Grades: Week 12 vs Jags

[Superman]

 

Sloppy start, still a decisive victory. I'll take it.

 

Week 11 grades

 

Offense, C+: 72 plays, 389 yards, 24 first downs (9 passing, 12 rushing, 3 from penalty), 9/17 on third down, 1/5 in the red zone(!), 3 turnovers, 23 points; should have had way more production, if not for sloppy play and mistakes

QB: For a QB under a lot of pressure, he made a lot of plays. Also made some mistakes, obviously, including one of the "mental lapses" that the staff supposedly was working on during the bye. Those are completely on him at this point, not the line, not the coaches, just Luck making a silly mistake. And the protection wasn't good, either, but on 2 of the first 3 sacks, he missed a checkdown and a hot receiver who were both wide open. They only blitzed 8 times, and Luck struggled to beat it. There are times where the QB can beat pressure before it has a chance, and he has to do better at that. Of course, the good outweighed the bad. As the game went on, he started gashing the Jags with his legs, which I looove to see. I said a couple weeks ago that he's not as quick as some of the other mobile QBs, but he looked plenty quick on some of those scrambles, and that just puts a ton of pressure on the defense. He also picked their secondary apart, particularly on a perfect out to Fleener, a great deep corner to Hilton through zone coverage (the perfect decision, and a perfect throw), and eventually the TD to Hilton. It's a shame the 300+ streak had to come to an end. If not for the mistakes, this would have been another 400+ yard game, and another 44 point outburst. B, keep sanding down those rough edges

Backs / receivers / tight ends, B:
Running game: Primary backs got 25 carries, plus 2 end arounds for WRs. Nice mix, and it worked effectively. In a game where people are beating up on the offensive line, the backs actually ran well and averaged over 4 yards/carry. Boom showed nice burst and finishing ability, including some broken tackles, but he put the ball on the ground, twice (the second wasn't all his fault). He also missed a couple of lanes. Richardson wasn't as impressive, but had a couple of nice runs, and maybe earned some more goal line carries with the TD run. B, nice production, could have been even better

Passing game: Eligible receivers did a solid job of getting open, working zones, attacking the ball, and finishing plays. Fleener had a "drop" on a pass thrown slightly behind him, but was mostly effective as the lead TE. Nicks only got one target on 17 pass plays, compared to Moncrief with 5 targets (4 completions and a penalty) on 17 pass plays, plus a carry, so the transition is well under way. Nicks can still be a situational weapon, though. Hilton drew a lot of attention, and due to some excellent QBing and route running, he still got open and made plays. People will eventually stop talking about what Hilton can't do, because everything on the list is being crossed off. And then, there was Reggie. I don't know what the problem was, because he got open and got behind the defense a couple of times, but then seemed to struggle to finish the route and make the catch. There were two plays in particularly that would have been big gains, maybe even a long TD, but he came up a half step short. And they weren't overthrows. I don't know what that's about, but he hasn't been the same since the Bengals game. The backs caught the ball well, and probably should have gotten another 3 or 4 targets to beat some pressure. B+, playmakers are emerging, and if the mistakes up front get cleaned up, look out

OL / blocking: I've pointed out that I think Luck has to do a better job of beating pressure, and I think a couple of sacks were his fault, but the line still gave up too much pressure. This has popped up a couple times this year, where the pressure comes in waves for a while. They seemed to settle down in the second half, but Reitz and Thornton were sloppy on the right side. AC got beat for a sack and a couple more pressures (his man actually got 2 sacks, but the first one was after about 4 seconds of protection, and Luck missed an open man). Nixon and Shipley played some snaps, and did pretty good. The run blocking was better, but every negative run play seemed to be caused by a missed block by someone. Some poor play designs and/or presnap recognition led to a couple of bad runs, including Herron's second fumble. Still good execution in the run game at times, but more consistency would be really nice. C, plenty of negative play, but eventually got back on track, including some acceptable run blocking

 

Defense, B+: 54 plays, 194 yards, 11 first downs (5 passing, 6 rushing, 0 from penalty), 3/12 on third down, 0/1 on fourth down, 0/2 in the red zone, 2 turnovers, 3 points (gifted by a TO); pretty well shut down a poor offense, as they should

 
Defensive front: Doesn't seem like the same team. Yeah, the Jags aren't a good team, but the poor execution was cleaned up, we faced big sets effectively, got penetration on run plays, and dragged down ball carriers. There were a few missed tackles, which is still concerning, but Gerhart is a strong runner. Guys like Chapman and Jones held up well, while Hughes and RJF did more than that, busting into the backfield several times. Hughes was particularly disruptive, against the run and the pass. RJF missed some chances for TFLs, but knocked down a pass himself. LBs flowed to the ball carrier better, and finished better, though not as well as they should have. Jackson and Freeman were around the ball all game, and I believe Freeman forced a fumble. In general, there was no running the ball this week; Robinson had one good carry, and was shut down the other 13 times he touched the ball. Pass rush was inconsistent, but was able to get home several times, thanks to some blitzes, which will keep happening as long as the coverage holds up. Freeman was slow to get over the top on a scrape/exchange, allowing Bortles to get up the field on a read option. Just poor recognition, but he handled it better the next time. B, a better offense and QB probably has more success, but the front was plenty active and physical, and didn't really give up anything

 
Pass defense: Overall, a really good coverage game. Nothing was open down the field, period. Good game by Purifoy filling in for Toler, and Butler had a strong game. Davis continues to dominate, plain and simple. Gordy isn't good in coverage, unfortunately, and got beat for the only long gain by the Jags by getting smoked off the line for a slant. With Purifoy playing better, Gordy might get nailed to the bench. LBs and safeties were excellent in coverage, also. Walden shut down the flat nicely for a loss. Even Landry played good coverage in a few snaps, but his impact was much greater as a blitzer, getting to the QB both times he went. On passes going further than 10 yards down the field, Bortles was 1/4 for 13 yards. That's strong, against any team. A-, more than half of their passing yards were on the final drive of the game, 86 out of 146

 

 

Special teams: We have a returner. He had the huge return that was only called back because of a bone-headed penalty by Gordy. But he still blasted through the Jags coverage for yardage whenever he had a chance. Coverage was excellent, with a downed punt at the 1. McAfee was on point, as always, allowing no kickoff returns, and only 3 yards on 2 punt returns. AV added to his streak. Special teams is on fire right now. A

Coaching / playcalling / game management, B:
Pep's first half pass plays seemed to focus on vertical separation, which led to some pressure on the QB. Two of those sacks, Luck had a little time, and no one was open. With Hilton drawing double coverage, it would seem like we'd work the underneath and include hot routes more often to take pressure off the line. We eventually made those adjustments. Some screen plays would be nice, too, but we don't seem to run those well. The run:pass ratio was better. B-, struggled to find a rhythm with play calling, but the turnovers didn't help

Some games they look absolutely dominant, but against struggling offenses, the defensive coaching kind of takes care of itself. Nicely timed blitzes, which has kind of been Manusky's saving grace this year, and that's made possible by good coverage. The strategy against read option is good, but that won't really be tested again this season (hehehe, Griffin is benched, hehehe). B+

Game management was fine. It's always easy against the Jags. Fixed up the mistakes in the second half. B-

 

Game ball: TY Hilton, not only for the big TD, but in recognition of his child's birth. Congrats, TY, and keep it going.

Next up, finally, the Luck vs. Griffin showdown... sike. He's benched. Washington plays better with McCoy, so we'll have to keep up the defensive intensity. They also have a decent pass rush, so our protection will have to be better.

GO COLTS!!!

[TKnight24]

Agreed with most the grades

And definitely gonna have to get after McCoy. Those Texas boys can certainly play :clap: