The

1992 File:1992 Events Collage V1.png, From left, clockwise: 1992 Los Angeles riots, Riots break out across Los Angeles, California after the Police brutality, police beating of Rodney King; El Al Flight 1862 crashes into a residential apartment buildi ...

Indianapolis Colts The Indianapolis Colts are a professional American football team based in Indianapolis. The Colts compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) South division. Since the 2008 ...

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and pol ...

was the 40th season for the team in the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

and ninth in

Indianapolis Indianapolis (), colloquially known as Indy, is the state capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Indiana and the seat of Marion County. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the consolidated population of Indianapolis and Marion ...

. The Colts looked to improve on their dismal 1991 season, where they finished 1–15. The Colts improved by eight games, recording a 9–7 record, and finished third in the AFC

East East or Orient is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the fa ...

division. It was the team's first season under the returning

Ted Marchibroda Theodore Joseph Marchibroda (March 15, 1931 – January 16, 2016) was an American football quarterback and head coach in the National Football League (NFL). He spent his four years as an active player with the Pittsburgh Steelers (1953, 1955&nd ...

, who had spent the previous five seasons as the quarterbacks coach and later offensive coordinator for the

Buffalo Bills The Buffalo Bills are a professional American football team based in the Buffalo metropolitan area. The Bills compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) East division. ...

; Marchibroda had been the head coach of the team from 1975 until 1979 when it was in Baltimore. Marchibroda succeeded interim coach

Rick Venturi Rick Venturi (born February 23, 1946) is a former American football player, coach and current broadcaster. He served as the head coach at Northwestern University and as longtime National Football League assistant coach known for his defense. ...

, who coached the last eleven games of the 1991 season following the firing of

Ron Meyer Ronald Shaw Meyer (February 17, 1941 – December 5, 2017) was an American college and professional football coach. He is best known for having been the head coach of Southern Methodist University, the New England Patriots and Indianapolis Colts ...

. Venturi remained on Marchibroda's staff as defensive coordinator.

Football Outsiders Football Outsiders (FO) is a website started in July 2003 which focuses on advanced statistical analysis of the NFL. The site is run by a staff of regular writers, who produce a series of weekly columns using both the site's in-house statistics ...

calls the 1992 Colts "possibly the luckiest team in NFL history", due to ranking the Colts as the second worst team in 1992, statistically. "The Colts finished 9–7 even though opponents outscored them 302–216", Football Outsiders continued. "They were 4–7 after losing 30–14 to Pittsburgh on November 22. Then they finished the year with a five-game winning streak – but they won those games by an average of four points. ... It didn't hurt that the Colts recovered 59 percent of fumbles that season and had a below-average schedule." The Colts' 1,102 rushing yards is the lowest for any team in a single season in the 1990s.Pro-Football-Reference.com: In a single season, from 1990 to 1999, in the NFL, in the regular season, sorted by ascending Rushing Yds
/ref>

Offseason

On April 26, 1992, the Colts parted ways with

Eric Dickerson Eric Demetric Dickerson (born September 2, 1960) is an American former professional football player who was a running back in the National Football League (NFL) for 11 seasons. Dickerson played college football for the Mustangs of Southern Me ...

after five seasons, trading him to the

Los Angeles Raiders The Los Angeles Raiders were a professional American football team that played in Los Angeles from 1982 to 1994 before relocating back to Oakland, California, where the team played from its inaugural 1960 season to the 1981 season and then agai ...

. Although they had gone to great lengths to acquire him in 1987 and he led the NFL in rushing while playing for them in 1988, the Colts' relationship with Dickerson soured during the 1990 season and he was suspended twice for conduct detrimental to the team. Dickerson was also unhappy with the Colts' fans blaming him for the team's lack of success and was said to be angry over the team's firing of Ron Meyer, his former college coach, during the previous season.

NFL Draft

Personnel

Staff

Roster

Regular season

Schedule

Standings

References

Indianapolis Colts seasons 1992 in sports in Indiana {{Americanfootball-season-stub