Second Half Things I'm Looking For

[OJl]

1. Improved Defense! The first half of the season saw our defense held together by duct tape. Hopefully, Mathis is ok from Sunday. IF, Mathis and Freeney can finally be healthy together, I expect to see some turnovers finally out of this defense. So far, the TOs are sorely lacking because of the lack of a consistent pass rush. Hopefully, Davis can heal up a bit and start making some plays for us at corner. But I am most excited about the Boss Josh Chapman! We haven't had a big time NT who could eat up space in the middle...EVER. If the Boss is back and is as good and as mean as everyone says he is, we will be stopping run games cold and allow Freeney and Mathis to do their thing.

2. Improved Oline Play. Our Oline is patchwork for sure. A lot of the guys who are in there now probably won't be around next year. But anyone who watches football knows that if the Oline can stay healthy and play as a unit for long enough, even one lacking in talent can improve a bit. I think we are seeing some improvement and it shows with the run game's slight improvement. Luck is still under way too much pressure. But the run game is making enough plays to give Luck's playfakes respectability.l

3. Vick Ballard. And to a lesser extent Delone Carter. With the Donald getting injured like he always does, the two youngsters have been given some carries. Vick looks good to me. With a good Oline, Vick could be a star. Carter has the skills to be really good too especially as a change of pace for Vick and a short yardage guy.

4. WRs and TEs. First half of the season was all about Reggie Wayne. Now that the youngsters understand the offense better, I expect them to start making more plays like yesterday. Avery and Hilton need to be more consistent for Luck. Allen has been a stud. But Fleener has been a real disappointment to me. He seems to have very little chemistry with Luck which is surprising. I was expecting Fleener to be a big play TE down the seams like Clark used to be. But instead, Fleener has just been a dump off guy for the most part.

5. Luck. Andrew Luck has been awesome...for a rookie. If he were Manning, Brady or Brees we would be killing him for his completion percentage and his lack of TD throws. I am looking for him to improve on this completion percentage. If he can do that, they will sustain more drives and score more consistently. If the Oline and WR/TEs all improve, I don't think this will be an issue for Luck.

[Warhorse]

I would be very happy with a repeat of the first half of the season. They have way overshot my personal expectations. Not intending to be a thread killer, I am confident there are many that will add to your list. I just see huge accomplishments already and want to invite appreciation into my fan experience rather than more expectations for the rest of this season.

[Captain Americolt]

All I wanna say is... put Ballard behind that o-line Houston has and he will be dominant. Wait.. I think any back would be dominant behind that line..

Also, I think the o-line has played very well these past few weeks. Probably because we had our 5 starters playing together.

[OJl]

Don't get me wrong, I'm totally thrilled with what we've done so far. But I was the guy saying IF we are going to stink, let's really stink bad and get some high draft picks out of it. HOWEVER, if we are gonna be good enough to ruin our draft position, * it! Let's really improve and go do some damage in the playoffs!

[Gavin]

Brown has been injured one time in his career that I remember and he is clearly the better Back if your looking at the numbers and at the end of the day those numbers count most of all, Brown has had 3 less carries but 53 more yards, I like Ballard but he is not close to being a starter he needs to learn the most basic aspect of being a running back and that is hang onto the ball

[throwing BBZ]

Brown would have averaged 1yd per carry yesterday. Those were all hard fought yards gained.

[OJl]

Brown has been injured one time in his career that I remember and he is clearly the better Back if your looking at the numbers and at the end of the day those numbers count most of all, Brown has had 3 less carries but 53 more yards, I like Ballard but he is not close to being a starter he needs to learn the most basic aspect of being a running back and that is hang onto the ball

I think you mis-remember then. He missed like three games his rookie year due to injury then did nothing the rest of the year after a nice start because of injury. In his second year, he missed even more time due to injury. Last year was the first year he played in all 16 games. And LOL Donald Brown is not "clearly" the better back. Maybe it's clear to you but not to most other people. Brown is a nice back up and change of pace RB, but he's not an every game starter. I know he's had some good games this year but it's the truth.

[Gavin]

Brown would have averaged 1yd per carry yesterday. Those were all hard fought yards gained.

But yet he has averaged 4.3 this season going against front 7's like Minnesota, Chicago, Jacksonville in the first meeting and Green Bay, I'd say he would be fine if he was healthy and had the carries

[Gavin]

I think you mis-remember then. He missed like three games his rookie year due to injury then did nothing the rest of the year after a nice start because of injury. In his second year, he missed even more time due to injury. Last year was the first year he played in all 16 games. And LOL Donald Brown is not "clearly" the better back. Maybe it's clear to you but not to most other people. Brown is a nice back up and change of pace RB, but he's not an every game starter. I know he's had some good games this year but it's the truth.

The numbers (and fumbles) speak for themselves

[GoColts8818]

I am looking for four more wins to get us to 9-7 which is very doable. If we just take care of business against of teams we should with the Jags, Titans, Bills and KC we are in good shape.

[Mouthfire]

Brown would have averaged 1yd per carry yesterday. Those were all hard fought yards gained.

Brown had 1 carry for 4 yards in that game, negated by a holding call.

Also, Brown averages more yards after contact than Ballard, even running it down the middle. It's been that way all year, even in Ballard's best games.

[MSColtsFan]

Learn how to win consistantly on the road. There is only one of those wins since late 2010, and with five of eight away from home to end the season, they will need to build on the win against the Titans, and improve upon it to get a couple more to make any playoff run.

[GoColts8818]

Learn how to win consistantly on the road. There is only one of those wins since late 2010, and with five of eight away from home to end the season, they will need to build on the win against the Titans, and improve upon it to get a couple more to make any playoff run.

We'll get a good idea where we are as a road team on Sunday. If we beat the Jags I think we will have turned the corner on the road. Now with that said that doesn't mean I think we are going to become a great road team. Honestly after the Jags game we have three very hard road games for any team to win let alone the Colts. Playing at New England, Detroit, and Houston would be hard for any team in the NFL. The good news is that our other road game is against probably the worst team in the league in KC. So we have three very hard road games left but also two road games against two of the worst teams in the league. If we can win those two we just need to take care of business against the Bills and Titans at home and this team is going to the playoffs regardless of what they do against the Texans at home the last week of the season.

[MSColtsFan]

We'll get a good idea where we are as a road team on Sunday. If we beat the Jags I think we will have turned the corner on the road. Now with that said that doesn't mean I think we are going to become a great road team. Honestly after the Jags game we have three very hard road games for any team to win let alone the Colts. Playing at New England, Detroit, and Houston would be hard for any team in the NFL. The good news is that our other road game is against probably the worst team in the league in KC. So we have three very hard road games left but also two road games against two of the worst teams in the league. If we can win those two we just need to take care of business against the Bills and Titans at home and this team is going to the playoffs regardless of what they do against the Texans at home the last week of the season.

I agree with you. Winning Thursday will do two things in my opionion. Obviously the road win is big. But as important to me, and perhaps a more advanced course for a young team, is beating teams you're supposed to beat. 1-7 teams need to be dispatched. It can be by a late FG, or some ugly tight win, but it should be a win. The Colts are the better team, I hope they work hard enough to prove it on the field.

[John Waylon]

I would like to see improved defense. If we can start getting a takeaway or two per game, it would go a long way IMO.

The offense, in the last 3 weeks, has come along well. Obviously we'd still like to see them improve, but even if they didn't I think we'd be ok, if they can keep their current level of play up.

[BleedBlu8792]

Outside of the Jets game the defense has been pretty good in the 2nd half. I'm guessing its due to adjustments but they have came out and played really well after halftime.

[Stephen]

im looking for luck to throw 17 td passes to break manning rookie record. Luck's qb rating should rise to the 90's by the end of the season and his completion percentage may rise to the 60's. I also expect him to keep the ints to a minimum and pass for over 4,500 yards.

[HungarianColtsFan]

Outside of the Jets game the defense has been pretty good in the 2nd half. I'm guessing its due to adjustments but they have came out and played really well after halftime.

I think our D was pretty decent last Sunday, apart from 2nd quarter (in which they allowed 2 TDs), in second half they made key stops.

I was ripping them in game day thread, mostly for Q2, in second half they've nullified that mishap.

If we can avoid disastrous quarters, allowing numbers of scores...we can very easily be in race for that PO spot even at week 16.

[Gavin]

Right now we are a bit of a Wild Card in terms of you never know what your going to get from our team from week to week, you know they are going to play hard, you know they have talent yet sorely lack talent in some positions, we could go 0-8 the rest of the way or shock everybody and go 8-0.2 Head Coaches within 1 year do to 1 having a life altering event, poorly managed financial situation by the previous regime. Questionable play calling all over the place both offensively and defensively a star WR whos days as a Colt much less a #1 WR were thought to be over. 3 Cast Off O Linemen all three playing together for the first time (although Justice did play with Mcglynn in Philly). Rookies all over the place. Injuries left and right every week. A secondary that has been non existent. Two games from the Division lead with 2 games against the Division leaders left to play. A football team that wont quit when they look across that line of scrimmage and see a team that does have more talent than they do BUT not only not quit but fight and scratch and claw there way to victory, yeah we have a long road ahead, we have taken some knockout shots from day 1 and continue to do so and there will be more ahead. Its almost funny maybe right now we are just hanging around and hanging around maybe waiting for that knockout shot, maybe not. I do know with every game that goes by we are getting a little healthier. coming together just a little bit more. Do we have all the pieces together or even on the team right now? Not even close in some parts of the puzzle. Right now a good analogy in my opinion would be to liken us as a Rocky Balboa type, you can whale away on us time and time again but we still hang around, we are like iron, ya see were not supposed to be able to take the punches we do, Some would maybe even say we are playing with a bunch of nobodies, A bunch of no namers who have no business being where they are at right now and yes in some cases that would be true, alot actually. But whos going to deliver that knockout shot? whos going to be that team to say ok you had your fun but now its over? Texans? probably......Patriots yep you guessed it.....probably......BUT probably NEVER did anything, Right now we are a dangerous team because we keep hanging around and sooner or later if you let someone hang around they build confidence, they grow, they learn, they get better and just sometimes on very rare occasions that little guy wins and not just in the movies......Houston I believe you have Cinderellas glass slipper and she is coming to TAKE it back!

[chrisfarley]

A loss to Jacksonville would set this team back light years. We can't lose, OK, they can't lose I guess I'm not on the team (anymore). But anyway, we must win the Thursday game to gain respect of Chris Collinsworth and many other doubters. GO COLts!!!!!!

[Gavin]

A loss to Jacksonville would set this team back light years. We can't lose, OK, they can't lose I guess I'm not on the team (anymore). But anyway, we must win the Thursday game to gain respect of Chris Collinsworth and many other doubters. GO COLts!!!!!!

Light years? seriously? and why is gaining respect from some 2nd rate(3rd rate?) wide receiver who probably if was able to play today couldnt make our team (more then likely) so important?

[HungarianColtsFan]

A loss to Jacksonville would set this team back light years. We can't lose, OK, they can't lose I guess I'm not on the team (anymore). But anyway, we must win the Thursday game to gain respect of Chris Collinsworth and many other doubters. GO COLts!!!!!!

I wouldn't over dimension TNF. Colts are a rookie team, most of players are rookies or young, first-year Colts. IMO there are no "winnable" or "must win" games for us! Only games road or home. Each game is an other step toward progress.

a loss to Jax would be bad, but won't set us light years back... Jax fooled as so many times...and we are so inconsistent at times (however they don't have MJD). A win would be nice..not for others respect but for our own self-respect!

GO COLTS! SHOW THEM!

[jbaron04]

Brown has been injured one time in his career that I remember and he is clearly the better Back if your looking at the numbers and at the end of the day those numbers count most of all, Brown has had 3 less carries but 53 more yards, I like Ballard but he is not close to being a starter he needs to learn the most basic aspect of being a running back and that is hang onto the ball

Yah that shoulder injury his rookie year

[gbrads_rants]

I think we will see where all of the RBs stand this week...I wouldnt be surprised if we run it down Jax throat all day and hit them with the play action...they have among the worst Run D's in the league