The news that the emotional and mental leader of the Colts defense is out (likely for the rest of the regular season) with a broken leg is crushing news. For a team that has already had to deal with a back breaking run of injuries over the past 14 months, this one is especially painful because the Colts are likely starting something called a Buster Davis instead of a Pro-Bowl caliber MLB who excels in coverage. I'm not going to get into the merits of this seemingly insane move, because I'm sure Tony has his reasons for it. Still, the downgrade from Brackett to a guy who has spent most of the season on the inactive list is huge. Couple this with the loss of Dawson for a couple of weeks, and the future doesn't look bright. The Colts will probably still win these next three games simply because their opponents are among the dregs of the NFL. Still, any hope we had of seeing this team finally get healthy and come together to play at the level we all believe them to be capable seems gone.
If Gary Brackett is truly done for the season, I can't imagine the Colts beating any playoff team. Even Denver. Yes. He's that important. I suppose we might see something truly insane like Bob Sanders playing MLB, with Bullitt on the field for the playoffs if Brackett can't go. I don't think the Colts would try this in the regular season because of the injury risk for Sanders, but in a pinch, it would at least get their best available players on the field all at once.
Yikes.
Demond Sanders: Check out the latest MVP rankings from Bucky Brooks. He's got three of my five, and I certainly can't fault him for having Eli at the top spot. He's got Portis and Peterson on the list, which I understand. They have very similar numbers and they both star for teams with a limited passing game. I'll consider adding them next week, but I'm not totally sold on them yet. Peyton is nowhere to be found, which isn't a surprise. He is going to look a lot better after Sunday.
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
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Based on media reports and the team's non-IR decision (remember Dallas Clark 2 yrs ago?) just relax and takes it as it comes. We should win 3 of the next 4 with or without GB.
Fibulae are reedy little bones, kind of like ribs. The tibia is the main weight-bearing bone in the lower leg. This injury is much better than a ligament/cartilage injury and he'll be 100% for training camp. I heard that it's "cracked" and not "broken," so he may well be 90% by playoffs (knock wood) and since his brains are what we need most out there (which his full mobility taking a slight back seat to his play-calling status), we could be in okay shape for the playoffs.
I think Bullitt's exposure the past two years will pay off big-time this playoff season, whether Bob is out or we play with one of them as a 4th LB, etc.
Anybody else notice that we rushed 3 D linemen a lot of the game on Sunday? (And still got good pressure on the QB) That was a new wrinkle to me--shows us Meeks is working out of the box, and if he's not trying to force things to meet a certain system, we could be okay by taking advantage of the players we have and their abilities.
Have faith... and send Gary some calcium pills, or something.
I get all that. I'm just learning that when it comes to injuries and the Colts, we keep winding up in worst case scenarios. This team cannot make a run without GB. If he's back, then great. If he's not...I just don't think it can happen.
Some weirdness with the LB shuffling.
-Hagler says he's healthy and excited to get more PT Tuesday.
-Dungy announcer Buster Davis will be the MLB this week.
-Hagler misses practice with a knee injury.
Phil B seemed to imply that the Colts are going with Davis as a sort of try-out for next year. He thinks that Hagler won't be back in 2009 so they might as well see if this kid can play, and the Bengals/Detroit are a good testing ground because they'll likely win any way.
Maybe I'm reading too much into it, though.
I agree with Bob that we really need to wait and see on this one for a few reasons:
1. The coaches' ability to find diamonds in the rough and "coach them up" (if I may combine two bad cliches into one super-bad cliche) seems to be a boom/bust prospect. And while it has generally been bust for WRs and DTs, they seem to be better at it when it comes to LBs and DBs. Let's not forget Brackett's background after all.
2. Everything that I've read about Mr. Davis suggests that he just hasn't been in the right system and/or hasn't caught the right breaks. This is probably his 3rd and final chance in the league and you never know. Supposedly he fits the Brackett mold and was a star in college.
3. While I agree that the Colts are notoriously bad about providing info on injuries - the truth hasn't always been bad. See Saturday's and Clark's knees (and 18's knee?).
4. While GB has unquestionably been the emotional leader on the defense in the past, this year we have really seen guys like Mathis, Freeney, and Session step it up in that regard. And there's a certain brain-eating Zombie that is no slouch either. Will they be able to fill his void? Who knows, but let's wait and see.
The overwhelming good news is that we are well situated for the playoffs and have what is as close to 2 bye weeks as we could get right now with Cinci and Detroit up next.
-BP
Footballoutsiders' EPC leads off with Jamey Richard's largely successful job filling in for Saturday.
Er, make that Cover-3, not EPC.
I liked the Cover-3 and as I said there, I THOUGHT Richard did pretty well, especially when I anticipated utter destruction.
In some ways, it makes me glum because the better Richard plays the less likely they are to re-sign Jeff. And the worse Richard plays the less likely they are to make the playoffs or go deep. Sort of a Catch-22,I'd say.
Somewhere this glass is half full or more....
Gut feeling says they keep Saturday. This year has amply demonstrated the need to have depth on the O-line, and you have to hope that Peyton would be willing to rework his deal a bit to keep Jeff around.
I don't imagine any team is going to break the bank on him; if there's such a thing as a system center, I think he'd be perceived as such, but I may just be wildly optimistic.
We had a mini discussion of this before last week's game, but I still can't understand how you could "not fault" Brooks for saying Eli is the MVP. Not only do I fault him, but I completely write him off as a viewer of football. Eli is ascending from below average to slightly above average. He's not in the same league as his brother and not anywhere near the most valuable player on his own team. Any above average QB would be 11-1 with that team and a chump like Frerotte is probably 10-2 or 9-3. I love that he's not screwing up anymore and is showing Peyton's poise, but to call him the MVP of the league is bleeping ridiculous.
He doesn't even have Jenkins in the top 5 defensive players either, which shows what he knows. That entire column is a joke.
My point was not that I expect the worst because I think the Colts are untruthful. I expect the worst because of how many injuries we've had to face.
It's true, this year, we got Saturday back early. But then we lost him again.
1.) Eli is becoming a great quarterback. His team wins a lot. This was a difficult week to rank the MVPs, so I think Eli was sort of a hail mary.
2.) The point of my own exercise is to pick who will win the MVP, not who should win the MVP.
3.) Peyton has 19 TDs and 12 INTs right now. I think Bucky is dead wrong not to include him, but I can't knock him too badly because stats matter. Peyton will be back up there next week.
I'm looking forward to seeing Buster in there at MLB. I love Kieaho but I'm not sold on him at MLB. Better to find out now if Davis can play at this level (and I suspect like with most positions you never really know until you play them in real games...OK Detroit and Cinci are not REAL games but they count so they're close.)
I'm optomistic that Brackett will be back for the POs and hopefully have a then proven (and not totally green) backup behind him.
I do think we'd beat Denver without Brackett even if Buster is a bust. There defense is horrible and their offense isn't really that much better as the year has gone on.
WIthout Saturday, Brackett, and Sanders though we aren't getting much further than that...
I really like Richards but I hope BP finds some OT help in the draft this next year. I'd say that's our #2 priority after DT help. Of course you all know that I've already written off Ugoh as being a long term high quality solution at LT (maybe even RT for that matter), though I don't think it's talent I think it's a "Heart" issue. I could probably never prove it but it seems like he takes plays off or half heartedly at times. You just CAN'T do that at LT in the NFL. It will get your QB killed eventually.
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