Saturday, November 8, 2008

Hide Your Eyes

I was busy moving into my new place today, so Eyes in the Backfield is a little late. Sorry it's such a bleak one this week, folks, but I can't see the Horse winning this game. Honestly, I'll be encouraged if it's even close. Here's a taste:

Last week we came up with a big win. This week, the Horse comes up against a tough team playing at home. The Colts and Steelers haven't met since that awful day in January a couple of years ago. The stakes aren't quite so high when the two teams meet at Heinz Field on Sunday, but it's a big game nonetheless. This week:

1. Watch for Roethlisberger to shoulder the load. He had to leave Monday night's win with a bum wing, and didn't practice all week. He came back to practice today, and will probably start on Sunday. With Willie Parker already out, a gimpy Roethlisberger is going to have tough it up. If he isn't effective, the Colts may well have a chance to win.

2. Watch for total domination. The Steelers are 18-5 against the Colts all time. The Colts franchise hasn't won a game in Pittsburgh since the 60s. This series has been utterly one-sided. The surprising thing is that the teams have only played 23 times. Considering that neither Indianapolis nor Baltimore is that far from Pittsburgh, it's odd the conference rivals have met so infrequently.

As always, if you want more, just click here.

8 comments:

shake'n'bake said...

You thought the Colts would lose to the Ravens by 20 too. I take your total lack of confidence as a good sign.

Deshawn Zombie said...

I hope so. I just can't find any rational reason to expect the Colts to win this game.

Demond Sanders said...

I for one predicted we'd beat the Ravens, but the Ravens are average (at best).

I've seen the Steelers play a couple times this season and they are a good team. Better than the Titans in my opinion.

shake'n'bake said...

apologies if I'm late to the game thread tomorrow but,

Iowa 24, #3 Penn State 23

Demond Sanders said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Demond Sanders said...

I guess this is the easiest way to explain why I think the Colts will lose tomorrow and probably finish 8-8 or 9-7: They are averaging 3.3 yards per carry. Last in the NFL. The Colts average only 70 yards rushing per game.

Both stats are easily the worst of the Dungy era and I'm guessing the Manning era as well.

shake'n'bake said...

Somehow DVOA doesn't hate the Colts run game (13th), while not being particularly high on Joseph or Dom (21st, 16th in DVOA respectively), The big difference in the YPC vs DVOA is probably that the Colts faced 3 of the top 6 run Ds by DVOA and 5 above average run Ds. I guess a Dom-Addai punch is better than a lot of teams two deep at RB to boost their sub-par individual ratings into an above average team rating.

Demond Sanders said...

Last week the Colts managed 47 yards on 21 carries against a team that gives up 105 yards on the ground per game.