Colts Recap: Week 5

[Andy]

Indianapolis Colts 30 vs Green Bay Packers 27

Scoring Summary

1st Quarter

TD J.Kuhn 2 yd. run (M.Crosby kick) (6-56, 2:33)

2nd Quarter

TD Ja.Jones 6 yd. pass from A.Rodgers (M.Crosby kick) (8-65, 2:46)

FG A.Vinatieri 24 yd. Field Goal (8-63, 3:09)

TD R.Cobb 31 yd. pass from A.Rodgers (M.Crosby kick) (3-66, 2:00)

3rd Quarter

TD D.Allen 8 yd. pass from A.Luck (A.Vinatieri kick) (5-39, 2:13)

FG A.Vinatieri 50 yd. Field Goal (8-38, 2:26)

TD A.Luck 3 yd. run (pass failed) (6-58, 2:59)

4th Quarter

FG A.Vinatieri 28 yd. Field Goal (8-75, 3:23)

TD Ja.Jones 8 yd. pass from A.Rodgers (pass failed) (2-49, 0:14)

TD R.Wayne 4 yd. pass from A.Luck (D.Brown run) (13-80, 3:55)

What the Colts did Right

The Colts beat the Packers, so all in all it's a great performance.

I said the Colts needed to win the 2nd half, and they did. They outscored the Packers 27-6 in the second half and that's why they won.

On offense, Andrew Luck had the best game of his young career. He made great throw after great throw and scrambled well. He made a gutsy run on third down in the redzone that ended up giving them a touchdown. He outshined the best quarterback in the league.

Donald Brown, who doesn't show up often in the "did right" section, had a fantastic day today. He's overlooked by many today because of the performances from Luck and Wayne, but he was great. He averaged about 5 yards on the ground and when it came to outside runs, he used his underrated speed to get around a lot of the defenders. He had one of the better games of his career. Vick Ballard also had some nice runs when he was in. He made one really nice run where he managed a 7 yard gain, when it could have easily been a 5 yard loss.

Then, there was Reggie Wayne. I don't think any word can describe the performance he had. 13 catches for 212 yards and a touchdown is something you rarely see, and the way he did is even rarely. On Sunday, he made one of the nicest catches I've ever seen from him. He made another catch in double coverage that just looked impossible too. His routes were beyond perfect and he was clutch. His performance was the best of any player in the NFL on Sunday. What a game. TY Hilton had some nice catches too.

Dwayne Allen had a very good game. His blocking was very good and he made some nice catches, one of which ended up in a touchdown. Fleener had a nice game, but it wasn't great. It looks like Allen is slowing rising and Fleener is declining. Could see a switch at the starters spot soon.

Anthony Castonzo and AQ Shipley both deserve praise too. For Castonzo, he was very good for 95% of the game. He had one bad play. Everything else was great. He pretty much stopped Matthews for most of the game and picked up blitzes nicely. He's becoming one of the better young tackles in the league. He's faced Julius Peppers, Jared Allen and Clay Matthews and has allowed one total sack. How many tackles can do that. Now for AQ Shipley, he was rushed into the spot after Satele was unable to go, even though he practiced all week, and had a nice performance. He did well against Raji until Raji got injured and then after that he opened up holes for the running game. He and some of the other guys were the main reason why Brown was so good today.

Cory Redding had another solid game. Actually, it was a great game. He came up big in the end with a sack and continuous pressure, but also made some key tackles on Cedric Benson and Alex Green in the running game. He's turning into one of the better players on this team, and he's also a great leader.

Robert Mathis and Dwight Freeney both had very good games and are major reasons why they contained Rodgers today. On paper, Rodgers looked to have had a big day, but really, it wasn't. They shut him down in the 2nd half, and that's because of the pass pressure. Mathis is having a great start and Freeney had a nice start to his season after having an injury that caused him to miss the last 2 games.

Freeman and Conner had pretty good games. They stopped a lot of the runs to the outside. They seem to be a good combination.

Jerraud Powers had one of the best games of his career. He made a beautiful interception on a pass that many cornerbacks deem "impossible to cover." He also was great in coverage and had a fantastic game covering Jordy Nelson. His tackling was very good too. Cassius Vaughn had a good game too. He had some bad plays, but all in all he was good. He was pretty good in coverage and didn't allow any big plays. His tackling was also good.

Adam Vinatieri had a good game. He made 3 of 4 field goals (missing a 53 yarder) and made a 50 yarder. He's still solid.

The Colts' 2 minute offense is very good. It has been all year and this game was no exception. They always seem to move the ball effectively.

The playcalling today on both sides of the ball was also perfect. I mean perfect, A+ perfect. They kept making the perfect calls that either got them first downs or kept Aaron Rodgers from lauching the ball quickly. There were a lot of plays where he couldn't find anybody and he was forced to outside and wait to find a target. That's exactly what you have to do with Rodgers, because pressure doesn't phaze. You have to get him to force throws and that's what they did.

What the Colts did Wrong

Well, there weren't too many mistakes this game.

For starters, the Colts were outscored 21-3 in the first half. The pass defense was picked apart and the Colts couldn't do anything on offense. That was the first half though, everything turned around in the 2nd.

On offense, Winston Justice didn't have a great game. He was beat a few times by Erik Walden and Matthews and it cost the Colts a few plays. Also, Coby Fleener had a drop that cost a first down, and TY Hilton had 2 drops today. Nothing major on offense.

On defense, Mookie Johnson wasn't great. Tom Zbikowski looked lost. This is his 3rd straight bad game, and maybe getting Joe Lefeged in there isn't a bad move. He better wake up soon.

Patty Mac didn't have a good game today. Usually he bombs it 55+ yards when buried in their zone, but today he barely managed to get to 50. Let's hope it's just one week.

Overall Grade (New Feature): A-

[jvan1973]

I think the biggest mistake of the day was arians challenging a greenbay td. all tds are reviewed.. why he did that baffles me. other than that he had a great day ..

[Gavin]

That and going for it on 4th down so early in the game which put us in bad field position

[Superman]

That and going for it on 4th down so early in the game which put us in bad field position

I loved the 4th down decision. To me, that's something that should be done more often. It's too bad that the defense got marched on after that, but that wasn't really about field position. They put together three great drives in a row, as a matter of fact. I might nitpick with the playcall there, but the decision to go for it makes sense to me. I'd like to see Arians continue to make that decision at that spot on the field.

[NewColtsFan]

I loved the 4th down decision. To me, that's something that should be done more often. It's too bad that the defense got marched on after that, but that wasn't really about field position. They put together three great drives in a row, as a matter of fact. I might nitpick with the playcall there, but the decision to go for it makes sense to me. I'd like to see Arians continue to make that decision at that spot on the field.

Agreed.... and the other call Arians made I liked (it goes against the NFL 'book') is that he went for two late in the 3rd Q after we scored making it 21-19, GB. Billick was saying the NFL thinking was that you don't go for two until the 4th quarter and he applauded Arians for making the call. I did too. Seemed like there was more upside than downside for the call, so I support it even though it didn't work out as hoped.

I think Arians gets good marks all in all for his first game as the HC on an NFL sideline. A nice job. And I would be saying that even if Green Bay had held on to beat us, or had tied it up and beaten us in OT. On balance, a job well done by Arians.