Looking Back How Lucky Were We?

[Dark Superman]

Since Andrew Luck was drafted back in 2012, no one will argue that the Colts O-line has been a disaster. But looking back from 97'-11' it's crazy how many solid to great offensive lineman we had during those years. Saturday, Glenn, Meadows, Lilja, Pollak, Ijalana, Diem, Demulling, Sciullo, Ugoh, McKinney. Not all of those guys were stars, but mostly all of them played a role here in Indianapolis, or went somewhere else and had success. Now it seems like we can't catch a break when it comes to putting together a legit offensive line. Hopefully, that changes in 2018!

[NannyMcafee]

Ugoh was a bust. 

[chad72]

It all started going downhill once Tarik Glenn retired, and Jake Scott left for the Titans in 2008, and we continued to bust in the draft starting with Ugoh etc.

 

It was not until 2011 till we got Castanzo, a decent OL, who has had his stellar moments. Other than that, from 2008 - 2010 at least, Peyton made up for a lot of OL flaws. On the contrary, our play calling and the play of Luck/other QBs has helped make a mediocre OL look more terrible than it needed to be, IMO.

[LJpalmbeacher2]

Yeah they were solid But a lot of it had to do with Peyton. 

His presnap reads at LOS and lnowing who to throw to at the snap helped very much. He probably along with Saturday helped with OL adjustments too.

I don't think we are seeing that with Luck & Kelley?

[lollygagger8]

Quick releases from the QB will do wonders for an O-Line. 

[Dark Superman]

2 hours ago, NannyMcafee said:

Ugoh was a bust. 

Yeah, I don't know why I put him on there.

[a06cc]

 

1 hour ago, lollygagger8 said:

Quick releases from the QB will do wonders for an O-Line. 

Going to piggyback on what you’ve said. We really didn’t have a great oline during Manning’s run. It was that quick release. The only guy I’ll give credit to is Tarik Glenn. After he left the line fell apart. 

[PuntersArePeopleToo]

55 minutes ago, a06cc said:

 

Going to piggyback on what you’ve said. We really didn’t have a great oline during Manning’s run. It was that quick release. The only guy I’ll give credit to is Tarik Glenn. After he left the line fell apart. 

Well Saturday too. Just in that aspect that he changed lines call while manning did skill positions more frequently

[Four2itus]

I'm still ticked about letting Scott go. 

[Track Guy]

3 hours ago, lollygagger8 said:

Quick releases from the QB will do wonders for an O-Line. 

 

In pass pro maybe, but it won't save our poor run blocking over the past several years (which is I believe the real problem) 

[dgambill]

The OL was solid...not great during the Manning era. That said they often got man handled against Pittsburgh and New England. It wasn't until some rule changes that allowed the WRs to not get mugged that helped speed up Peytons progressions. Combine that with the hurry up and the changes being made at the LOS...we were able to start wearing down teams fronts and that helped our OL. Things kinda came together there in 06...but the OL wasn't exactly dominating teams. I look back at the Pittsburgh game in 05 and watched dominate us giving Peyton nothing to work with....it wasn't an intimidating OL for sure. That said in 06 when it came time to run the last 5 minutes of the clock out in Baltimore and run the ball down the Patriots throats in the AFC Championship game they stepped up. Once again in the SB they played well too....it basically came at a time when all phases of the team did their job....Def, Kicking, OL, running game, Peyton we won it all!

[dgambill]

One thing I think people take for granted is how much an ELITE qb can help make everyone elses jobs easier. Peyton didn't need all pro level OL...and I think we kinda got lazy in taking that for granted and not investing more into those positions. When Andrew came along we had one good OL and 4 nobodies. The result for a young qb was to get them killed. Andrew is not Peyton....he may have more arm talent and be faster bigger stronger and as fabulously smart as he is he still doesn't have that computer type brain for football like Peyton does. Combine that with an offense that was focused on driving the ball down field we needed superior OL play...much better than we've ever had with Peyton. I'm encouraged with how Ballard has handled his duties so far. I think he will get us very competitive in the next couple years. Onwards and Upwards.

[lollygagger8]

47 minutes ago, Track Guy said:

 

In pass pro maybe, but it won't save our poor run blocking over the past several years (which is I believe the real problem) 

 

Telegraphing the run was one of the biggest problems with the offense last year. 

They ran 100% of the time when winning in the 4th quarter unless they were in 11 personnel. 

[Horse Shoe Heaven]

1 hour ago, Four2itus said:

I'm still ticked about letting Scott go. 

YUP

[NorthernBlue]

Injuries have been such a huge part of the problem. I mean, Kelly, Mewhort and Castonzo are all solid. The first two are good but will have injury questions and Castonzo really was inconsistent in 2015-2016. Last year he was able to hold it down well enough.

 

A left side of AC-JM-RK is not bad at all. Just gotta stay healthy. 

[a06cc]

6 hours ago, PuntersArePeopleToo said:

Well Saturday too. Just in that aspect that he changed lines call while manning did skill positions more frequently

I’m going to exclude Jeff. It’s my opinion and I don’t feel he was all that good. His stunt in GB showed it. Granted it was the back end of his career. However Manning with the expectation of Glenn made the oline look good. It was even more evident after Glenn left the line was good without him. 

[BOTT]

7 hours ago, a06cc said:

 

Going to piggyback on what you’ve said. We really didn’t have a great oline during Manning’s run. It was that quick release. The only guy I’ll give credit to is Tarik Glenn. After he left the line fell apart. 

Manning had a quick release, but it has more to do with the design of the offense.

[Alex22]

5 hours ago, a06cc said:

I’m going to exclude Jeff. It’s my opinion and I don’t feel he was all that good. His stunt in GB showed it. Granted it was the back end of his career. However Manning with the expectation of Glenn made the oline look good. It was even more evident after Glenn left the line was good without him. 

 

He was pretty old in GB ....