Friday, October 17, 2008

Notes From last Sunday

No full 18 Plays this week, but now that I've put a deposit on a rental here in Argentina, I'm hopefully just a couple of weeks away from having real internet and TV again. Here's a few notes from our aborted attempt:
  • As good as Mathis was, Freeney was equally amazing. He was a factor from the go, forcing the pick. On several of the turnovers Freeney was in the backfield wreaking havoc. Jennings made a better play tipping the first pick than he did on the ball he actually caught.
  • Freeney and Mathis had several sweet crossing stunts where they looped around and ended up coming from the opposite directions from which they started. This lead to a sweet sack by Mathis to end a Ravens drive in the second quarter.
  • The Marvin TD was classic, right down to the play fake. I half expected to see Edge stone somebody.
  • Bullitt was a force on special teams. AV's kicks had me wanting to check his Wheaties for HGH. He had a cannon working on Sunday.
  • Bethea's pick was the result of a young QB who didn't look off the safety, and great discipline by Bethea not to bite on a pump.
  • CJ was generally bad. He almost ruined Dom's 38 yard run. Ugoh had better get himself figured out, becuase CJ is not a left tackle, running or passing.
  • The long pass to Wayne down to the 1 was as silky as any you'll ever see. Reggie only glances at the last second and barely raises his hands at all as the ball just lightly drops right into his palms. No one but Manning can make that throw. I've never seen it from anyone else.
  • The few passes the Ravens hit for any yardage at all were all against Tim Jennings, who made a couple of nice plays and big hits, but is still not the answer in coverage.
  • The defense was really hitting even into the fourth quarter. Jennings and Jackson both had big hits from the corner slot on the last Ravens drive. That kind of passion was inspiring.
My other thoughts were confirmed. The offense still isn't right, so if you see regression this week, don' t freak out. The big plays were there, but the consistent long unstoppable drives weren't. The line was still poor, and there were lots of missed assignments, but Peyton erased them by being amazing. Confidence is an amazing thing, and his seems to have ramped up.

Links: Phil Richards' piece on 88 is a good read

On this day he really was a Jaddai Master

SI breaks down the Packers/Colts

Simmons is bitter the Colts are back:
Thanks again to the Vikings and Texans -- they could have chopped Indy's head off Jason Voorhees-style, but instead, they just whacked the Colts with a machete a few times, walked away, turned their back and waited for them to get up. Now the Colts are 3-2 and rounding into January form. Meanwhile, I'm supposed to be excited because Tom Brady's reconstructive knee surgeries went well. Damn it all. I might break the record for "Most NBA Games Watched In One Month" in November.

18 comments:

shake'n'bake said...

Did the rest of the line put it together in the second half? When I re-watched the line in through the first half Charlie Johnson was playing at about the same level as the rest of the line. On the 38 yard Dom run it looked like CJ was suppose to get that guy just wide of the play then get downfield. He was either so awful that it didn't even look like he fully took on the first guy or he wasn't suppose to get locked in on that guy.

shake'n'bake said...

or you could say the rest of the line was playing at the same level as Charlie Johnson in the first half, if that's the way you look at it.

Deshawn Zombie said...

I didn't notice any specific improvement. Johnson was given a lot of help throughout the game, and while there were plays he held his own, it seemed that Manning kept an eye on him all the time.

I wasn't impressed. Most of the other line problems looked like missed assignments, but CJ was getting beat.

On the run play, it looked like his man beat him to the spot, but Dom stepped out of his arms, and CJ shoved him down and took off down field (to his credit). The Colts ran right a lot after that, but with little success.

Bob M. said...

Tom Brady is officially a giant pansy copy-cat!!! Second knee surgery to clear out an infection. What's next, Sprint commercials with a fake 'stache?

Proves once and for all who HE thinks is better.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=3648586

Anonymous said...

Didn't Manning have a second operation to clear out an infection in his knee?

Anonymous said...

You guys have a serious complex.

Anonymous said...

Oh, by the way.

Shake:

THAT'S how you represent your home ballpark.

Now all we gotta do is survive 35% of Josh and get the ball to the big southpaw and it's another Philly team whose hopes and dreams we get to destroy.

Bob M. said...

JC,
I saw the headline and literally thought someone was stupid enough to confuse them (Brady? Manning? same thing, right?)--what, a couple days later and another superstar QB's seocnd knee infection story comes out? Too much concidence.
Or so I thought. So yes, I read the article and then decided Brady is being a copycat pantywaist. I have three sons... when one puts on his Colts jersey, the others run upstairs to put on their as well. I figured TB just wanted more media attention like PM has been getting. And I can only listen to that Ryan Parker song so many times a day, so I have to find another outlet for making fun of peole wh oare otherwise un-make-funnable. (hint: if you see his hairline starting to recede high enough to project movies onto hs forehead, you will know he has a serious Peyton fixation.)

shake'n'bake said...

JC: I thought baseball season was over. It's football time.

Bob M. said...

baseball is ALMOST over for JC's crew. (damn, I hope I don't have to eat crow in a couple days for saying this....)

Kravitz has a decent piece on Howard Mudd in the Star today. Damn, he might retire? I will be a glass half-empty guy when he and Moore retire. They're alchemists and have been so steady for PM's whole career.

Jeremy Cohen said...

Bob.....the Germans ALMOST won the war.

Bob M. said...

JC
Not even close. Once the Allies hit the beches of Normandy, there was less than a year left. (Which is freakin amazing, really)

Point taken, though, I seem to recall a certain team from Boston reversing the irreversable a few years ago, and beating Mariano Rivera as part of the deal. That just doesn't happen in the post season, does it? I guess it can.

And talk about complexes, Simmons is airing his for the world to read, like the planet's biggest psychiatric couch.

John said...

Gallo's closing comment on Peyton in his Gunslinger chart is priceless.

Deshawn Zombie said...

Like scores of other, I could never get it to load

Deshawn Zombie said...

No sooner do I type that than it finally loads.

Weird

Anonymous said...

Hey Deshawn, when do you expect eyes in the backfield will be up?

Anonymous said...

Gallo??

Jerry Gallo's dead!

Deshawn Zombie said...

Tomorrow AM. I'm working on it now