There are a few things I can safely say about yesterday's game:
1. Tim Jennings is terrible. We've been pounding this theme for over a year now. He has had some nice plays, and good games (last week), but most of the time he's been bad. Anyone that doesn't buy that didn't see yesterday's game. Kelvin Hayden's injury may prove as devastating to the Colts as any we've seen, including Freeney and Sanders. I don't say that because Hayden is at that level, but because there's no way to hide a cornerback.
2. I realize that it was windy, but we said several times last week that we didn't think the offense was 'back'. I think that's been proven. There are still a lot of players out, and the whole unit just isn't right.
3. I continuously defend the coaching staff, and frequently feel that fans blame coaches for things that are out of their control. That being said, Dungy and company failed miserably yesterday. The Colts clearly weren't ready to play yesterday from go, and the '4th and 1' exchange of Dungy not going for it and McCarthy doing so altered the game irrevocably. I'd call it a trap game, except at 3-2 the Colts weren't good enough to fall into traps. They did so anyway. I have a feeling this team has a tendency to think of itself as better than it really is, so expect more games where they just fall asleep at the wheel.
4. This is a very average team. There may be reasons for that based on injuries, but at some point that ceases to be a factor that can be considered. Apparently, this is the kind of team that can blow out average teams, and can be blown out by average teams.
It's going to be grind all season long. There are going to be more weeks like this one.
Links:
Don Banks surveys the damage
PK says Dallas Clark is a nice guy
Scouts Inc says it was the penalties
FO spends a lot of time on the officials and talking about what a weird game this was
Monday, October 20, 2008
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7 comments:
See, I'm not sweating this game that much. I know you predicted a sizeable Colts win, but I never felt that good about this game. Rodgers is one of the better qbs we will play all year, and the GB defense is much better than advertised.
You can't make mistakes on the road. And the Colts made so many it is almost unbelievable.
If you look at the remaining schedule, you might be thinking 9-7. I still think they will be better than that.
You're right that 4th and 1 call was the worst one I've seen in the Dungy era. Our defense didn't look solid from the jump so going for it should have been a no-brainer. The way the Packers tried the onside kick and then went for it on their own 40 on fourth down pretty much told me everything I needed to know. They have confidence and swagger and we had neither. I hang this loss on the coaching staff because our offense looked demoralized after Dungy refused to go for it on fourth.
DS,
I think you are dreaming...DZ's #4 is the truth. This team is Average, I don't know how they went from very good to very average in such a short span of time but they have. I think the best this team can now hope for is to get a WC spot, and try to build some momentum, maybe get hot at the right time, a few things go their way, and maybe they could make a run. My gut feeling right now is, that's not going to happen but it's the only hope I have left to hold onto.
NFL games are won and lost in the trenches and minus last weeks' abberation this team has been getting beat in the trenches on both sides of the ball week in and week out.
Can that be turned around?...yes...will it? I don't know. The O-line is more puzzling to me then the def. line.
Jake Scott and Lilja were clearly more important to the O-Line then anyone of us realized and the rookies aren't ready to fully fill those shoes yet. The Ugoh/Johnson situation is absolutely baffling. Diem has taken a serious step backwards, I don't know why. Saturday is playing hurt and it shows.
On defense, losing Johnson and Pitcock were clearly unplannable shots to the gut of this defense. LB play has been spotty at best, though LB play is signficantly affected by DT play(Ray Lewis was a great LB but is made even greater by having great DT's in front of him) so that might exlain some of that.
In the end I have been and continue to be more frustrated with the Offense then the defense. I'm frustrated but not totally without hope. I just want to see some life from this team. We thought we saw it last week, but as you both warned it probably wasn't as rosey as it looked and you were right.
The season could very well hinge on this week's game vs. Tenn. Win and we are still in it. Lose and the South Title is out of the question and odds on a WC spot even start becoming longer.
Having said all that...Go Colts!
I didn't really address the coaching in my comment but they should absolutely share in the blame. From prep to in game decision making they have also not been sharp this year. From top to bottom the Colts have become Average. It's even more frustrating because so many "pundits" predicted it and though they were stupid for doing so it now looks like they were right (fortunately they all looked stupid because they thought the Jags would take the throne and it now looks like it will be the Titans if we can't regain our form).
Did we rehire Jennings? When the obnoxious Pack fan (but I repeat myself) next to me at the game yesterday was giving me crap about all the penalties, I could have sworn we'd fired him once before.
...and when they didn't go for it on 4th and 1, I said, "Shit, Easterbrook's gonna write about that Tuesday."
And it wasn't *that* windy.
I'm not going to write the Colts off until I see them play Jax next week, but I think you're right--they don't realize they're not the 2003 or 2004 Colts anymore.
Did anyone listen to the Bill Polian show this evening?
I'm just wondering if Polian gave what Kramer would call "any conceivable reason for even getting up in the morning."
Besides getting the daily news.
Chris
I blame the coaching staff for a large part of this loss but more so towards the scheme they used in this game. The Pack used a lot of press, man to man coverage. To negate that, the Colts should have used more trips bunch formations. The times I saw them use that formation in the game, we were able to get receivers open and throw the ball down field
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