Indianapolis Colts' Chuck Pagano: 'I like where we are sitting right now'

With the Indianapolis Colts heading into their bye week, it's time for self-reflection and some self-scouting.

After last week's 31-26 road win against Green Bay, the Colts (4-5) have renewed optimism about the rest of the season.

Indianapolis probably played its most complete game of the year in the win over the Packers. Now head coach Chuck Pagano and his coaching staff are ready to take a look at what needs to be done in order to get the Colts back into playoff contention.

"I love where we are sitting right now," Pagano said. "We have given ourselves an opportunity now to keep moving forward. We said this game would be a defining moment for our team and for our season. But, really, how we handle this will also define this football team and where we go from here.

"It's going to be very, very important. And I know our guys will do it because we have great veteran leadership in our locker room and we have great character guys and guys that obviously love winning and want to do that right thing."

While the team's players will get some much needed time to rest, the Indianapolis coaching staff will spend part of the bye week in meetings.

"It's going to be very, very important that everybody does the right thing while they get some time off," Pagano said.

"They always get four days off for a bye week and coaches will get time off and (it's) well-deserved. It has been one hell of a roller coaster ride to this point (of the season). And there is no better way to go into the bye week."

Pagano thinks Indianapolis has what it takes to make a postseason run. The win at Green Bay gave the Colts a push in the right direction.

"I credit our coaches and I credit the players and our veteran leaders. They just refuse to give in and they don't listen, they don't read (what's in the media)," he said.

"They believe and they have faith and they have trust. It's the foundation that's been here for a long, long time and they don't waver. I credit those players and I credit our coaches. They did a phenomenal job with their plans, they did a phenomenal job of implementing them. The players did a great job of executing with the way that they played. It's a determined group, it's a driven group and they weren't going to be denied (against the Packers)."

Now it's time to enjoy their time off and then prepare for the final nine games of the regular season.

"You keep things in perspective," Pagano said. "It was a great win but again, you get to enjoy it a little bit longer as you are not playing. But you can't go down that road. You can't take your foot off the gas.

"Again, for us to not build on this, for us not to do the right thing and not stay in our iPads and go work out and do the things necessary over the next four or five days that need to be done and not take advantage of this, then shame on us.

"That's on all of us. That's on us as a staff. That starts with me and all of our coaches and all of our players. We talked about that more than the good things that happened in the (Green Bay) game because it will be all for naught. It really will. A great win like that at that place and it will be all for naught if we don't handle our business the right way. But I know our guys will."

--RB Jordan Todman has been named the AFC Special Teams Player of the Week for Week 9. It's the first time he has earned the award in his career.

Todman totaled two kickoff returns for 160 yards (80.0 avg.) and one touchdown against the Packers.

He returned the game's opening kickoff 99 yards for a touchdown. It was the team's first kickoff return for a touchdown since Dec. 30, 2012 against Houston (Deji Karim, 101 yards). It was also the first kickoff return for a score on the opening kickoff of the game for the Colts dating back to Dec. 10, 1995 at Jacksonville (Aaron Bailey, 95 yards).