Can The Coaches Not See It, Linkenbach Is Killing Us

[nitecrawler]

We have a" team built to play defense with a lead". Unless we get the opening kickoff, that will be tough.

Peyton has made our OL "good enough". Collins isn't "built" that way.

Obviously, the Colts defense is much more effective when the Colts have a lead but it was NOT "built to play with a lead". No GM intentionally builds a one dimensional defense that only plays well if their offense can get a large enough lead to make the opposing team's offense 1-dimensional.

I'm sure Polian has been trying (but unfortunately, failing) to build a defense that can perform well regardless of the score

[GoColts8818]

Obviously, the Colts defense is much more effective when the Colts have a lead but it was NOT "built to play with a lead". No GM intentionally builds a one dimensional defense that only plays well if their offense can get a large enough lead to make the opposing team's offense 1-dimensional.

I'm sure Polian has been trying (but unfortunately, failing) to build a defense that can perform well regardless of the score

Polian has said more than once the defense is built to play with a lead which is why they always take the ball when they win a coin toss. The idea is Manning goes down and scores and makes the other team play from behind which gets them out of running the ball and makes them go to the air where Mathis and Freeney can go to work and you play the corners back to guard against deep passes and get turnovers. Clearly that is not exactly working lately. Wait I think the Colts fail to realize is that the rest of the NFL isn't like them and if they get down one score early they don't throw the running game out the window and go to the air like they are down 17 desperatly trying to get back into the game.