Andy's Colts Recap: Colts lose 41-21 to Bears

[Andy]

**Been doing this for a couple of years now. Im going to be adding segments as the weeks go on.**

Chicago 41 vs Indianapolis 21

Scoring Summary

1st Quarter

TD J.Freeman 4 yd. interception return (A.Vinatieri kick)

TD M.Bush 1 yd. run (R.Gould kick) (11-80, 4:04)

2nd Quarter

TD B.Marshall 3 yd. pass from J.Cutler (R.Gould kick) (11-95, 5:52)

FG R.Gould 35 yd. Field Goal (7-46, 4:08)

TD D.Brown 18 yd. run (A.Vinatieri kick) (5-77, 2:15)

TD M.Bush 1 yd. run (R.Gould kick) (8-72, 2:33)

3rd Quarter

TD M.Forte 6 yd. run (R.Gould kick) (4-55, 2:10)

FG R.Gould 26 yd. Field Goal (4-4, 1:44)

4th Quarter

TD D.Avery 4 yd. pass from A.Luck (A.Vinatieri kick) (12-80, 4:52)

TD A.Jeffery 42 yd. pass from J.Cutler (R.Gould kick) (7-80, 4:12)

What the Colts did Right

There were few things that went right for the Colts today.

On offense, Andrew Luck had some great passes to Coby Fleener and Reggie Wayne. Overall, he wasn't good, but he had some good passes. Reggie Wayne may be 33 years old, but he looked 23. He made great catch after great catch. He ended up with 9 catches for 135 yards. The old man's still got it. Coby Fleener also had a nice impact. In college, he was known for his big plays, getting about 18 yards per reception. That role hasn't changed. He made 3 20+ yard catches and ended with 6 catches for 82 yards. Kris Adams had a nice catch. That's about it on offense.

On defense, they started the game really well, but died after the 2nd quarter. Robert Mathis had a really solid game and Hughes had some nice pressures. Jerrell Freeman and Kavell Conner both had very solid games. Freeman had a pick 6 and 5 tackles. Conner had 5 tackles including a couple for losses. Now, for Freeman, a pick 6 sounds like a big deal, but in this case it wasn't. Cutler made a terrible decision and got intercepted inside his own 3 yard line. Still a great play though. Nothing has changed much from Antoine Bethea. He's still the top tackler on the team.

The special teams were very good, the coverages were solid. Kickoff and Punt teams were fantastic. Pat McAfee had a great game.

What the Colts did Wrong

A lot went wrong.

On offense, Andrew Luck made way too many mistakes. He made bad decisions and that's a big reason why he got picked off 3 times. One of those times was not his fault, but the other were his. He underthrew a 40 yard bomb and the other one was into double coverage. He was not good today.

The running game never really got going besides 2 runs. Donald Brown also missed quite a bit of blocks and dropped 2 easy passes that (no joke) a 10 year old kid could have caught. That was awful. Don't think because he had a 18 yard TD, he should get away with all the wrong he did.

But those 2 big negatives happened mainly because of the play of the offensive line. This O-line looked worse than any of the games the Colts played last year, and in the preseason. It collapsed on 75% of the passing plays (maybe more), and failed to create any holes for the running backs. Castonzo was the only bright spot on the line. Satele didn't know some of the plays and that showed on some of the pass plays. Mike McGlynn and Seth Olsen were bad, especially Olsen who looked horrendous. He should even be a backup. Let's hope for a very speedy recovery from Joe Reitz. Then WInston Justice played for a good part of the game on the outside (and did not bad) until he got injured. Linkenbach finished the game and looked absolutely horrible. The O-line needs a lot of help.

On defense, the secondary was picked apart for most of the game. Some blame the scheme, which is part of the blame, but the cornerbacks were to blame too. Justin King was good and bad, mostly bad. He needs to stay consistent and stop taking dumb penalties. Jerraud Powers was beat a lot, but a lot of the time it wasn't on slants. That seems to be his biggest weakness. Cassius Vaughn had a bad game. He didn't play much, but when he did, he didn't impress. Tom Zbikowski wasn't exactly great either.

The players in the box (D-lineman and linebackers) weren't impressive or bad. There were a lot of bad plays and they didn't stop the run, but none of them really stood out in a bad way.

Unfortunately on special teams, Adam Vinatieri missed a pretty easy 37 yard field goal and Lavon Brazill fumbled.

Once they eliminate the mistakes, they'll start make games like this closer.

Most Important Thing they Need to Work On

This is the newest segment of the Colts Recap.

The Colts must work on their protection. The blocking for the running game is one thing, but Andrew Luck is the most important player on this offense, and on this team. Protect him. The protection this week was horrible and was a major reason why Luck had a mediocre game. Once they give him protection, he'll start excelling.

[sfergson727]

Sounds accurate to me....

[coltnorth]

I agree with you for the most part. On offense, better line play would have at least allowed a more balanced attack and taken pressure off Luck. On defense, a better pass rush against a sub par o line would have helped out too. Lots of pressure early, Freeney went down and the rush dissapeared. Not saying Freeney was the only reason but it was at the same time. If we could have given Luck average protection and could have put Cutler under pressure more, it would have be a tighter game.

[deedub75]

Special teams were good initially, then they tapered off a bit in the second half. It's hard to say that these issues can be corrected because that would mean getting rid of some players and getting new ones which we can't right now. I don't know if there's enough coaching up in the world to get this unit to play much better. Fleener's productivety came at the end of the first half when the Bears were playing a prevent defense and leaving the middle of the field open. Didn't see much from Fleener in the second half. Luck played like a rookie QB under duress. Even a seasoned pro would have trouble playing with this o line.