Darius Leonard says there's no pressure on Colts, one of first No. 7 seeds in new playoff format
The Colts will be the first team to represent the No. 7 seed in new format, with the Bears playing a day later
By
Jeff Kerr
•
1 min read
The Indianapolis Colts face a daunting task in Saturday's AFC wild card matchup against the Buffalo Bills, even though Indianapolis won 11 games and has a future Hall of Fame quarterback in Philip Rivers. Buffalo is one of the hottest teams in the AFC, becoming a Super Bowl contender after the Bills won their final six games by 10 points or more -- the first team to accomplish that feat since the 2014 Seattle Seahawks (and the fifth team in the Super Bowl era).
On Saturday, the Colts will be the first No. 7 seed to play in the new playoff format and in a non-strike season (the 1982 playoffs featured 16 teams seeded No. 1 through No. 8 in each conference). The NFC's No. 7 seed, the Chicago Bears, will play on Sunday at the New Orleans Saints. Indianapolis is a long shot to beat Buffalo -- which is just fine for Pro Bowl linebacker Darius Leonard.
"I feel like for me there's never no pressure," Leonard said to reporters this week, via Mike Chappell of Fox 59. "Like coach (Colts head coach Frank Reich) said, when you're the 7 seed, everybody expects you to fail. That's the mindset. Everybody's sharing that: you failed.
"Crazy that everybody said that the Bills was going to win. Everybody's counting us out, so we just go in there and just be us. We don't have to do nothing more, we don't have to do nothing less. Just be us, control what we can control and that is playing great fundamental football and hopefully we can come out with a victory.
"But pressure? Nah. We don't have any pressure on us."
Indianapolis will have its hands full against a Buffalo team that has set franchise records in points per game (31.3), yards per game (396.4) and pass yards per game (288.8). Over the final three games, the Bills have averaged 47.3 points, 487.7 yards and 357.7 pass yards. They've allowed the fifth-fewest points per game in the league over the final seven weeks.
The Colts certainly have a challenge ahead of them, but this is also the first time the No. 2 seed has played on the first weekend of the playoffs in the wild card era in a non-strike season. Anything can happen in this new playoff format.
