FanPulse Week 17: Confidence from Colts fans looks to the future; Who we want to see in the Super Bowl

Welcome to SB Nation FanPulse, a survey of fans across the NFL powered by SurveyMonkey. As the season kicks off in just a few weeks, each week, we’ll send 32 polls to 100+ plugged in fans from each team. Colts fans, sign up HERE to join FanPulse.

As the 2019 season comes to an end for the Indianapolis Colts this Sunday, the fan base no longer looks towards the hopes for a playoff berth. Colts’ fans now are looking towards the 2020 season with the aspiration of an improved result after another year of Chris Ballard working some magic in the offseason, and a more impressive performance from Frank Reich in his third season at the helm.

After all, these surveys are based in the long-term, and less about how we feel the team will do each week — at least if we take them how they’re worded.

The results of this week’s survey suggest that that is exactly what Colts’ fans have turned their collective focus towards. Typically following a 32-point win we would see a massive influx in confidence, but with the reality of the team’s situation this year it was far more modest.

While the fan’s confidence level in the team improved from 50 percent a week ago, it only moved up to 57 percent before the season finale in Jacksonville. All in all, I think this is a reasonable response to where the team is at the moment.

The fan base has good reason to feel confident in the organization’s future. As a whole, we love what Frank Reich can do with a quality roster, and we feel that Ballard can construct such a roster to lead the Colts to great things in the very near future.

Now let’s get to the national question. So, which teams do we collectively want, or expect to see in this year’s Super Bowl?

Most probably see the NFC as the dominant conference this season, and it doesn’t seem like it’s ever the AFC that gets that tip of the hat. However, the AFC has a group at the top of the conference that can at least challenge, and likely beat, any team that represents the NFC.

The answer for the AFC did not surprise me, and probably doesn’t surprise you either. More than 37 percent of the voters felt that the Baltimore Ravens would represent the AFC to battle for the Lombardi Trophy.

In spite of their being a 10 percent difference, the Kansas City Chiefs came in a close second place. Either team would be a fun recipient of the honor, and would likely be exciting either way. Personally, I would prefer the Ravens due to their defense being added to the equation, but I would be good with either high-powered offense representing the AFC.

As for the NFC, this survey was even closer at the top, and even the teams that weren’t nearly as favored received more votes than that of the AFC’s teams.

This one surprised me a bit, though. Now, I voted for the New Orleans Saints because I like the Saints’ offense much more than the rest of the options. But, the San Francisco 49ers came in a very close second place, and their stifling defense is a major reason why.

I’m also surprised with a couple other things about these results. First, that the Seahawks didn’t receive more votes, and that the Minnesota Vikings received as many as they did. Additionally, it struck me as very odd that the Green Bay Packers received fewer votes than the ‘NFC champion’ did. Gross!

Just about any way you slice it, there’s a pretty solid chance that the Super Bowl this year will feature two very deserving teams.

We all know that the New England Patriots are more than capable of putting together a post-season run that rivals any of their past successes. The Chiefs are as explosive as they come, yet the Ravens feel destined to be there as they’ve dominated most of the season.

On the other hand, you’d be hard-pressed to discount the Saints, Seahawks or the 49ers in my estimation. With all of the teams mentioned above, it doesn’t seem possible that this year’s matchup could disappoint, yet there’s always the threat of the upset artist coming out of the Wild Card round to think about.

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