I am an avid Colts fan, I have followed them most of my life, and I will always be a Colts fan. I was there in the years where we were in all reality aweful, dreadful - horrible games, bad drafts ( see Steve Entman, Quinton Coreyott, Trev Alberts, oh and lets not forget Jeff George)and the whole gamut of bad descisions. Then along came Bill Polian and the new Colts regime. They drafted Marvin Harrison, Peyton Manning, Edgerin James, Dallas Clark, Reggie Wayne, Dwight Freeney, Bob Sanders, and Joseph Addia. Bill snagged Gary Brackett, Jeff Saturday, and Dominick Rhodes as college free agents (un drafted rookies) and built a perennial Super bowl contender. 5 seasons of 12 wins or more has never been eclipsed in the League, but this year the wheels fell off, let me tell you why:
1. The stupid Tampa Two Defense - Never blitz, give 8 yards of cushion to outside receivers and bend but don't break. The problem with the T2 is if you don't get a pass rush from the edges and up the middle in this one gap system then a smart veteran QB will hit his back foot on a 5 step drop and hit a receiver for 6 yards. It doesn't take many 6 yards to move the chains and keep the offense on the sidelines. I realize the zone scheme helps in ways, but lets blitz 4 or 5 times a game and man up on the outside receivers on obvious passing downs. IF you can't get people off the field on 3rd and 8 then your a going to loose a lot of games. The reason our T2 isn't working this year is in point #2
2 . Get a defensive take bigger than my son (he's 4, not really D-tackle material yet). I realize the Corey Simon experiment went badly, and Booger got hurt, and the kids from Penn State got high and kicked off the team, and 22 year old Quinn Pitcock retired, and John McCargo failed his physical but do something - get someone - exert some pressure up the middle on occasion. If you can't, bring a backer, or a saftey, or some pepper spray, but do something. The belly of the Colts Defense is as soft as mine. If we have to commit all 3 linebackers and a sfatey to the LOS to stop the run then we get the 6 to 8 yard passes referenced above. The corners stay too deep to stop that ball with out committing a LB underneath. If the LB is filling a gap left open by a teeny tiny D tackle then the underneath coverage is not there. This must be addressed in the draft, the plus is we should get a fairly high pick this year.
3. Coaching - Dungy is a great guy and a serious under achiever. I could have coached the Colts to at least one super bowl in this era. How hard is it to say "Hey Peyton throw it to Marvin or Reggie or Joseph or Gonzo or Dallas or Stokely (04 - 06)" or say "Hey Bob tackle everybody please". Tony makes seriously bad decisions in big games, gets conservative to easy, and fails to motivate his players. They never seem fired up or ready to play. It is just going to be more of the same with Jim Caldwell.
4. The offense - we can't run it, and we can't throw it. That doesn't leave a whole lot of options. Peyton has been off all year, and the receivers have seriously lost a step. Marvin is old and tired and will be gone after this season, Reggie is getting closer to old age as well and Gonzo is not a #1 receiver. Our running game is staggered at the loss of J Addia, but he has struggled this year as well. There are no holes to run through and the scheme seems off by miles. We have not clicked all year. The Baltimore game is an exception or you might say aberration.
It has been a good 7 years, but it is time to reload or rebuild or something because I can't take much more of this. If I wanted to see this kind of football I would watch reruns of the late 80's - where is Jeff George when you need him. RLR
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2 comments:
My gosh you know your team. good grief. The one thing I think that would help the colts more than anything is to keep their defense off the field more. Peyton is just off so far this year. His injury or infection or whatever that kept him out of training camp has been a major factor to this team. They are not sustaining drives. Peyton is not consistent and thus their offense is sputtering. Ya gotta get some drives going to rest the D and get momentum.
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