TORONTO -- Indianapolis Colts kicker Mike Vanderjagt says star quarterback Peyton Manning must show more emotion, coach Tony Dungy is too nice and many players on the NFL team lack passion.

Schlereth's take

Mike Vanderjagt's comments are absolutely ludicrous. He's not a football player, he's a kicker. This is like the old '50s movies that portrayed children -- kickers are to be seen and not heard. The kickers that are good friends of mine, all those guys understand they are just kickers. They understand what we did for a living as football players is extremely hazardous and, frankly, something they can't do. I can't kick a 60-yard field goal and I understand that. I'm not walking around pretending to be a kicker. Mike shouldn't walk around pretending that he plays football. Don't intimate to me that you can get out there and bash heads with an opponent like we can. He seemed to be shocked that when he tries to pump up his teammates on the sideline, they basically tell him to leave. Why should this surprise him? You want to know what it's like to be a football player, Mike? Spend next training camp with the Indianapolis Colts as a linebacker. Then let's see how quick you are to criticize your teammates. ESPN analyst Mark Schlereth played guard for 12 seasons in the NFL.

"I'm not a real big Colts fan right now, unfortunately," the Canadian kicker told The Score, a Toronto-based cable sports TV network. "I just don't see us getting better."

The 10-6 Colts' season ended with an embarrassing 41-0 road loss to the New York Jets in the AFC wild-card game.

The loss dropped Manning's NFL postseason playoff record to 0-3, which Vanderjagt said justified talk that Manning can't win the big game.

"All week before the Jets game I'm like, '(No.) 18, we're going to handle it, me and you we're going to win this game.' And he's like, 'Yeah, yeah, OK.'

"And I'm like, 'Peyton, show some enthusiasm, you're the quarterback and we need to win this game.' I just don't see it from him."

Vanderjagt said the Colts' offense desperately needed a fiery, smashmouth leader.

"We need somebody who is going to get in people's face and yell and scream," said Vanderjagt, who joined the Colts in 1998. "I've gone over there to the offense and said, 'Come on.'

"They're just like, 'Mike, go sit down. You're the kicker.' I have more emotion probably than anybody. I want to win, I want to win bad. When I miss a field goal I bang my helmet because I hate being imperfect and I can't tolerate watching 11 guys just walk off the field after you get stuffed and really show that you don't care. That is frustrating to me."

In his first season with Indianapolis, Dungy transformed the team into a playoff squad, but Vanderjagt felt Dungy was too laid back to make the Colts a Super Bowl contender.

"Coach Dungy, he's just a mild-mannered guy. He doesn't get too excited, he doesn't get too down and I don't think that works either.

"I think you need a motivator, I think you need a guy that is going to get in somebody's face when they're not performing well enough. Peyton and Tony are basically the same guy. They work hard, they mark their Xs and Os and go out and execute. If it doesn't happen, there's nothing we can do about it."

Vanderjagt signed a $7.75 million, five-year contract extension with the Colts in November 2000 that made him the NFL's highest-paid kicker at the time.