legend’s 1964 hit, unshaken by the calamity that had transpired over the previous three hours. Nothing to see here. We're good. It was as if the Indianapolis Colts hadn’t come 3,987 miles and gotten whupped by a team that hadn’t won all year until Sunday.

Problem is: They had.

The Jacksonville Jaguars – 30-27 winners over the Colts on Sunday at London’s Wembley Stadium – are now 2-0 against the Colts since last December. They’re 0-8 against everyone else in the NFL.

Doyel: Call Colts what they are -- bad

Hilton was on to something: A change is going to have to come, come now, come for good. The Colts are 1-3 and off to their worst start since the dreadful 2011 campaign that impelled owner Jim Irsay to fire the coach and general manager and release the greatest player in franchise history. Right now, a month into the 2016 season, this team is an aggravating, never-ready-for-kickoff, too-reliant-on-the-star-quarterback, too-little-too-late group of underachievers.

Right now, they're a tease.

The question this bumbling team has yet to answer: Are the Colts a good team playing poorly? Or are they just a bad team altogether?

The star player took to the postgame podium and vented. This was Andrew Luck at his most agitated, his most candid. It’s rare but telling. You could tell this season is getting to him.

“We gotta be more professional as players, in a sense, and understand our role, our job and do our job,” Luck said.

“A lot of almosts, and almosts are never good enough in this league,” he continued a moment later. “I’m tired of almost. I want to win. The Colts are a winning culture. We expect wins. And it just doesn’t happen if you trot out on the field. It starts at practice, it starts in the work hours, and I think we can go back, improve and make that happen.”



Translation: The Colts weren’t ready for this game. Weren’t prepared, weren’t focused, weren’t locked in, whatever football jargon you want to use. Players like to say games aren’t won on Sundays, but in the week’s practices. Maybe the Colts lost this game not on the failed fourth-and-1 but before they ever boarded that trans-Atlantic flight on Thursday afternoon.

“In my opinion, the mistakes come from us not being focused,” said cornerback Patrick Robinson, who threw plenty of blame on himself for a blown coverage early in the game. “It’s very easy to say, but it’s something we gotta figure out and do.”

If Sunday’s game was a case study, it’s a frightening one for Irsay, who had to be utterly fuming Sunday night on the team’s eight-hour flight back to the States. The gamble he took on Black Monday back in January, the one where he extended General Manager Ryan Grigson and coach Chuck Pagano through 2019? It’s looking worse by the day. The Colts entered the 2015 season as Super Bowl favorites. They’re 9-11 since then and currently tied for last in the AFC South.

They can talk about change all they want. Talk is cheap. They’re a mess at the moment, and their star players not named Luck are the reason.

Anthony Castonzo stunk on Sunday. He’s the star left tackle. Makes $9 million a year. Got beat time and again.

“I can’t wallow in (expletive) like that,” Castonzo said of two early gaffes that resulted in Luck’s sternum being smashed to the turf.

Robert Mathis stunk on Sunday. He’s the star pass rusher who doesn’t have a sack all season. Makes $5 million a year. Didn’t do a thing against the Jags.

“To be honest with you, I’m super frustrated with myself,” Mathis said. “I feel like I’m not holding up my end of the bargain.”

Insider: Sloppy Colts look like a losing team

Dwayne Allen stunk on Sunday. He’s the star tight end. Makes $8 million a year. Dropped two passes, including the fourth-and-1 that sealed it.

“Andrew, as our leader, puts a lot on his shoulders, but it’s not his fault,” Allen said. “His supporting cast, myself especially, have to step up and play better. And we will play better.”

The Colts are well on their way to accomplishing the one thing Irsay fears the most: They’re wasting Luck’s prime. (Irsay still seethes at the fact the Colts captured only one Super Bowl victory during Peyton Manning’s 14 seasons. He has stated, over and again, his desire for multiple Super Bowls with No. 12.) Luck is now in his fifth year. He should be challenging for MVPs and thinking about playing in February. Instead he’s 3-8 in the last 11 games he’s started.

And the Colts are getting worse.

“You can’t put that type of pressure on anyone,” veteran linebacker D’Qwell Jackson said. “If you tell him, I’m pretty sure he’d say he could play better. That’s how Andrew is.”

That’s what he always says. But this isn’t on Luck. The franchise quarterback is keeping a poorly-constructed, poorly-coached underachiever barely above water right now. And he can only do that for so long.

Change gggonna commmme? It better, and it better come fast.

Otherwise Irsay will need to make some changes of his own.

Call IndyStar reporter Zak Keefer at (317) 444-6134. Follow him on Twitter: @zkeefer.

• BOX SCORE: Jaguars 30, Colts 27

Bears at Colts, 1 p.m. Sunday, Fox