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My Thoughts on the Colts Game

VanDolPhan

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#1) Bates shouldn't have a job. Anyone who puts Fletcher out to the wolves like that by leaving him on one of the best 2 recievers in the game until halfway through the 4th quarter isn't bright. We usually get shredded by Harrison as is, however I don't know if Fletcher can regain his confidence after that one. Confidence is a huge thing for a CB.

Only good point was that he played ok after Madison/Fletcher switched duties. Hopefully his confidence is ok. Fletcher won't live up to his 1st round pick but I'm still holding out hope that he can be a viable 3rd corner.

#1-A) This also played into it. Where the heck was the pass rush? Silly me didn't realize Sunday Ticket was a lot cheaper this year until halftime so I only caught the 2nd half but not once did they lay a finger on Peyton. You can't give Peyton 5 seconds to throw. You can't give ANY QB 5 seconds to throw. We are very lucky Peyton was off his game today. That could have been bad.

#1-B) Also while we are on Fletcher. Where was the safety help? Safety help was late ALOT. Glaring example of that was Freeman on Harrison's TD.

#1-C) Again back to Bates. Where was the blitz's when there was no pass rush. I counted one blitz (and only one blitzer on that one) in the 2nd half.

#2) When will this team learn. Don't go conservative. Always play like it's the beginning of the game. They allowed the Colts to get back in this game by shutting down the offense. Penalties didn't help either, but they came out in the 2nd half with no trickery or will to move the ball.

#3) Yay! Jay's being able allowed to scramble again. That was nice to see. I like it much better when Jay is on the roll. Only one mistake made today when he overcompensated for the DE who had his hands up and then ended up overslinging it. Still through 2 games it's 5 TD's, 1INT. He also completed 72% of his passes today.

#4) Ricky Ricky Ricky. Man it's nice to have a running game and a pass catcher out of the backfield. Again though they shut the offense down in the 2nd half instead of keeping that mismatch with Ricky on the LB's out of the backfield.

#5) Madison. Any doubters of Madison should be shut up now. He completely shut down everybody and Harrison was finally shut down when Bates bought a clue and switched him over.

#6) Concerned about the run defense. EJ definately was getting to the LB's a lot and getting lots of 6+ yard runs. Only saving grace was the amazing stubborness of Dungy to run it up the gut 4 times in a row. Great defensive stand but seemed very Chan Gailey in the play calling.

#7) Mare......lets hope that was rust man. We pay you the big bucks to make that shot everytime.


Summary. Fletcher is a bust as a 1st rounder......but lets not call for his head yet. As long as he can fill a 3rd corner roll that is all I ask. Also it's all we ever expected out of him. However as far as Bates is concerned, it's time Wanny took a little more control from him.
 
Originally posted by VanDolPhan
Anything I missed?

Yeah the fact that the defense you just ripped to shreads only gave up 13 points against one of the best offenses in the game, and forced 3 turn overs! I am the first to rip on Bates, but that was great scheme today. It was a very basic cover 2. He set out to not give up big plays, and figured that if he gave Indy enough snaps they would hang them selves. Sure the Colts gained some yards today, but they only scored 13 points. If you try to blitz, and take chances in the secondary this team will score 40 points. Harrison will get his catches and yards his # the last 3 years prove that point, but it is better to give him 150 yards, and shut down every other pass catcher, than to have moultiple guys making plays. Everyone has to realize that you can not shut down the big 3 for 4 quarters, but you also have to realize that they can't beet you alone. Look at Jacksonvile they lost last weeks game because they let Ismail kill them. Manning, Harrison, and James all got their yards last week, but it was Ismail's 3 tds that won that game.
 
DaJesus. I am not ripping the defense. I'm making valid points about what happened today. We were very very close to losing this game today.
 
I haven't watched the tape yet, but I remember our DEs getting mugged on numerous occasions. I remember one big gainer in the 4th where Wallay was grabbed from behind the shoulder and spun around. Definitely would have been a sack.

Freeman got held up by a pump fake and that's why he was late on that TD to Harrison.

I still don't like Bates. The last three years now, our defense plays in space way to much for my liking.

We still can't stop the run. Chester can't be 100%. He got manhandled on many plays. It's like he doesn't have sufficient leverage on run plays and just doesn't have the explosion he used to have on pass plays. I know that his leg isn't fully healed yet. But I wonder just how much it's limiting him.
 
Lots of good points and yes it should have been more of a rout. Calling Fletcher a bust is kind of premature and I think they let Harrison give him a lesson for his own good. I know that's a stretch but that's what I think.

Jay has to learn to slide or he will not last the season.

The run defense was against EJ which has to be given his due. EJ has to be credited with some moves like he never had an ACL. He was stopped at the crucial time.

But definitely what happened to the Pass Rush??? Are we saving it for the Jets??? :)
 
Originally posted by Muck
I haven't watched the tape yet, but I remember our DEs getting mugged on numerous occasions. I remember one big gainer in the 4th where Wallay was grabbed from behind the shoulder and spun around. Definitely would have been a sack.

Yup I remember cheering about a hold on one of the left DE at one point only to swear under my breath as the pass was caught and no call was made.

Calling Fletcher a bust is kind of premature

Well he's definately not living up to even a 2nd or 3rd rounder at this point. He needs to make some strides this season and avoid Harrison like the plague.

By the way check the Colts boards. The yearly whining of "Where's the flag on PI" from the Colts fans are rolling. They are also congratulating their D for their 2nd half performance while ignoring the fact Miami went into "run down the clock" conservative mode.
 
I watched the whole game today and our DEs were getting mugged on every play. Why the zebras didn't call it I don't know. But our nickel corner situation is a problem. Fletcher isn't up to the task. Also, what was going through Bates head today? It took him 35 minutes and 10 catches and 130 yards before he realized that Madison should be on Harrison.
 
that was a definate hold!

Originally posted by VanDolPhan


Yup I remember cheering about a hold on one of the left DE at one point only to swear under my breath as the pass was caught and no call was made.



Well he's definately not living up to even a 2nd or 3rd rounder at this point. He needs to make some strides this season and avoid Harrison like the plague.

By the way check the Colts boards. The yearly whining of "Where's the flag on PI" from the Colts fans are rolling. They are also congratulating their D for their 2nd half performance while ignoring the fact Miami went into "run down the clock" conservative mode.
i don't know how the refs missed it!
 
Originally posted by FinsAre#1
But our nickel corner situation is a problem. Fletcher isn't up to the task.

Yup Fletcher wasn't up to the task of covering Harrison solo. However how many CB's are? Even Surtain/Madison get safety help. However the Colts were finding ways to match up Harrison one on one with Fletcher all game long. That was not cool and Bates should have caught onto that much earlier then he did.

By the way. Who WAS playing the nickel once Fletcher took over for Surtain? Whoever it was did a good job but then not like he had much work with the Harrison/Fletcher one on one matchup.
 
The reason the run d and the pass rush were not good was because Miami dropped 7 in coverage every play. We blitzed once the whole game. No matter how many yards the Colts gained the scheme worked. When Miami ran out of yards to defend they stood up and stopped Indy. Indy was inside the redzone 5 times and only garnished 1 td and 2 fgs. That is Fing awesome against this team. The other huge part of the scheme today was to sit back, and wait for mistkes and then take advantage of them. The first 2 ints looked like luck, but they happend because everyone dropped back and waited for the play. Luck had nothing to do with it, they were the result of Bates putting his players in the right place. You guys have to realize that if Miami commited to stopping the run or putting preasure on Peyton they would have scored 40 points. The other big thing is if we take away the mind fart that our offense went throw in the 2nd half we would have and should have scored 35 points. The only people that could stop the Miami offense were the zebras. Seriously though you can't bash a D that only allowed 13 points to one of the best offenses in the game, no matter how many yards they allowed.
 
DaJesus we played the same way as we did against the Rams last year and we apparently didn't learn the lesson this year. It's nice to commit to the pass but you can't completely abandon the run. Personally I would like to see what Morlon has in terms of rushing the QB once in a blue moon. There was a lot of luck involved. The only time we geared up to play the run was on the goalline and like I pointed out earlier in the thread that was purely Dungy being stubborn.

Or how about the Colts bad clock management on their final drive. 19 seconds left on the 12 and he threw it to the 5 and left them with 2 seconds. He needs to go review Marino's 2 minute drill tapes

:monkey: Piss on the Colts and bring on the Jits!

We will know if we are for real over the next 3 weeks. Jits next week and New England in week 5. Win those 2 and I'll pull the bandwagon :)
 
Gamble was the nickelback.

Also, the refs were really tough on OUR CBs. Everytime we made a play on the ball, it was PI.
 
Originally posted by Muck
Gamble was the nickelback.

Also, the refs were really tough on OUR CBs. Everytime we made a play on the ball, it was PI.

Gamble....that's right. When one of their guys dropped the ball near the sidelines I remember seeing him coming in and laying a hit on him just to make sure.

Gamble played pretty well on special teams to. All those fair catches were because Gamble was the first guy down there in their face.
 
See i guess where we are butting heads is somehow you look at this game as a bad thing. Van we won, and only gave up 13 points. If you really want to find something wrong, look at why the offense didn't score any points in the second half, because it wasn't because of the Colts D. You spoke of the Rams game, but i have to wonder how that game would have been of our offense would have moved the ball down field at all that game, and if we didn't turn the ball over 3-4 times that game. The other difference in the games is when Miami had the chance to make plays against the Rams(missed sack on 4th down for a TD, and 2 missed ints in the first half) we didn't make them, we did today. Yes Fletcher sucked, but besides that you have to understand the philosaphy of this D. It is basicly saying "I know we have great atheletes on D, so i am not going to take a risk at taking them out of the play, and i will give them a chance to make a play every down." If you look at what happend today, 3 ints, a goal line stance, 2 FGs inside the 20, and a tipped pass in the end zone to finish the game, the philosphy worked.
 
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