INDIANAPOLIS – Robert Mathis is left without answers.
He's not exactly sure why the Colts are staring at a second straight season without the postseason.
That's so foreign to Mathis.
In his 14 seasons with the Colts, Mathis has only not experienced playoff football twice (2011, 2015).
He knows that minuscule number could grow to three as early as this Sunday.
As a spectator during last Sunday's playoff crushing loss to the Texans, Mathis left extremely frustrated.
"I'm very disappointed in the outcome of that game," Mathis said on his weekly radio show with Query and Schultz.
"It's not acceptable and it's certainly not acceptable this year. We are not getting the job done. However you shake it, the blame falls on us. The fans being (pissed off) is fully acceptable. They pay their hard earned money to get entertainment and see their team come out and whoop a little tail.
"That didn't happen. They are disappointed and that's fully understood."
Mathis called the team's 41-10 win over the Jets a week prior a "five-star show" on Monday Night Football.
That's why he's so puzzled by how the Colts performed in the season's most important game last Sunday.
"Coming back against a team that has what you want in Huston, which is an AFC South title, we can't rise to the occasion. That's just unacceptable," Mathis said on WNDE.
"I'm not bashing, I'm just telling the truth. I'm the leader and that falls on me. I'm the first one the fans should be angry at. If I can take those bullets for my teammates, I'm taking them. I have to do better."
Coming into his 14th season with the Colts, Mathis thought this was a team that was capable of winning at least 12 games.
Mathis believes the "mental edge" the Colts previously had over the AFC South is now gone.
An October 2015 win over the Texans last year gave the Colts an NFL-record 16 straight victories over divisional foes.
Since then, the Colts are just 3-5 against a division they've dominated from its creation 15 years ago.
"The talent is there," Mathis believes. "We can play with any team, when we are on our A game.
"It's (just) a lot of mental. We are not the strongest mentally as a team. The physical ability, the coaching, the players, it's all there. Mentally, we need to get stronger."
A biceps injury has kept Mathis off the field the past two weeks.
He's adamant that, barring any setbacks, his return will come this weekend in Minnesota.
"Let's get it. You heard it from the horse's mouth," Mathis said in reference to him playing against the Vikings.
With the Colts playoff odds dangling off the ledge, Mathis' message as the team's leader is to the point.
"Protect your dream," Mathis says.
"Do your job. Point. Blank. Period. If you don't, somebody else will. You are expected to do a job and protect your dream, which is being a professional athlete. Guys dream of this, speaking for myself since the age of four. It's still surreal to me, so I do everything I can to protect it."
