Few And Far Between

[everybodysgotone]

So we got our guts stomped out. Everyone deal with it. It's just one contest. Anyone that was a fan pre-Manning ought to have some bark on em. And if you're more of new era fan, better buckle up. There are a couple positives in the midst of the excrement storm:

Forget the fumbles for a minute, Collins wasn't bad throwing the ball with his new team. Lot to learn, short time.

Reggie looked good.

Addai and Carter looked good in limited action including Carter converting a 3rd & 1 with a 3yd run.

The defense played a better 2nd half.

We had some big plays out of our LBs.

It was great to see Dallas Clark catching passes.

We had a lot of penalty setbacks and that ought to improve.

[everybodysgotone]

So we got our guts stomped out. Everyone deal with it. It's just one contest. Anyone that was a fan pre-Manning ought to have some bark on em. And if you're more of new era fan, better buckle up. There are a couple positives in the midst of the excrement storm:

Forget the fumbles for a minute, Collins wasn't bad throwing the ball with his new team. Lot to learn, short time.

Reggie looked good.

Addai and Carter looked good in limited action including Carter converting a 3rd & 1 with a 3yd run.

The defense played a better 2nd half.

We had some big plays out of our LBs.

It was great to see Dallas Clark catching passes.

We had a lot of penalty setbacks and that ought to improve.

[copperrattle]

From what I saw AC looked good

[nburgmei]

This seems like a justified glass half full attitude. If our defense can play like they did in the second half and our offensive line can not entirely suck we should be alright; however, there is a lot of work to do to make the playoffs.

[sfergson727]

Playoffs????????????? You're joking right?

Caldwell and company are not talented enough to get the Colts anywhere near a playoff berth. Can you say toast?

[Malakai432]

Kind of worried about Brackett & Simms now, primarily Simms. Apparently his injury looks pretty bad..

Edit: on another Steelers and Falcons looked horrible as well!! Crazy stuff, lol...

[Colts'n'PacersRock]

So we got our guts stomped out. Everyone deal with it. It's just one contest. Anyone that was a fan pre-Manning ought to have some bark on em. And if you're more of new era fan, better buckle up. There are a couple positives in the midst of the excrement storm:

Forget the fumbles for a minute, Collins wasn't bad throwing the ball with his new team. Lot to learn, short time.

Reggie looked good.

Addai and Carter looked good in limited action including Carter converting a 3rd & 1 with a 3yd run.

The defense played a better 2nd half.

We had some big plays out of our LBs.

It was great to see Dallas Clark catching passes.

We had a lot of penalty setbacks and that ought to improve.

1) Reggie & Dallas did look good, Garcon was his normal self.

2) It was nice to see Collie out there. Almost had that TD...Almost!

3) Carter looked fast!

4) I liked what I saw out of Angerer, Bracker and Conner in the 2nd half.

5) I guess Castonzo did well. i don't recall any bad things happening on his side of the line. (Sacks, etc.)

6) Thank you Jeff Saturday for that fumble recovery!

The guys (both sides of the ball) got their butts handed to them in the 1st half. I was proud of them in the 2nd. There was enough good in the 2nd half to give hope. The defense has a lot of work to do though. I really did expect better from the D.

[21isSuperman]

Keep in mind that these guys beat us pretty badly WITH Manning last year. Give Collins some more practice time to learn the playbook and get his timing down. Give the coaches some time to make adjustments since now they know exactly what kind of team we have. There is still the potential for a division crown

[MoM]

Collins actually had several bad throws, despite what the announcers were saying.

[everybodysgotone]

From what I saw AC looked good

Agree, especially under first NFL game light.

This seems like a justified glass half full attitude. If our defense can play like they did in the second half and our offensive line can not entirely suck we should be alright; however, there is a lot of work to do to make the playoffs.

With Link in there, it's clear the starting o-line rotation shouldn't be considered settled. Need to get it straight so they can gel sooner than later.....whatever that end result is going to be.

As a side - we seem to have the same problems on special teams and run D.

[ColtsPacersfan]

These are the times when the team needs us fans to give them support. Yes, this team will struggle without Manning this year. I do believe once Collins gets into rhythm we will be okay. Its only one game of the season, it won't break us. But we need to give the team much needed support. This year might be a dreadful year who knows we might not go the playoffs who knows? I think we can, I would like to see more games then just this one. See how they perform. But we still need to show our support to them team, throughout this season win or lose.

[nburgmei]

You can't rule the playoffs out this early; we're only one game into the season with a "new" QB. There was a lot of good hidden behind the bad today.

I do agree Collin's had some bad throws, but he could have been worse. I mentioned it in gameday, but I don't understand what the hate on Garcon was today. I saw him drop one pass (the "defenseless receiver" call) and that was good defensive play.

[Smitto]

Kind of worried about Brackett & Simms now, primarily Simms. Apparently his injury looks pretty bad..

Edit: on another Steelers and Falcons looked horrible as well!! Crazy stuff, lol...

i saw sims get injured but he didnt looked like he did sitting on the sideline, as for brackett i would rather see Pat get the start anyway he's a much better tackler and more athletic.

[everybodysgotone]

Collins actually had several bad throws, despite what the announcers were saying.

I've been following this team since 1974 and sometimes watch games with the volume turned off. This was one of those times. Didn't hear a thing after kickoff. When he was on his feet, Collins had a good game under the circumstances.

[coltfaninnewyork]

To say the d was better in the 2nd half is laughable,when your up 34-0 you tend to let down.Because the game was over.

[Blue Horseshoe]

This run defense is horrible. They aren't going to win many games playing like this.

[austriancolt]

well they played better in the Second half because the texans already had the game in their bag with a 34 - 0 lead

[coltfaninnewyork]

This run defense is horrible. They aren't going to win many games playing like this.

Our run d was it's traditional best.

[jwilli69]

The Good

I thought AC looked very solid for a first time NFL game played. I thought Reggie looked great, thought Addai was very good in what we got to see out of him. I thought Kerry looked very solid considering his age and time in this system. I thought Dallas looked exceptioanl doing what he is known for and looking bad at what he doesn't do well, catching=good blocking=bad.

For the bad

The oline as a unit looked bad but got better. I thought Jeff looked old and tired. Link didn't have his name screamed out here for sucking like he did in the preseason. Garcon either didn't get open enough or Collins wasn't looking at him enough.

The Ugly

Our entire special teams from the kicker, punter on up. Absolutely horrible!! The defense did nothing to leave me hopeful that they will become a unit that can stop another team with a above avg offense. Yep, they did have a shut ot in the second quater but honestly, was that because our unit stepped up or did the Texans relax and we look better than we are. 2 things are for certain, either we had the post tick poor play because of the Manning effect and we are better than we are therefore the Texans will be inflating their abilities and come back to earth next game or we are what we are, a very poor team over all. Will see soon. I just know this, from the hype we had from what an improvement we would have in the run D this year and that the play in the preseason in the secondary was vanilla and thats why we had 10 yard cushions again this year, I would say this IS the defense we will have. Continued 10 yard cushions and run defense was scary bad as was the secondary. Coaching is unable to figure out a scheme to cover up any defect in our players ability which is all on coaching. Nothing out of Dwight Freeney (who by the way counts 16 million on the cap) and very litte pressure from the dline today is just unacceptable. Our coaching can't figure out how to defend a boot leg to save their own life. If we started over with a new batch of coaches now, I would venture to say the team would see very little drop off in adapting to a new scheme because the coaching here is that poor IMHO.

[Malakai432]

Our run d was it's traditional best.

Yeah I'm confused as to why they have been struggling to fix this for years now???? Does anyone have a valid explanation, or could it simply be that the defense isn't designed to stop the run, is it intentional, lol.. I'm so confused..

[Blue Horseshoe]

Yeah I'm confused as to why they have been struggling to fix this for years now???? Does anyone have a valid explanation, or could it simply be that the defense isn't designed to stop the run, is it intentional, lol.. I'm so confused..

Defensive tackle play, same as always. Nothing has changed at all.

They were constantly blown off of the ball.

[Smonroe]

...

The Ugly

Our entire special teams from the kicker, punter on up. Absolutely horrible!! The defense did nothing to leave me hopeful that they will become a unit that can stop another team with a above avg offense. Yep, they did have a shut ot in the second quater but honestly, was that because our unit stepped up or did the Texans relax and we look better than we are. 2 things are for certain, either we had the post tick poor play because of the Manning effect and we are better than we are therefore the Texans will be inflating their abilities and come back to earth next game or we are what we are, a very poor team over all. Will see soon. I just know this, from the hype we had from what an improvement we would have in the run D this year and that the play in the preseason in the secondary was vanilla and thats why we had 10 yard cushions again this year, I would say this IS the defense we will have. Continued 10 yard cushions and run defense was scary bad as was the secondary. Coaching is unable to figure out a scheme to cover up any defect in our players ability which is all on coaching. Nothing out of Dwight Freeney (who by the way counts 16 million on the cap) and very litte pressure from the dline today is just unacceptable. Our coaching can't figure out how to defend a boot leg to save their own life. If we started over with a new batch of coaches now, I would venture to say the team would see very little drop off in adapting to a new scheme because the coaching here is that poor IMHO.

I'm glad I'm not the only one constantly complaining about our ST coach. This is his 3rd year, right? Our coverage is constantly out of position on punts, and even worse now on KO's.

I can't think of an argument against your "this IS the defense" line. I also expect to see a lot of other teams rolling out their QB to negate our rush. We best be prepared for more of that from now on.

[Coltswarriors]

I like what I saw from the run game, we looked really good. If we weren't playing catchup the whole game Addai would of had a great game.

[everybodysgotone]

To say the d was better in the 2nd half is laughable,when your up 34-0 you tend to let down.Because the game was over.

Then go start one of the 195 "why we suck" threads I'm sure will show & be consolodated into the collosal why we suck thread. Look - we had some better play on defense the 2nd half regardless of what TX was doing. I understand the game.

Like I said, same old probs on special teams and run D, plus the penalties. If we can mitigate and minimize some of our own damages like this + build on the positives we'll be a lot more competitive. This is what the Colts without it's franchise player looks like. And moving on.............

[IndyTrav]

This 'they did better in the second half' is getting out of hand. The Texans called the dogs off and still gashed us repeatedly with the run. 2 RZ TO kept this game from going into the 50's which is a slight credit to our D but frankly were the type of mistakes that keep Schuab from being an elite QB.

Wayne looked good, and fresh, I hope it stays that way.

I feel Clark is going to be asked to block alot this year. See the MW sack, and thats what we are going to be seeing alot of. Clarks is a WR in a TE body, pressure is going to be intense on any Colts QB this year.

Im just not going to get into the rest. Its terrifyingly long.

[coltfaninnewyork]

Then go start one of the 195 "why we suck" threads I'm sure will show & be consolodated into the collosal why we suck thread. Look - we had some better play on defense the 2nd half regardless of what TX was doing. I understand the game.

Like I said, same old probs on special teams and run D, plus the penalties. If we can mitigate and minimize some of our own damages like this + build on the positives we'll be a lot more competitive. This is what the Colts without it's franchise player looks like. And moving on.............

Whatever dude,tough i will post whatever i please.I see nothing positive.I bet you think custer was competetive at the battle of little bighorn.

[Balzer40]

Yeah I'm confused as to why they have been struggling to fix this for years now???? Does anyone have a valid explanation, or could it simply be that the defense isn't designed to stop the run, is it intentional, lol.. I'm so confused..

They need a run stuffing DT. Thats it. Nobody on our d-line is big enough or strong enough to require a double team from the o-line. They are designed to play a gap, but there never is a gap because our smallish DT's get manhandled every play.

[Gonzo]

To say the d was better in the 2nd half is laughable,when your up 34-0 you tend to let down.Because the game was over.

Agreed. The Texans took their foot off our throats (like they always do) but this time we didn't have Manning to attempt the usual heroics.

Still, lots of blowouts this week. We got caught in a buzzsaw with the Texans this week, lets see if the team can bounce back.

[Blue Horseshoe]

I like what I saw from the run game, we looked really good. If we weren't playing catchup the whole game Addai would of had a great game.

They did look better. I think he is running more decisively this year without doing the hippety hop thing all the time.

[coltfaninnewyork]

Agreed. The Texans took their foot off our throats (like they always do) but this time we didn't have Manning to attempt the usual heroics.

Still, lots of blowouts this week. We got caught in a buzzsaw with the Texans this week, lets see if the team can bounce back.

I did not say the season was over but the d looked real bad.

[jwilli69]

This run defense is horrible. They aren't going to win many games playing like this.

I went ahead and adjusted that for you because last I saw, the pass defense wasn't looking so hot either. NOw both sides have nowhere but up to improve from here so thats my best half full I can give.

[everybodysgotone]

Whatever dude,tough i will post whatever i please.I see nothing positive.I bet you think custer was competetive at the battle of little bighorn.

Congratulations, you earned an extra 15% on top of the 60% reduction rate I normally take on your comments. Hitler was wrong, too.

[coltfaninnewyork]

Congratulations, you earned an extra 15% on top of the 60% reduction rate I normally take on your comments. Hitler was wrong, too.

Congrats on being completely wrong,and any hitler references should have you banned.Furthur congrats on being the only guy who thinks the d performance in the 2nd half was a positive lol

[everybodysgotone]

Congrats on being completely wrong,and any hitler references should have you banned.

If you want to discuss history any further send me a private message and I'll make my position abundantly clear to you.

Otherwise, let's keep it on topic.

edit - to go with your edit, NY. I said the D played better in the 2nd half....which wouldn't have been hard to do compared to the first two quarters. I don't care if it was even a mere sliver, any kind of improved effort out of the lot in the 2nd half was better. I'm not comparing them to the 85 Bears.

[coltfaninnewyork]

If you want to discuss history any further send me a private message and I'll make my position abundantly clear to you.

Otherwise, let's keep it on topic.

I have no desire to pm you or anything otherwise.

[Smonroe]

Congrats on being completely wrong,and any hitler references should have you banned.Furthur congrats on being the only guy who thinks the d performance in the 2nd half was a positive lol

I don't mean to get in the middle of this, but I don't think he was comparing you to Hitler. I took it as meaning some of your statements were obvious, as obvious as saying Hitler was wrong.

I think we're all frustrated, but I hope we're all Colts fans in the long run.

[Korey]

We have to improve from game to game. I am sure that the Colts will due just fine against the Browns this week. The offense will come a live and the defense should show up for the whole game. The run defense has to be better but when you are down 34-0 it is hard to have a great game against the rush.

[MCurtis32]

These are the times when the team needs us fans to give them support. Yes, this team will struggle without Manning this year. I do believe once Collins gets into rhythm we will be okay. Its only one game of the season, it won't break us. But we need to give the team much needed support. This year might be a dreadful year who knows we might not go the playoffs who knows? I think we can, I would like to see more games then just this one. See how they perform. But we still need to show our support to them team, throughout this season win or lose.

What does a bunch of high paid guys need for support? Its either do your job or get out. Do you not pay a small fortune for tickets and jerseys? Should we all run down to the airport and carry thier luggage? I should say its not thier fault tho. No one on this team or any other team chose to play here or any where else. General managers and coaches build teams or like ours, don't.

[coltfaninnewyork]

I don't mean to get in the middle of this, but I don't think he was comparing you to Hitler. I took it as meaning some of your statements were obvious, as obvious as saying Hitler was wrong.

I think we're all frustrated, but I hope we're all Colts fans in the long run.

If my points were obvious than why say the d was a positive in the second half.I will be rooting next week but right now i am really upset,i thought the d would make a statement and pick up the slack.

[everybodysgotone]

I have no desire to pm you or anything otherwise.

Good.