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The Pick: Indianapolis Colts (7-1)

Week 1 did not go at all according to plan for the Indianapolis Colts.

A team tabbed for the Super Bowl in many circles got their heads handed to them by the Buffalo Bills, falling behind 24-0 in a game that wasn't as close as the 27-14 final indicates.

All the problems that were evident in last year's AFC Championship Game thrashing at the hands of the New England Patriots were large and in charge again in Western New York.

The addition of Frank Gore, for one game at least, did nothing to goose the Colts' ground game. The Bills, on the other hand, pounded away at will between the tackles. Indy's pass rush? There wasn't one.

And as Gregg Doyel of the Indianapolis Star reports, distractions continue to grow surrounding the alleged rift between head coach Chuck Pagano and general manager Ryan Grigson:

Coach Chuck Pagano and general manager Ryan Grigson don't work well together. There's a rift. Without a Super Bowl title, Pagano isn't coming back in 2016. Maybe even with a Super Bowl title, he isn't coming back. That's the perception, and it might as well be the reality. The noise has been growing for months, since it became apparent that Pagano would not sign a contract extension, meaning he enters 2015 without a safety net. Add the comments from owner Jim Irsay that the Colts need to win a Super Bowl with quarterback Andrew Luck — sorry, they need to win two Super Bowls with Luck — and the Super-Bowl-or-bust comments echoed by Grigson, and the Colts have created a scenario in which it sure looks like Pagano is coaching for his Colts career.

Granted, with the exception of NFL National Lead Writer Ty Schalter, our writers all expect the Colts to right the ship (at least temporarily) with a win over a New York Jets team that cruised at home over the Cleveland Browns a week ago.

But this year's growing brouhaha in Indianapolis is beginning to take on more than a few similarities to the mess that led to Jim Harbaugh's leaving the San Francisco 49ers after the 2014 season—one where a 49ers team that entered the year with Super Bowl hopes missed the playoffs altogether.

Jets: Schalter

Colts: Davenport, Freeman, Gagnon, Miller, Sobleski, Tanier, Tomlinson