The practices had nothing to do with game-planning, and everything to do with returning to fundamentals. Caldwell coached under Joe Paterno at Penn State and it was Joe Pa’s approach as he prepared for bowl games to return to spring-practice mode – contact, fundamentals, full pads, back to basics. In the NFL, roster size and prudence combine to make full-contact January contact drills a distant memory, but Caldwell did the next best thing. He scheduled practices early each morning, and whereas Colts Head Coach Tony Dungy practiced the team twice on previous postseason bye week, Caldwell kept them for an extra day, working them Friday instead of giving them that day off. He also worked the first-team offense against the first-team defense – something rare in the NFL after training camp – focused on fundamentals and worked on things that may not have been working so well during the season.
Caldwell said they were the best practices the Colts have had since at least early in the season.
Wayne and Clark agreed, but Wayne said they were something more than that.
“It was fun,” Wayne said. “We had fun last week.”
And maybe that doesn’t seem like much, but that vibe – that fun vibe – permeated the Colts this week. There was, players said, something different around the locker room and in practice this week than there had been much of the season – a bounce in the step, an energy, something.
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