The career backup has an expiring contract, and it’s unclear whether he’ll be back with the Colts or another team next season. For Orlovsky, and all those other potential free agents, the season finale Sunday at Jacksonville is about more than draft position. It’s one last chance to make an impression.

“Every week is an audition in this league,” Orlovsky said Thursday, one day after the arrival of his three sons. “There are 32 teams that watch, so it’s important to have a good body of work and Sunday’s game is the last piece of that body of work for this season.”

Things might be looking up for the seven-year veteran, who was unemployed until re-signing with the Colts on Sept. 29.

After losing his first nine NFL starts, Orlovsky helped Indianapolis (2-13) avoid a winless season by winning twice in five days. Another victory would give Indy its first season-ending, three-game winning streak since the Super Bowl-title season of 2006.

Orvlosky isn’t the only one facing an uncertain future in Indy.

More than a dozen players are set to become restricted or unrestricted free agents in March, including a small cadre of 30-something former Pro Bowl players — Robert Mathis, Jeff Saturday and Reggie Wayne.

The Colts also must decide whether to pay four-time league MVP Peyton Manning a $28 million bonus, let him become a free agent or work out a new deal with the franchise quarterback. Team owner Jim Irsay has said that if Manning recovers from neck surgery, he will be back in Indy, no matter the cost.

Questions also surround coach Jim Caldwell, team vice chairman Bill Polian and general manager Chris Polian.

Caldwell went 24-8, won two division titles and an AFC championship in his first two seasons with the Colts but without these last two wins, he could have seen his record slip to .500 this weekend.

After an 0-13 start, some fans openly criticized Caldwell for everything from his style to game management and called for a change. Finishing strong would be evidence that Caldwell did not quit on the season and that the players, who are in his corner, did not quit on him.

“I think Coach Caldwell has done a very good job this season. He has gotten the most out of his players,” Saturday said. “There have just been times that we haven’t played well, so from that standpoint that will be up to Mr. Irsay and whatever he decides to do. But I think Coach Caldwell did a good job, and you’ve just got to keep battling and playing. You just go in, play as hard as you can and hope you get a win.”

Caldwell, who was fired in 2000 at Wake Forest and lost his job again the next season when the Buccaneers got rid of Tony Dungy, already has seen defensive coordinator Larry Coyer fired. More changes could be coming in the offseason or Irsay could bring in a whole new staff.

“Whether you are coaching or playing, it is always the same, and that doesn’t matter if it is in Week 10 and you’re 9-1 or whatever it might be,” Caldwell said. “Nothing is promised to you and there are no guarantees. So I think everybody that has played the game understands that, particularly at this level, and everybody that has coached it, we all coach on one-year contracts for (our) entire career.”

The Polians aren’t entirely safe, either, not with concerns about the inability to groom an adequate backup to Manning. On his weekly radio show, Bill Polian acknowledged the front office was to blame for the lack of talent.

“Should we have done a better job? You bet,” Polian said in October. “But we have to make sure we do a better job going forward.”

Who will be around for the rebuilding project? Nobody knows..

Some contend the Colts should lose Sunday, thereby winning the Andrew Luck sweepstakes rather than winning the game and losing the No. 1 overall pick to St. Louis.

But for players and coaches fighting for their jobs, that’s not the issue.

Playing well enough to win Sunday could make all the difference between getting a job, keeping a job or being out of work in 2012.

“Honestly, I think you’re fighting for your job every single week in this league and it should be that way,” Orlovsky said. “It’s a very privileged job. But you can’t think about it that way. You just have to go out and prepare for each game and do the best you can.”

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Don’t think the New England Patriots take the winless Indianapolis Colts for granted.

In his weekly press conference at Gillette Stadium Wednesday, Patriots head coach Bill Belichick was pretty adamant about this coming Sunday’s game.

He reminded reporters that preparation is no different for him than other weeks even if the Colts are 0-11.

“We talk about it every game,” Belichick said. “It doesn’t matter. The 16 games on our schedule, they’re all the same. It’s our team against that team that week. We look at, try to learn about our opponent and scout them and pick up tendencies and strengths and weaknesses and all that, but how we match up against that team that day is all that matters.”

The Colts, who is missing star quarterback Peyton Manning and a slew of other key players, are 21-point underdogs.

Although the New England defense is dead last in the NFL in total yards per game, pass net yards per game and first downs per game, Indy is the distinct owner of the NFL’s worst stat — last in points allowed.

Still it doesn’t faze Belichick at all.

“The rest of it is a bunch of garbage,” Belichick said. “You guys can write about it all you want but it doesn’t matter, really. The winner of this game will be decided by which team plays better on Sunday, not what happened four weeks ago.”

Quarterback Tom Brady even said he wasn’t looking forward to seeing the Colts’ Dwight Freeney and Robert Mathis on the defensive side.

“I think they’ve got some players that can really play,” Brady said. “I’ve played Dwight Freeney a bunch. I wish he was out this week, but he’s in there again. He’s a phenomenal player. If I could be a defensive end, I’d be like him, and Robert Mathis on the other side. Both those players can really wreak havoc and strip sacks.”

Brady knows New England will have to play just like they did a week ago.

“They’ve been in a lot of close games,” Brady said. “They haven’t won them, but they’re in them. We have to go out there and we have to try to play really well, play more consistent, kind of like we did last week. We played more consistent than we had the previous week. We’ve got to go out there and play very consistent this week, too.”

Indianapolis announced this week they will have 6-foot-5 journeyman Dan Orlovsky under center this Sunday instead of Curtis Painter.

Patriots linebacker Rob Ninkovich said it doesn’t matter.

“I don’t know what they’re going to do with their situation with the quarterback but whoever is out there, we’re going to play them,” Ninkovich said. “Whatever the Colts decide, we’re going to have to prepare for.”

Orlovsky will have dependable receivers to throw too as well.   

Indy still has superstar Reggie Wayne (47 receptions for 652 yards and a pair of touchdowns) and Pierre Garcon (46 receptions for 655 yards and four touchdowns).

“He’s fast,” New England safety James Ihedigbo said about Garcon. “He’s a run and catch type of guy … he’s dangerous with the ball in his hands. They do a good job of getting the ball to him. He can kind of do his thing. He’s definitely an explosive threat.

“Reggie is still the same but he has a different guy throwing him the ball. He is definitely one of the best players at his position.”

Ihedigbo himself said the Patriots need to improve each week even if they’re playing the winless Colts.

“We have the mentality as a team that it is about us,” Ihedigbo said. “The type of team that we want to continue to be, excelling at areas to get to where we want to go. So playing the Indianapolis Colts, it’s an opportunity for us to play the type of football that we want to. Record don’t matter to this team. It is based upon the game on Sunday and what each team brings to the table.”

So come Sunday, New England knows better not to let its guard down.

They’re still in the hunt for the best record in the AFC.

“In the NFL, it does not matter because there are players on every team,” Ninkovich said. “You have to respect everyone on the team. You have to go out there and play every week. Take one game at a time.”

Contact Steven Sanchez at ssanchez@tauntongazette.com

AP Photo/AJ Mast

Carolina Panthers free safety Sherrod Martin, right, is congratulated by teammate Darius Butler after he intercepted a pass against the Indianapolis Colts in the closing minutes of the fourth quarter of an NFL football game in Indianapolis, Sunday, Nov. 27, 2011.

It’s amazing what one game against the Indianapolis Colts can do to solve a team’s problems.
The Carolina Panthers struggled all season with consistency in the running game, special teams snafus and getting timely defensive stops, but those weren’t issues over the weekend. Sure, it was the winless Colts. But for one week the Panthers put their problems behind them.
“People want to downplay this victory, that’s fine,” coach Ron Rivera said of his team’s 27-19 win. “Just understand it’s the NFL and it really doesn’t matter. A win is a win and we’re going to work off of it, feed off of it and use it to build. … It’s not like it was (against) just a bunch of guys. A lot of these guys have been to the Super Bowl.
“I know the linchpin was missing with Peyton (Manning) not being in there but there’s an awful lot of things that didn’t change about them.”
It’s all about little steps for the Panthers (3-8).
Fresh off their first road win in 13 games, the Panthers go for back-to-back wins for the first time since 2009 this Sunday at Tampa Bay.
Third place in the NFC South is on the line.
That may not garner a whole lot of national attention, but for the Panthers it’s a small, yet realistic goal on the road to what they hope will be bigger accomplishments.
Rivera’s rallying call has been to build momentum going into next season and he hopes the win against the Colts will provide it.
“We’re playing for six Sundays right now — the next five this year and then the Week 1 next September,” Rivera said. “We’re going to start building in that direction. It’s an opportunity now to do something we haven’t done yet and that’s win back-to-back games. I would love to do that.”
The Panthers have a chance to do that if they play like they did on Sunday.
They posted a season-high 201 yards rushing and scored three touchdowns on the ground with DeAngelo Williams, Jonathan Stewart and Cam Newton splitting the load.
Their maligned special teams got an 81-yard kickoff return from Kealoha Pilares that led to a key field goal and an eight-point lead in the fourth quarter while not surrendering any big returns.
And the defense came up with a pair of fourth-quarter interceptions in the end zone, including a nifty toe-tapper on the back end line by safety Sherrod Martin to seal the game with 35 seconds remaining.
Newton also took another step in his rookie progression — as well as toward setting a couple of NFL records — and shows no signs of slowing down.
“When you’re the starting quarterback, you can’t have a rookie wall,” offensive coordinator Rob Chudzinski said.
Newton’s 14-yard rushing touchdown was his 10th of the season, leaving him two shy of the league record for touchdown runs by a quarterback set by Steve Grogan in 1976. He already holds the league’s rookie record.
Newton also is closing in on the rookie passing record. He needs only 647 yards passing in the final five weeks to break Peyton Manning’s rookie record of 3,739 set in 1998.
But more importantly Rivera hopes Newton and his young teammates are figuring out how to win.
“What I’d like to do is get him in a situation where he can have back-to-back-to-back-to-back wins and see how he handles that,” Rivera said. “It’s all about him growing and developing as a football player and that’ll help us as a football team and I think the whole idea of drafting Cam and developing Cam is for the future of this franchise. That young man can be here as long as we can have him if he stays healthy. He’s an explosive football player that makes dynamic plays. I think that’s important.”
Wide receiver Steve Smith believes Sunday’s win gives the players in the locker room some needed positive energy.
“It was big for us,” Smith said. “Unfortunately the Colts, what they are going through, teams go through it. You can’t go out there with feelings, you have to go out there and do your job. People pretty much say you’re expected or you’re supposed to beat them, and they’re not this, they’re not that. Every team goes through that, and unfortunately they are going through it. To be honest, I don’t really care. That’s their problem.”
Notes: Rivera reported serious no injuries from Sunday’s game, although tight end Greg Olsen did tweak his ankle after an inadvertent collision with wide receiver Seyi Ajirotutu during pregame warm-ups. … The Panthers had won 11 of 14 from the Bucs prior to getting swept last season. … Rivera gave his players most of the day off Monday as a reward for Sunday’s win.

Indianapolis, IN (Sports Network) – Indianapolis Colts tight end Dallas
Clark will miss a few weeks due to a lower left leg injury suffered in
Sunday’s game against Atlanta.

Clark exited Sunday’s game in the second quarter, and was wearing a walking
boot on the sideline.

Brody Eldridge, another tight end, left Sunday’s game with a hand injury in
the first quarter.

Colts head coach Jim Caldwell is unsure how long Clark and Eldridge will be
out, but he stated that both players suffered “pretty significant injuries.”

“What I mean by that is more than a week,” Caldwell said.

If the Colts are left without Eldridge and Clark for a few weeks, the only
tight end Indianapolis has left on the roster is Jacob Tamme.

“We do have to do something in those areas and we’re working on that as we
speak,” Caldwell said.

The 32-year-old Clark has 28 receptions for 287 yards and two touchdowns in
nine games played this season, while Eldridge has six catches for 33 yards.

The Sports Network

Read More: colts injury report, nfl injury report, joseph addai injury, Joseph Addai (RB – IND), Donald Brown (RB – IND), Delone Carter (RB – IND), Indianapolis Colts

Indianapolis Colts running back Joseph Addai sat out Wednesday’s practice with a hamstring injury, and it looks like he won’t play this Sunday against the Cincinnati Bengals. Addai told the media before practice on Thursday that it is a long shot he will be able to play on Sunday. Addai left Sunday’s game against the Chiefs in the first quarter with the hamstring injury.

The Colts will use some combination of Delone Carter and Donald Brown in place of Addai. Neither back really qualifies as a particularly good fantasy option, although bye weeks make for strange bedfellows. If you are desperately in need of a running back for Sunday, I would have to recommend Carter. Through five games he has had 41 carries to Addai’s 56. At the same time, while Addai is averaging 4.4 yards per carry, Carter is averaging 3.0 yards per carry.

The Colts are 0-5 but have hung close in recent games. Addai peaked in the Colts near-upset of the Pittsburgh Steelers but they have seemingly shied away from the run over the last two weeks. It is hard to make any sort of fantasy proclamations about arguably the worst team in the NFL.

For more on the Colts, check out Stampede Blue. For more on fantasy football, check out Fake Teams. Follow @sbnationfantasy on Twitter.