Sunday, October 5, 2008

Texans Live Game Blog

Hey everybody. Huge game, again. Let's win this one.

First Quarter

1.) Peyton and company will start at the 27. Play action to Clark to midfield. Threw it just over a leaping linebacker. Joe falls forward for a gain of four. Big third down and Peyton gets knocked over as the completion to Marvin comes up a yard short. They'll go for it on fourth down. Timeout. You don't punt here, obviously. Unless you are Indiana football coach Bill Lynch. Addai needed only to break the forty, but he gets 6 yards. Shifty move to get to the outside. The Colts need to get out early with 7 points. You know it's true. 3rd and less than one. The run is blown up by an unblocked linebacker who forces Joe to the outside help. This 46 yard field goal attempt by AV has miss written all over it. Nope - cash money. Colts 3 - Texans 0.

2.) Great job of coverage on the kickoff return by Andre Davis. The Texans will start at the 17. Sage Rosenfels is in a QB. Schaub is out with an intestinal infection. Nice stuff of Slaton on both first and second downs. Andre Johnson is about a foot short on his third down reception. Great job of tackling. Brackett, Giordano, and Jackson all hit him at the same time to halt his momentum. Punt.

3.) The Colts will start at the 36 after a short return by Forsett. The run blocking is leaving something to be desired early on. Stuffed on first and second down. Diem got manhandled. Marvin snags a HUGE third down and ten exactly at the sticks. Wow. Dierdorf makes a great comparison between Johnson's third down route and Harrison's. Game of inches. Third and four. The refs mark Gonzalez way short of where he appeared to catch the ball. They are going for it again, wisely. Play action to Reggie for a big time gain of 36. Two feet in baby. First and goal. Addai manages a couple on first down. Santi down to the one. Manning looks great so far and Dungy's gambling is paying off. Big third down - TOUCHDOWN. Joe "Houston" Addai punches it in. Colts 10 - Texans 0.

4.) Good blocking as Davis gets out to the 29 on the kickoff. Quick toss to Andre Johnson for 7. Owen Daniels has 9 for the first. Jackson is way off Andre Johnson and Rosenfels is starting to make it look easy. Rosenfels bootlegs and finds Owen Daniels all alone for 20 yards.

Second Quarter

1.) Texans are at the Indy 23 yard line. Time to tighten up. Or let Green bull you over for 6 yards. First and goal from the ten. The D looks off balance. Green for 3. Interference on Jackson in the end zone. Unfortunate, because there was no way Johnson was catching that ball. Touchdown, Slaton. Poor performance by the D on that particular drive. For my money, that's as bad as they have looked all year. Colts 10 - Texans 7.

2.) Forsett returns the kickoff out past the twenty. He's starting to scare me by doing too much. Rhodes appeared to badly misread that run. Second down - sack. Now this looks more like the 2008 season. Third and 15 and Gonzalez flat drops a brilliant pass from a scrambling Manning. Awful drive. Punt.

3.) Need a turnover. Quickly third and one after two short interior passes. Huge pass to Andre Johnson for 39 yards. Nearly outran everyone. Oh, that's why Marlin Jackson was giving him so much room before. Should have stuck with that strategy, I guess. Third and 9, terrible direct snap to Green. He fell down, so it is hard to tell if that would have worked, but I doubt it. Field goal. Colts 10 - Texans 10.

4.) Forsett to the 29. Mike Hart didn't hold his block long enough. The offensive line has been shaky again this week. This time they are solid as Peyton has 2+ seconds to find Clark at midfield. Addai for two. Need a two for one, if possible. Bullet to Wayne on the slant for 5. Third and 3, wow. Marvin is back, baby. He gets crushed, but snags it in traffic. Wow. First down. False start on Charlie Johnson. Thanks, big guy. Overthrows Marvin to the endzone. Coverage was there, but Marvin was out in front. Addai for three. Third and 12, Peyton underthrows it to Wayne in the endzone. Broken up. We'll be thinking about that play tomorrow. Missed 49 yarder by AV. Not sure that is even worth attempting with a 36 year old. He did hit a 46 yarder, though.

5.) Houston is quickly driving. The second quarter has been all Texans. Two minute warning. Need to hold them to three. Big third and 2 coming up. Timeout. 6 yards to Andre Davis and a first down. We're in serious trouble, folks. Just not enough pressure as Rosenfels finds Johnson to the five. Houston uses its last timeout. Touchdown Andre Johnson. Houston looked like the better team in the first half. 17 unanswered points. 1-3 looks like a distinct possibility. Texans 17 - Colts 10.

6.) Colts start at the 20 with under 30 seconds to play. Play action to Clark for twenty. Timeout. Pick. Well it was worth a shot.

The Colts aren't very good at football right now. The hard part is that there isn't a clear culprit. Both sides of the ball have looked both solid and awful at times. The Offense and Defense haven't bothered to play well at the same time yet. The result is a team that, at this moment, would be doing very well to secure a wild card spot.

Third Quarter

1.) Davis out to the 34. Looked like they had him blown up. Driving again. The Indy D looks overwhelmed by the play of. . . Sage Rosenfels. Hey, uh, guys. Your season is on the line. Make a damn play. DZ points out that this meltdown can't be blamed on being on the field too long. Too drops in a row saves the D's bacon. Freeney gets a little bit of pressure. Hasn't been very much of that today. So so so so so lucky. Punt. Touchback.

2.) The Colts O must make the Texans pay for that failed drive. It didn't look like there was any way they'd get off the field without points scored. Nice screen for nine yards to Clark, blocked by Saturday. 2nd and 1. Well blocked first down run around the left guard by Joe for 8 yards. The Colts need to score a lot in this half. Strange fake end around to Wayne followed by a failed screen to Addai. 12 yards left by Addai to midfield. Charlie Johnson hustling ahead. AAAH. Manning misses again to Harrison. Third time today he's had one of his boys deep and missed him. This one was egregious. Third and 8, delay of game. A good drive is unraveling. Manning under pressure dumps it to Addai who bats it in the air before finally catching it. Punt.

3.) Texans start at the 9. Need a stop. Incomplete. Good pressure. This is huge. 3rd and 1, and Slaton easily picks it up after a hard count throws the Colts off balance. Out to the 40. Where are the turnovers? Not there, but Freeney nearly had one as he strips the QB for a loss of 10. 3rd and 17, and wow. Automatic first down. Just unreal. Defensive Holding on a run. Terrible call. There was nothing there. That, my friends, was probably the play of the season. Offsides. Foster just misses a pick. Couldn't find the ball in the air. That hurts so bad. Third and 6, and a huge conversion. Hilarious. The breaks are not going our way to say the least. Third and 7, and a quick stop. Field Goal. Those three points should never have happened. Twenty unanswered points. Texans 20 - Colts 10.

4.) Forsett runs right into a group of Texans, instead of following his blockers. The Colts need to score points and fast.

Fourth Quarter

1.) I have to admit I'm shell-shocked right now. I can't believe we are going 1 - 3 to start 2008. It is starting to sink in. Must score drive obviously. Wayne for 16. Addai for 3. Another 3. He's squeezing through nothing-holes. Third down and season? Sack. Thanks for playing. Punt. Touchback.

2.) Who do you even point fingers at? Everyone, I think. It's kind of bizarre. 10 points? Sage Rosenfels? I'm glad I'm not on that flight home. I'll let the rest of the game speak for itself.

20 comments:

Anonymous said...

I don't especially like some of the playcalling this year. It seems like opposing defenses always know what's coming next.

Anonymous said...

And right after I say that we execute a beautiful play-action on 4th and 1.

Don't forget that I'm a moron.

Anonymous said...

Colts have always had a basic offense. They don't motion or use lots of different formations. They force the defense to commit so 18 can get in the right call. Then they execute excellent routes, solid timing and pinpoint passes. Unfortunately, this only works when the Colts can provide a minimum of pass pro and put enough quality receivers on the field to insure a workable matchup to exploit. Otherwise, they are just a basic offense without the players to make it work.

stan

Anonymous said...

Well I understand the effect that injuries have had on our style this season, but there's been some real head scratchers. The constant pitching in the Vikings game was useless.

A basic offense is no excuse for running the same play that doesn't work over and over again. We have creative plays, I know, I've seen them. It's the right time to use them.

Anonymous said...

"The constant pitching in the Vikings game was useless."

Our backs had 25 yards on 17 carries and you want more running plays?! That's less than 1.5 a carry.

In general, to argue that a play should have been a run instead of a pass, you have to be able to look at the film, evaluate the defensive alignment (and know the keys for reading, presnap, a run blitz), and judge whether the call was correct. If the defense forces the offense to pass every play, you have to win the game passing. Indy has never had the O-line that can run the ball against a defense loaded to stop the run.

You may remember the year when Jamal Lewis had the great rushing numbers for the Ravens. The last game vs. Pitt, the Steelers put 9 in the box and dared Balt to throw. It didn't matter how well Balt normally ran the ball or how poor their pass game, to try to win the game they had to try to throw. Pitt overwhelmed the run with more tacklers than they could block. That's a good simple example of playcalling reality. When you have an O-line like the Colts, you have to try to take what the defense gives you. If the run isn't there, it isn't there.

And when 17 carries yeilds only 25 yards, I don't know how you argue that they didn't try enough runs.

Stan

Anonymous said...

I know you guys have kinda had the defenses back throughout the first couple of weeks but these couple of drives arent the worse it has been. They have been this bad all along have just gotten some good breaks in that teams have had to settle for field goals, they arent getting off the field, they aren't forcing turnovers, they aren't getting pressure on the qb. It has been the same all year long

Anonymous said...

No, you misunderstand, not more runs, I want us to utilize our run plays more effectively. My problem with the Viking game was that we ran an ineffective toss far more than we should have. We don't seem to be playing to our strengths. Why aren't we throwing more slants? Reggie, for all his dropping on long bombs, has sticky hands on short routes. I get that there are protection problems stemming from injuries and that's fine, but we have to do SOMETHING. I know Dungy is a great guy, and an excellent coach, but that doesn't mean he's incapable of error or criticism.

I acknowledge that watching the games on a shaky internet connection in Asia is not the most effective means of analyzing game footage, but I've still seen enough to be unhappy with some of the playcalls I've seen.

Deshawn Zombie said...

This is bad.

And there's no excuse for it.

Anonymous said...

There is a good example of the defense getting fortune, two catchable balls that they didn't really do anything on that forced the punt..but i will take it.

Anonymous said...

can't see the game because i'm stuck in upstate NY, but any solid sense of what's going wrong?

Deshawn Zombie said...

Now is the time to get off the field.

Deshawn Zombie said...

Demond says, it's a little bit of everything.

The O is just barely off on deep plays (and dropping passes)

The D stops the run and then gives up the pass, then vice versa.

And they just can't buy a break. Freeney gets the sack fumble and it bounces right back to Houston. It's just not going right.

Anonymous said...

only one defense in the league would commit a defensive holding on 3rd and 17 on a run

Deshawn Zombie said...

Houston has not committed one penalty today. The Colts have 5-25.

Ouch

Deshawn Zombie said...

PLAYOFFS? PLAYOFFS?

Anonymous said...

Yikes, not what we needed.

We gotta do something to turn this season around. Any ideas?

Anonymous said...

How bout a couple of solid def tackles, some LBs and some decent offensive linemen?

s

Anonymous said...

I'll get on it.

Anonymous said...

We don't have it on TV. Did Sage really pull a Tom Brady (end of AFC game in 03 season) and try to scramble for the first down only to fumble?

s

Anonymous said...

Uh oh. did we score too fast? almost 2 min left.

s