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Colts Recap: Week 7

Andy

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Andy Walk On

Andy

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Indianapolis Colts 17 vs Cleveland Browns 13

Scoring Summary

1st Quarter

TD A.Luck 3 yd. run (A.Vinatieri kick) (11-80, 7:37)

2nd Quarter

TD G.Little 14 yd. pass from B.Weeden (kick aborted) (16-90, 8:22)

TD A.Luck 5 yd. run (A.Vinatieri kick) (14-76, 6:20)

3rd Quarter

TD J.Gordon 33 yd. pass from B.Weeden (P.Dawson kick) (6-80, 3:07)

FG A.Vinatieri 38 yd. Field Goal (17-61, 8:34)

4th Quarter

No scoring in the 4th quarter

What the Colts did Right

The Colts did more right than wrong this game.

Colts did well on offense and that's because of 2 things: having the ball 11 minutes more than they did and their ability to run a balanced offense.

Well, Andrew Luck had a good mistake free football game. He generally made good decisions, he didn't force the ball more than a few times, and he scrambled very well. It wasn't anything spectacular, but it was far from bad. To add to his performance, he had 2 rushing touchdowns, which goes to show you how athletic he is. When was the last time a Colts quarterback had 2 rushing touchdowns in a game? Has it ever happened? Anyways, Luck had a safe, solid performance.

The running game finally got going today. Vick Ballard had a very solid performance with a couple of very good runs. He seems to be cemented his role as the number 2 running back and is starting to make a push towards the number 1 spot. He runs hard every time he gets the ball and showed good elusiveness today. Delone Carter also had some very nice runs, but his performance wasn't as good as Ballard's.

As for the wide receivers, Reggie Wayne had another good game. Six catches for 73 yards is a respectable solid performance, and his performance included a few solid catches including the first play of the game. Donnie Avery had some nice catches today, one on third down.

The offensive line had some very good moments today. They create a very good pocket for Luck. They also opened up a lot of holes for the running game, which is something I haven't said all year. This is the best performance the O-line has had all year in regards to the running game. Passing game is another story.

On defense, there were some standout performances, but the most important thing is they shut down the running game. They held them to 55 yards total (on 17 rushes), or 42 yards if you exclude the Brandon Weeden 13 yard scramble. This was their best performance this year in regards to stopping the run, and it comes a week after being demolished by Shonn Greene on the ground.

Antoine Bethea had a very good performance. He made some very solid tackles, and made a very huge tackle on the goaline in the first half, to prevent a touchdown. That was huge.

Tom Zbikowski had his first good game of the year. I've given the guy a lot of crap, so it's time to give him some credit. There was one drive where he single handidly made the Browns go 3 and out. He made some nice tackles too, especially one that prevented the Browns from getting a first down.

Vontae Davis also had a very good performance. They barely threw his way and when they did, it was either incomplete or they were tackled right away.

Jerraud Powers did a fine job too. Yes, there was that big touchdown, no one could have covered that. Everything was perfect there. Besides that touchdown, he shut down Josh Gordon. He had a pretty good game.

Also, it's good to see Pat Angerer back on the field. He made some very good tackles today, and seems to be on his way back to his old form.

Finally, I thought that the play calling on offense was very good. They picked the right play the majority of the time, and they had balance throughout the game. They weren't too conservative. Thirty times is ideal for Luck to be throwing the ball. The defensive play calling was pretty good too, but there were some negatives there.

What the Colts did Wrong

The Colts did more right than wrong, but all in all it wasn't a great performance overall. They were picked apart by Brandon Weeden and if it weren't for a Josh Gordon drop, they could have easily lost this game. The pass defense was not very good this game. They made Brandon Weeden look like a very good quarterback, which shouldn't happen.

Andrew Luck played well overall but there were a few throws that got away from him, some throws that could have resulted in very big gains. He overthrew some receivers, but it happened far less than last week.

The offensive line wasn't great in pass protection. Castonzo allowed a sack, Justice allowed a sack and the interior of the line wasn't great. They allowed 3 sacks in all, and they could have been better.

On defense, the D-line didn't produce much pressure, and neither did Freeney or Hughes. They had a couple of moments, but that's it. It's clear that they need Robert Mathis.

As mentioned before, the defensive playcalling was pretty good, but they played too much zone in the 2nd half. I've noticed that in Chuck Pagano's departure, they've played a lot more zone than usual, and we've seen below average quarterabcks picking the Colts D apart.

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YOUR GM Walk On

YOUR GM

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I thought the pass defense lacked today because there was literally no pass rush. Between Freeney over-pursuing every play (as usual) and Hughes being absent for long stretches, it's no wonder our secondary got picked on at times. Mathis is our best pass rusher, by far. His presence was missed today.The one positive from the secondary I saw was Zbi actually had his 1st solid game this year. He was active and made key tackles throughout.

As for the offense, as sharp as we looked in the 1st half, it's clear that the Browns made adjustments and outschemed us in the 2nd half. They probably should've stole this game from us. We can never put a full game together on offense because there are never halftime adjustments that are made. Then, we got conservative and tried to sit on a lead (again) and it almost cost us (...again)

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Smonroe Ring of Honor

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The play where Luck got blasted was the only horrible mistake by the Oline. I know they gave up another sack, but Luck saw that one coming. Powers was flat out beat several times. I think we'll be seeing Davis as our #1 cover guy soon.

My only complaint is that they didn't try to put more pressure on Weeden since Freeney and Hughes weren't much of a factor.

The thing to remember is that these two teams were evenly matched. And the Browns are 1-6.

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Smonroe Ring of Honor

Smonroe

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Those were coverage sacks, would rather see him throw it away but I can live with those rather than a forced INT into tight coverage.

"@pwilson24: Both sacks Luck has taken today are on him. No question. #Colts"

He's not talking about the one where Luck got blasted, but I can see his point on the other two.

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Hans Moleman Walk On

Hans Moleman

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He's not talking about the one where Luck got blasted, but I can see his point on the other two.

The one where Luck got blown up will go against Castonzo on the stat sheet, but it shouldn't. On a designed rollout, getting a piece of the far side end and driving him upfield is all that's generally required - by the time that end could make it all the way down to the other side of the field, the ball's either gone or the QB's out of range. The last thing the QB should do is a 180 in the middle of the rollout because of that backside end coming in pursuit.

The play wasn't going to work anyways, but it shouldn't have ended like that.

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Smonroe Ring of Honor

Smonroe

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The one where Luck got blown up will go against Castonzo on the stat sheet, but it shouldn't. On a designed rollout, getting a piece of the far side end and driving him upfield is all that's generally required - by the time that end could make it all the way down to the other side of the field, the ball's either gone or the QB's out of range. The last thing the QB should do is a 180 in the middle of the rollout because of that backside end coming in pursuit.

The play wasn't going to work anyways, but it shouldn't have ended like that.

I'll have to watch it when I get home. It looked like Castonzo whiffed on him, giving him a free hit.

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Hans Moleman Walk On

Hans Moleman

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I'll have to watch it when I get home. It looked like Castonzo whiffed on him, giving him a free hit.

Ok, I just rewatched it a few times. I made a mistake from when I first saw it live. That wasn't a designed play. Cleveland brought an extra rusher off the edge so Castonzo and the LG each had to pull far to their left to pick up the perimeter because we sent the TE on a route. AC barely gets a piece of him, but the dude gets around the edge by going a little more upfield. By the time the rusher gets around AC, he's 6 yards deep. That's when he pursues Luck, and Luck turns back into him to avoid pressure coming at him off the right side.

Approximate time from snap to monster hit: 3.5-3.7 seconds (yeah, work is that slow that I used the stopwatch on my phone to measure it twice)

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Smonroe Ring of Honor

Smonroe

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Ok, I just rewatched it a few times. I made a mistake from when I first saw it live. That wasn't a designed play. Cleveland brought an extra rusher off the edge so Castonzo and the LG each had to pull far to their left to pick up the perimeter because we sent the TE on a route. AC barely gets a piece of him, but the dude gets around the edge by going a little more upfield. By the time the rusher gets around AC, he's 6 yards deep. That's when he pursues Luck, and Luck turns back into him to avoid pressure coming at him off the right side.

Approximate time from snap to monster hit: 3.5-3.7 seconds (yeah, work is that slow that I used the stopwatch on my phone to measure it twice)

Good job. I was at the game and just remember seeing Castonzo looking like he just waived a jet onto the runway. I'll rewatch it when I get back to Bama. I always rewatch the games we win but have a hard time with the ones we lose. I didn't rewatch too many last year...

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Hans Moleman Walk On

Hans Moleman

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Good job. I was at the game and just remember seeing Castonzo looking like he just waived a jet onto the runway. I'll rewatch it when I get back to Bama. I always rewatch the games we win but have a hard time with the ones we lose. I didn't rewatch too many last year...

I hear you on that one, I'm the same way. I hate rewatching losses. I had a hard enough time watching last year as it happened without replaying it lol.

My final take is that It was a tough angle to take for AC to get there, but it's one he's made before. It looked like he was banking on the rusher taking a steeper angle to Luck than he actually did.

I listed the time because, as a general rule of thumb, I'll give the line a pass if it takes 4 seconds or longer for the rusher to get there. The QB should be able to get rid of the ball by that point under any circumstance. But, even though Luck shouldn't have turned back into the blindside rush and had well over 3 seconds to throw it away, AC didn't catch enough of his man. Other than that, Castonzo played a very strong game today.

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