To Those Who Want A New Coach:

[BIGugly]

What people don't realize is we pretty much have an entirely new coaching staff down the line since our last title..

Tom Moore (O Coordinator)-Gone

Howard Mudd (O Line Coach)-Gone

Gene Hughey (RB's Coach)-Gone

Ron Meeks (D Coordinator) -Gone

Pretty sure we have a new WR coach as well since that season. My point being that to expect us to be exactly the same as we were in 2006 to now is obsurd because well.. we flat out don't have the same team down the line.

Your're kidding, right? We really don't have the same team we had in 2006? Now how did that ever slip by? They really kept that a secret. Well, that changes everything. And I suppose Collins can't do what Manning does either. Wow, gotta rethink the whole thing now.

[Smitto]

You're telling me that this is the personnel he wants around him?

Last year, we had several... several. Players on Ir and injured.

This year. We have one player that could possibly be put on IR. Peyton Manning. All of last year. every single game. We didn't get embarrassed like we did on Sunday. Why is that? Because we don't have Peyton Manning. First, you go and give Caldwell credit for having a winning season last year regardless of our injuries, yet, you won't give him bad credit when we lose one player? why? why does he deserve to have that credit? Last year was all manning. This year. Is going to have to be all Caldwell and to be totally honest with you, in my very humble opinion, he is not up to the challenge. He didn't even field a competitive team on Sunday.

Plus one on that one, caldwell has had it easy. This year will show how good or how bad of a coach he is.

[GatorColts]

I personally can not stand Caldwell. I agree with the people that he seems like a deer caught in headlights. He just seems confused and does not know what to do. He is awful at game managing and calling timeouts. Whenever they show him I notice he is never speaking to whomever he is talking to on his headset, just seems lost in the game. I personally feel that the guys do not like playing for him and he just does not seem like a good motivator at all. I have said it before, can people imagine the D and the team as a whole if someone like Cowher of Gruden was the coach, someone to motivate this team.

[blue bags]

I personally can not stand Caldwell. I agree with the people that he seems like a deer caught in headlights. He just seems confused and does not know what to do. He is awful at game managing and calling timeouts. Whenever they show him I notice he is never speaking to whomever he is talking to on his headset, just seems lost in the game. I personally feel that the guys do not like playing for him and he just does not seem like a good motivator at all. I have said it before, can people imagine the D and the team as a whole if someone like Cowher of Gruden was the coach, someone to motivate this team.

[blue bags]

i agree i spoke my mind on it and was emailed from a so called fan to lighten up that no 1 was serious n the forum comments that wat was said no 1 meant wat a joke.ya i could tell he was a big fan.but true if ur loyal to your team and no football as you and i seem to no.then wat we say do s matter and screw the 1s that dont like it.iam a colt 4 life since 1966.go coltsssssssss.

[BIGugly]

Plus one on that one, caldwell has had it easy. This year will show how good or how bad of a coach he is.

Exactly. If you go back far enough, you will find that BIG said this is his defining year, if he lasts that long. Year one: Dungy's team (ala Gruden). Year two: too many injuries to too many starters. Year three: no Manning, but....we must go on.

[GoDeep]

Exactly. If you go back far enough, you will find that BIG said this is his defining year, if he lasts that long. Year one: Dungy's team (ala Gruden). Year two: too many injuries to too many starters. Year three: no Manning, but....we must go on.

Big is right.

If he can salvage something of a season, he can definitely show his chops.

[Jason_]

Really? Is this true? Honest? Wow what a concept, Had no idea.....

Hmm ok, you make the complaint that Coyer can't interact/communicate with his players from the sidelines and I point out that you simply are not correct. Your response to my reply is a slack-heap of sarcasm. Nice. :wtg:

I wasn't even going to reply at all to your "really? is this true..." post and from this point on I likely won't respond to you unless you can actually have an intelligent football discussion. There's nothing wrong with differing opinions, that's what makes the world interesting. However if you present your opinion and then can offer absolutely nothing to back it up then there's no point in even trying.

[Curveball]

Go stick your head in the sand. It is embarrassing, seriously.

Bravo!

It’s a social phenomenon that success breeds experts amongst the fan base. I remember the Bob Knight years at IU. Whenever the team lost the ‘experts’ could point out exactly what Coach did wrong. It’s the same thing here. Any football fan has to appreciate that Indy has been a top flight organization for more than a decade. The ‘experts’ come with the territory.

[274ridge]

Rob ryan. he would retire the tampa 2 and bring in a good defense. But that would never happen in a million years

[Jason_]

Rob ryan. he would retire the tampa 2 and bring in a good defense. But that would never happen in a million years

you're right about it never happening...he runs a 3-4 defense. They'd have to replace about 90-95% of the defensive players we currently have on the roster.

[fade]

It would be nice if someone would teach the Colts how to cover a onside kick return. How to stop the run. When to call a time out. If Caldwell can do that I will rush to his defense. If not then we need a new coach. PS If he would quit smiling and laughing after the Colts lost in a silly way from his call it would help a whole lot too. I was mad as heck the Colts lost I wasnt freaking smiling and laughing about it.

[LUVTHESHOE]

you're right about it never happening...he runs a 3-4 defense. They'd have to replace about 90-95% of the defensive players we currently have on the roster.

that would be a good start

[GoColts8818]

It would be nice if someone would teach the Colts how to cover a onside kick return. How to stop the run. When to call a time out. If Caldwell can do that I will rush to his defense. If not then we need a new coach. PS If he would quit smiling and laughing after the Colts lost in a silly way from his call it would help a whole lot too. I was mad as heck the Colts lost I wasnt freaking smiling and laughing about it.

So you want a new Special Teams coach? I am okay with that I think we need a new one. Just because Caldwell is the head coach does not make it his job to coach the special teams. If it was we wouldn't have a special teams coach. I will say this though, we've changed both players and the special teams coach in recent years. The production hasn't really changed. So I am not sure how much changing the coach again would change but at the sametime I don't think what we are coaching the guys to do is workig. I think it's more realistic that the salary cap forces you to have holes and the Colts have deciced that special teams and run defense are holes they can have. It's not like they haven't proved they can win with them being suspect.

As for coaching to stop the run first of all that's the d-line coahes job along with the coordinator to come up with a good skeem. Caldwell isn't a defensive caoch so I doubt he has much to do with coaching the defense. Just like Dungy had very little to do with coaching the offense when he was here based on what was reported (including Dungy saying in his own book that he told Peyton Manning he wasn't going to touch the offense implying he would leave was in place in place).

As for calling time outs, clearly that goes on him. Although I do recall a post early in the pre-season where he explained his logic for the time out vs. the Jets and several fans said you know when you think about that it does make some sense. Again I don't think Caldwell is a great coach, I think he's an average coach. I just don't subscribe to the theory that when ever something goes right Caldwell has nothing to do with and yet whenever something goes wrong it's all his fault.

Also the run defense and specail teams have been an issue since Dungy was here. No one was calling for Dungy to be fired because we were winning they were calling for the DC and Special Teams coach to be fired. Now that it's Caldwell and even though we are winning people are useing those issues to say why Caldwell should go. That's a double standard. Frankly I think some fans look at Caldwell to see anything they can to say he has to go. I don't think the Colts look at it that way. If they did he would have been fired by now.

As for his emotions you might be the only person I have ever seen complain that Caldwell showed some. Most people complain because he doesn't show any at all. I highly doubt that Caldwell was happy we lost like you made it seem. I do think Caldwell understands though that it's just a game something I think our fans could be reminded of from time-to-time. No one likes losing I sure as heck don't but you know once the game is over I get over it becuase it has no effect on me in my everyday life. It's a game ment for entertainment. Also before someone tries to pull that card hurting that much more over loss makes no one more of a fan or any better of a fan than me cheering for this team since I was old enough to know what football was does.

People love to cherry pick Caldwell and over look the things he has done well since he's been here. They over look that the first thing he did was get ride of two coaches fans wanted fired for years, that he lead us to a 14-0 start in his rookie season and to a Super Bowl in his first season and that he lead this team to the playoffs in a year that most that suffered the same amount of injuries they had to over come they wouldn't have even been thinking playoffs. He also rallied the team from 6-6 to win the last four games. Again if you are going to give Caldwell all the blame for things going wrong you have to give him credit for when things do go right.

[BillCowher]

Sunday will tell us a lot!

[Jason_]

No one was calling for Dungy to be fired because we were winning they were calling for the DC and Special Teams coach to be fired.

I agree with everything else you said..but to be completely honest, I was calling for Dungy and Meeks to be fired. When I first started watching NFL football I became a fan of the Houston Oilers and Minnesota Vikings...there's a story behind the Oilers but I can't really think of any reason especially why I started following the Vikings, I kind of just did. Mind you this was back in '89/90 seasons and I was 12-13 years old. At the time, Minnesota had a very stout defense and then Dungy came along in '92. All of a sudden he began replacing the bigger, stronger guys and started going with his small but fast philosophy. The tampa 2 hadn't yet been born but he still held to the strong/fast philosophy. As the years went on they kept getting smaller and smaller and every time they made the playoffs (which almost every year Dungy/Dennis Green were there) they would go one and done (similar to the Colts for so long). The Minnesota defense just kept getting run over by power running games of teams like the Cowboys and Giants...who it seemed were the 2 teams the Vikings always had to face in their first game in the playoffs.

Fast forward to when Dungy left Minnesota and took over as HC of the Bucs....I had stopped paying attention to football for a few years due to going to college and other things that were going on in my life. So a lot of what I knew about football during this time was simply what the media reported and there was always talk about how good the Bucs defense was under Dungy. I started getting back into watching football again actually the year that Dungy became the Colts head coach. Initially I was very excited after the success he had in Tampa but as time went on I started seeing things that reminded me of what had happened in Minnesota. I actually wanted Dungy gone the year before the superbowl run. Bringing in Corey Simon and then Booger McFarland gave him a stay of execution for me because I thought maybe he was finally realizing the small but fast defense just doesn't get it done. However after we lost both Simon and McFarland to injury there was never an attempt to replace either one with a similar type of player and they went right back to Reagor and Brock at DT. When that happened I was officially ready to see Dungy and Meeks go.

Sorry for the long bio but yeah....there was a small group of us on the old colts forum that were all for getting rid of Dungy long before he retired though I do agree that the majority loved him.

[Jason_]

that would be a good start

Ok but here's the thing...do you honestly know how long it would take to replace all of the players that we would need to replace in order to switch from a 4-3 to a 3-4? First let's start with the easier part..the secondary. If they decided to run only a 3-4 zone defense then our current secondary would be adequate. If they ever wanted to run any kind of man coverage though they would likely have to at the very least replace Lacey (which I think he needs to be replaced regardless...we don't necessarily have to get rid of him but I think we need a quality #1 CB and then move Powers to #2). Powers, Bethea and Bullitt would probably be fine since it would still be mostly a zone defense, though I also think we need to look at upgrading Bullitt...he's been a serviceable starter but I think we'd be much better finding another safety and keep Bullitt if possible for depth.

Now the LB's. Yeah I don't know that any of our current LB's could play in a 3-4 scheme. I'll admit though that I need to do some more research to have a better understanding of the responsibilities of the DL and LB in a 3-4 scheme as compared to a 4-3. Actually based on some of what I saw of Wheeler in preseason he might be able to fit as an OLB but I can't swear to that. He did look like he could be an effective pass rusher from the OLB position though. I definitely don't see Brackett working in a 3-4 and at this point in his career it wouldn't really benefit him to attempt making the transition...same would be true of Freeney and Mathis and I wanted to make sure to point this out before anyone suggests moving them to OLB in a 3-4. Hughes on the other hand would at least be worth taking a look at as a pass rushing OLB in a 3-4 based on the majority of scouting reports about him prior to the draft.

Now the DL. I don't think any of our current DE's would work in a 3-4. I don't know the difference in requirements between a 3-4 NT and a 4-3 NT so I can't say if Johnson would be able to make the switch to a 3-4 NT or not. Based on their size, we might be able to try Nevis and/or Moala at DE in a 3-4 but absolutely no guarantee it would be effective.

So in all you're looking at having a total of at most 5 out of 7 required starters for the front 7 with no guarantees any of them would work out and there would be no depth whatsoever. It would likely take somewhere between 2-4 years to be able to get an effective 3-4 starting lineup with depth behind them. By that time Manning retires.

On the flip side....we keep the basics of our current scheme but make it more of a standard cover 2 instead of the tampa 2. The defense clearly works with the right personnel and coaching...see Chicago. Instead of having to do a complete overhaul of the roster we instead gradually build upon the improvements that have already been made and during the transition we don't have to worry about our current players learning an entirely new system. Instead we can work on continuing to improve our current players as well as continue bringing in new, better players to replace the ones who just aren't progressing the way we'd like.

People talk about how not going for the perfect season was a spit in the face to Manning...what would you call spending his last 3-4 years in the league doing a complete overhaul of the defense that likely wouldn't start to show signs of being truly effective until his last year or 2? IMO you're basically giving away 2 of his last 3-4 years.

If we were ever going to consider switching to a 3-4 then the best time to do it would be the year Manning retires.

[BIGugly]

Hmm ok, you make the complaint that Coyer can't interact/communicate with his players from the sidelines and I point out that you simply are not correct. Your response to my reply is a slack-heap of sarcasm. Nice. :wtg:

I wasn't even going to reply at all to your "really? is this true..." post and from this point on I likely won't respond to you unless you can actually have an intelligent football discussion. There's nothing wrong with differing opinions, that's what makes the world interesting. However if you present your opinion and then can offer absolutely nothing to back it up then there's no point in even trying.

You cannot coach by wire. It's gotta be up front and personal.

[Jason_]

You cannot coach by wire. It's gotta be up front and personal.

Well that's true....and Coyer is the only coach in the league who coaches from the booth right? Oh wait...he's not. Yeah I'm pretty sure you have already made up your mind to hate the guy. That's fine, that's your opinion but at least have a valid reason for it.

[GoColts8818]

I agree with everything else you said..but to be completely honest, I was calling for Dungy and Meeks to be fired. When I first started watching NFL football I became a fan of the Houston Oilers and Minnesota Vikings...there's a story behind the Oilers but I can't really think of any reason especially why I started following the Vikings, I kind of just did. Mind you this was back in '89/90 seasons and I was 12-13 years old. At the time, Minnesota had a very stout defense and then Dungy came along in '92. All of a sudden he began replacing the bigger, stronger guys and started going with his small but fast philosophy. The tampa 2 hadn't yet been born but he still held to the strong/fast philosophy. As the years went on they kept getting smaller and smaller and every time they made the playoffs (which almost every year Dungy/Dennis Green were there) they would go one and done (similar to the Colts for so long). The Minnesota defense just kept getting run over by power running games of teams like the Cowboys and Giants...who it seemed were the 2 teams the Vikings always had to face in their first game in the playoffs.

Fast forward to when Dungy left Minnesota and took over as HC of the Bucs....I had stopped paying attention to football for a few years due to going to college and other things that were going on in my life. So a lot of what I knew about football during this time was simply what the media reported and there was always talk about how good the Bucs defense was under Dungy. I started getting back into watching football again actually the year that Dungy became the Colts head coach. Initially I was very excited after the success he had in Tampa but as time went on I started seeing things that reminded me of what had happened in Minnesota. I actually wanted Dungy gone the year before the superbowl run. Bringing in Corey Simon and then Booger McFarland gave him a stay of execution for me because I thought maybe he was finally realizing the small but fast defense just doesn't get it done. However after we lost both Simon and McFarland to injury there was never an attempt to replace either one with a similar type of player and they went right back to Reagor and Brock at DT. When that happened I was officially ready to see Dungy and Meeks go.

Sorry for the long bio but yeah....there was a small group of us on the old colts forum that were all for getting rid of Dungy long before he retired though I do agree that the majority loved him.

Which was my point, I probably shouldn't have said no one because no one agrees on everything for example I am sure if I looked hard enough I could find someone who still thinks we should trade Peyton Manning. Still my point was most people were not in favor of firing Dungy when the run defense and special teams were the issue like they are with Caldwell they held Meeks and Purnell responsable for it. It seems odd to me that our fan base gave the head coach who had a back ground coaching defense a pass but is calling for the outster of the coach who has a history of coaching offense because of the defense and special teams.

[Moose Of Woe]

you're right about it never happening...he runs a 3-4 defense. They'd have to replace about 90-95% of the defensive players we currently have on the roster.

You make it seem as if replacing 90-95% of the defensive players we currently have on the roster is a bad thing.

Freeney is getting old but still the most important player on our D. For our (awful) scheme he can't really be replaced at the moment. Considering how gimped the DE position is with holding and whatnot, it adds more reason NOT to build a scheme around your DEs/playing with the lead/pass rush.

Mathis is a solid DE....Powers is a good, albeit undersized, CB. Brackett and Bethea are OK in our current scheme, but it wouldn't take players with a boatload of talent to replace either. Both would have to hit the road in a 3-4 as well.

Johnson and Nevis at DT I'm not really sure about. I'm still not sure where Moala sits either.

If I'm missing any other defensive standouts, please let me know. As far as I can tell the rest are mediocre at best/flat out BAD.

[BIGugly]

Well that's true....and Coyer is the only coach in the league who coaches from the booth right? Oh wait...he's not. Yeah I'm pretty sure you have already made up your mind to hate the guy. That's fine, that's your opinion but at least have a valid reason for it.

Oh, no. Fangio coached from the booth, and we all know what a standout coach he was. I Don't hate the guy, don't even know him. But I see his results, and they stink. Don't even need to know the difference between zone and man. The RESULTS stink. And the bottom line is the bottom line. Now if he shows us sumpin' before he's gone, great, I'll be right there with him, but show me sumpin'. Correctable, I believe is what Caldwell said. But why isn't it done up front instead of corerecting. Everybody in the entire USofA knew without question that the Texans would roll out. Everyone except Coyer and Caldwell. And of course it showed...Sure they adjusted...but why not coach it up before we get there?

[esmort]

So you want a new Special Teams coach? I am okay with that I think we need a new one. Just because Caldwell is the head coach does not make it his job to coach the special teams. If it was we wouldn't have a special teams coach. I will say this though, we've changed both players and the special teams coach in recent years. The production hasn't really changed. So I am not sure how much changing the coach again would change but at the sametime I don't think what we are coaching the guys to do is workig. I think it's more realistic that the salary cap forces you to have holes and the Colts have deciced that special teams and run defense are holes they can have. It's not like they haven't proved they can win with them being suspect.

As for coaching to stop the run first of all that's the d-line coahes job along with the coordinator to come up with a good skeem. Caldwell isn't a defensive caoch so I doubt he has much to do with coaching the defense. Just like Dungy had very little to do with coaching the offense when he was here based on what was reported (including Dungy saying in his own book that he told Peyton Manning he wasn't going to touch the offense implying he would leave was in place in place).

As for calling time outs, clearly that goes on him. Although I do recall a post early in the pre-season where he explained his logic for the time out vs. the Jets and several fans said you know when you think about that it does make some sense. Again I don't think Caldwell is a great coach, I think he's an average coach. I just don't subscribe to the theory that when ever something goes right Caldwell has nothing to do with and yet whenever something goes wrong it's all his fault.

Also the run defense and specail teams have been an issue since Dungy was here. No one was calling for Dungy to be fired because we were winning they were calling for the DC and Special Teams coach to be fired. Now that it's Caldwell and even though we are winning people are useing those issues to say why Caldwell should go. That's a double standard. Frankly I think some fans look at Caldwell to see anything they can to say he has to go. I don't think the Colts look at it that way. If they did he would have been fired by now.

As for his emotions you might be the only person I have ever seen complain that Caldwell showed some. Most people complain because he doesn't show any at all. I highly doubt that Caldwell was happy we lost like you made it seem. I do think Caldwell understands though that it's just a game something I think our fans could be reminded of from time-to-time. No one likes losing I sure as heck don't but you know once the game is over I get over it becuase it has no effect on me in my everyday life. It's a game ment for entertainment. Also before someone tries to pull that card hurting that much more over loss makes no one more of a fan or any better of a fan than me cheering for this team since I was old enough to know what football was does.

People love to cherry pick Caldwell and over look the things he has done well since he's been here. They over look that the first thing he did was get ride of two coaches fans wanted fired for years, that he lead us to a 14-0 start in his rookie season and to a Super Bowl in his first season and that he lead this team to the playoffs in a year that most that suffered the same amount of injuries they had to over come they wouldn't have even been thinking playoffs. He also rallied the team from 6-6 to win the last four games. Again if you are going to give Caldwell all the blame for things going wrong you have to give him credit for when things do go right.

When he first came in and was replacing coaches I was actually psyched about Caldwell, I thought he was going to get in here and shake things up. It turns out all he did was replace mediocre coaches with more mediocre coaches, make questionable decisions, and manage to lose the few decent coaches we did have. I don't blame everything on him and he has done a couple of positive things, but overall he is a below average head coach at best.

[LUVTHESHOE]

You make it seem as if replacing 90-95% of the defensive players we currently have on the roster is a bad thing.

Freeney is getting old but still the most important player on our D. For our (awful) scheme he can't really be replaced at the moment. Considering how gimped the DE position is with holding and whatnot, it adds more reason NOT to build a scheme around your DEs/playing with the lead/pass rush.

Mathis is a solid DE....Powers is a good, albeit undersized, CB. Brackett and Bethea are OK in our current scheme, but it wouldn't take players with a boatload of talent to replace either. Both would have to hit the road in a 3-4 as well.

Johnson and Nevis at DT I'm not really sure about. I'm still not sure where Moala sits either.

If I'm missing any other defensive standouts, please let me know. As far as I can tell the rest are mediocre at best/flat out BAD.

well said!give me the bengals d in the last five years and we have 2 rings by now. people it is not like we would breaking up the beattles.for anyone who does not think this scheme

needs a major overhaul you are just a mindless fan. for 10 years now our defense has prevented us from being the best nfl team of all time. we have manning for 4 more years at best, blow it up now in this one lost season

and make a 4 year run. if we lose 4 games by week 6 every coach should go. cut the dungy cord NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!go colts

[Jason_]

for anyone who does not think this scheme needs a major overhaul you are just a mindless fan.

From the 2002 season to the 2009 season, the Tampa/Cover 2 defense has led to a minimum of 4 superbowl appearances with 2 wins:

Indy 1-1

Tampa 1-0

Chicago 0-1

The apparently beloved 3-4 scheme has led to 5 superbowl appearances...granted they were all wins but look at the teams:

NE 3-0

Pitt 2-0

These 2 teams have been running and perfecting the 3-4 for years. I don't see that as anywhere near proof that one works significantly well over the other.

The biggest difference between Indy and Tampa/Chicago is the type of personnel. While Dungy was here he always kept the undersized players sacrificing strength for speed. Tampa and Chicago don't do that, at least no where near to the same degree. The coaches and front office have systematically been working on replacing all of those undersized players to build a bigger and stronger defense.

So, if I were you I'd try to know what I'm talking about before calling anyone else a "mindless fan".

[Jason_]

for anyone who does not think this scheme needs a major overhaul you are just a mindless fan.

From the 2002 season to the 2009 season, the Tampa/Cover 2 defense has led to a minimum of 4 superbowl appearances with 2 wins:

Indy 1-1

Tampa 1-0

Chicago 0-1

The apparently beloved 3-4 scheme has led to 5 superbowl appearances...granted they were all wins but look at the teams:

NE 3-0

Pitt 2-0

These 2 teams have been running and perfecting the 3-4 for years. I don't see that as anywhere near proof that one works significantly well over the other.

The biggest difference between Indy and Tampa/Chicago is the type of personnel. While Dungy was here he always kept the undersized players sacrificing strength for speed. Tampa and Chicago don't do that, at least no where near to the same degree. The coaches and front office have systematically been working on replacing all of those undersized players to build a bigger and stronger defense.

So, if I were you I'd try to know what I'm talking about before calling anyone else a "mindless fan".

[#Coltsrule]

Anyone who thinks we need to fire the coach is an *. Its one game people and our best player is out so act like you have some sense.

[Jason_]

I'll throw out another suggestion for the hypothetical scenario that we look for new coach or coaches. Perhaps not for the HC position but as DC maybe we should take a look at Monte Kiffin. He was the co-founder of the tampa 2 with Dungy and was the DC of Tampa during the Dungy years. I don't know that he'd be willing to leave his son's staff at USC but considering the potential the Colts could have with a further improved defense I'd find it hard to believe he wouldn't at least take it into consideration.

I was originally not going to suggest him because, like Dungy, he believes in sacrificing strength and size for speed. However the more I thought about it, even the Tampa defense back then was undersized in some positions. I've been comparing the defensive players during Tampa's SB year against our players NOW and there really aren't many differences size wise. I was actually surprised that some of the LB's were smaller than I thought they were. The Tampa defense at that time did actually have some LB's in the 220 lb range but they also had several that were 230-250 as well. I'll post more details on this later.

I think the biggest problem was that when Dungy came here he took the undersized philosophy to a whole new level. The biggest obvious differences are the DT's. Tampa had Booger McFarland and Warren Sapp who were both a little over 300 lbs. During a long period of Dungy's regime he kept trying to go with Montae Reagor (275-280 lbs) and Raheem Brock (270 lbs) at DT. And now we still have one of the leftovers in Eric Foster at 268 lbs who I think can be a very effective player in our defense but not at DT. So after doing this checking out I wouldn't mind taking a look at Monte Kiffin. Even if he's going to keep guys who are somewhat undersized, they won't be undersized to the extreme like Dungy had.

This is assuming however that they decide to stick with the Tampa 2 instead of switching to a more traditional cover 2.

[Portage Coltfans]

by best player not on the field, do you mean some of our most recent 1st round draft picks? Hughes and donald brown? Or A-gonzo? maybe you meant Ugoh and pollack, they kinda count as a first pick. They were all missing from that game, as well as manning.

The steelers went 3-1 without their pro-bowl QB, so why shouldn't we? Oh wait, because we have no real 1st round talent from 2005 up. Face it, our coaches relied on Manning to Win for them. These horrible draft picks are the reason we are a bad team.

you can't win superbowls if your 1st round draft picks are busts the last 6 years.

[Steagles]

Never thought of Kiffin. He would be good, but he won't leave the Trojans.

[doogansquest]

Wow...this thread is still going.

[Portage Coltfans]

Wow...this thread is still going.

obviously, people/fans don't agree with your original comments. how about a follow up

[Jason_]

Never thought of Kiffin. He would be good, but he won't leave the Trojans.

Chances are you're probably right about him not leaving the Trojans....and for about any other team in the league I'd agree. But with the Colts he gets a lot of players that fit the mold of what he had in Tampa, plus considering the state of the team right now and with Manning out it's anyone's guess as to how we'll finish the season. If we finish and wind up drafting towards the beginning or early middle then we could get some serious help for our defense. I think it's something to wait until the end of the season for so that, if we wind up with a rather poor record, we could use the high draft picks as incentive that we can get that much better quality of players. However, this is shaping up to be a pretty talented draft class so even drafting in the late middle to end of the round can still ensure some quality players to bring in. Add that to the fact that, as of now, we're expecting Manning to be back next year with a hopefully greatly improved OL and a very talented offense and I think Kiffin would have to at least give it some strong consideration. Still not saying he'd ultimately take the job but, imo, he'd be crazy to not at least give it some very serious thought.

Or hey, maybe Carolina has a bad year and pulls an Al Davis and fires Ron Rivera after only one year. I'd be all for bringing him in as either DC or give him a shot at head coach. He was the DC for Chicago for several years, including their SB appearance against us. Plus another thing I really like about him is that when he went to San Diego, they were already running a 3-4 and instead of trying to change the entire system, Rivera was the one who adapted and continued coaching them in their 3-4 scheme. Some coaches are intent on running their system no matter what, while others can adapt and learn/run a different system when the talent clearly dictates that as the best option. IMO that shows a great level of adaptability that you don't see very often in coaches.

[natelombardi]

not really caldwell but more of we have no defence and we are so small and weak. like we have no power we play weenie ball on defence and never dictate the tempo

[COLTS7]

VERY WELL SAID, dayum I WISHED I WROTE THAT.

I CANT HELP BUT WONDER WHY FANS OF A TEAM, THAT HAS JUST SET THE RECORD FOR MOST WINS IN A DECADE-EVER, TIED THE RECORD FOR MOST CONSECUTIVE PLAYOFF APPERANCES-EVER AND HAS BEEN TO THE SUPER BOWL TWICE IN THE LAST 5 YEARS, THINK THIS TEAM, DOESNT HAVE A CLUE!!

AWESOME BLOG!! COMPLETLY ACCURATE, WILL IT CHANGE THOSE...............NOT LIKELY

[hawkeyes]

Caldwell can NOT coach !!!!

Oh oh oh oh let me challenge a play where we might gain 2 yards !!! What a waste!

[Ego]

Its Collins we might need to get rid of.. I was a supporter.. but those throws today? From a guy whos played the league as long as he has.. Naw. Thats not exceptable. I understand the learning of the offense might put forward some mistakes.. but those throws, that was pass and catch. Collin looks scared with wide open guys, eyes them down for the DB to see where the ball is goin, then throws it into the coverage.. Todays win shudda been easy.. even for the Collin Colts.

[luvdacolts67]

Go stick your head in the sand. It is embarrassing, seriously.

It has taken Caldwell 3 years to get the personnel around him that he wants, and his franchise player went down. He had a team with the largest IR list in history last year and still managed to get the defense to shore up its holes for 4 games and put us in the playoffs. The same players he had before, working in the same scheme, put it together against the best rushing teams in the NFL and held onto those games for us. Caldwell was a part of that, whether you like it or not. He's done more to coach us to wins while our offense was missing pieces everywhere than his questionable timeouts ever did to lose us games (no, he didn't lose us the Jets game).

While some of you have that cute ability to point out his fewer than a handful of mistakes, most of you just don't like him on principle. You expected a big name, spitting, screaming, loser of a coach who seemed like the sexy pick. You got a relative unknown, position coach getting his shot at the big time. Who cares what his record was at Wake Forest? This isn't Wake Forest, this isn't college football. Bill Belichick had a terrible record with the Cleveland Browns. I guess the Patriots should have dumped him when they had the chance.

Do you really want to bring in a new head coach now? Really? You want to spend 3 more years adjusting the schemes and personnel, all the while watching Manning, Freeney, etc., age without getting another championship as everything shifts to transition mode again? Because that's what will happen. That's what happens everywhere, except in EXTREMELY rare situations. We'd be watching a mess on Sundays while the new coach brings in his guys and changes everything all over again.

"The new coach would just let Peyton do his thing..." Great, so what does he do with our defensive personnel? Build a 3-4? Yeah, that happens overnight. Have them learn an entirely new system and philosophy? If the coach is going to let things run as they are until Peyton's done, else he wins no more championships or even gets a shot at one before retiring, then what difference does it make if it's a big name doing nothing, or Caldwell doing nothing? A screamer or a blinker?

Did we look bad week one? Sure, but so did a lot of other "good" teams. At least we didn't get beat 35-7 with all of our best players on the field. At least we didn't possess one of the deepest, and most balanced rosters in football only to get annihilated 41-7 in our home opener. We could have been responsible for letting a rookie, non-QB throw for over 400 yards against us.

The lockout has had ill effects on everyone; for some, it's worse than others. We're also down the best player to see a football field.

I will close with a dose of harsh medicine that some of us - myself included - need to hear, but will never concede to:

Most of you know nothing about coaching. You have no ability to observe, grade, or recognize it if it were blinking at you all day.

Stop pretending you know better. You don't. Al Davis knows more about running a team than you do.

Stop acting like Irsay and the Polians are just incompetent, stubborn buffoons who are letting it happen out of spite, or pride, or whatever nonsense you've come up with. We've been one of the best and most consistently exceptional organizations for more than 10 years now, and it's not JUST because of Peyton Manning.

This isn't homerism, or a glass-half-full rhetoric. Opinions, emotions, thoughts... wonderful, though sometimes self-betraying traits. That's what the forums are for, right? Some of you just need to stop talking like you know how to fix things. Don't make it sound like you're smart, and they are dumb. If it's an opinion, state it as such. The rest is garbage.

Why dont you go stick your head? Colts made no adjustments at halftime while Clevland did. Coaching staff stinks, your embarasing to me

[John Dee]

Well today was pretty dayum embarrassing. I truly believed this team had enough talent to win games. But, upon further review without Peyton Manning.... . This team is just not real good. They don't tackle, they ignored the backup qb position until far too late, they don't block, they don't have special teams in the return game, They don't keep contain from the DE's, They are just not a very good football team right now.

And all these issues ....... HAVE BEEN ISSUES FOR YEARS.

This team lacks leadership... did you all see the shots of the bench all game long? They knew they were beat at the kickoff.

Caldwell and the front office are trying to be too much like Dungy. Dungy is a HOF coach, Caldwell is a ..... well nevermind.

I'm ready for a change in leadership, not the front office but the coaching staff. Caldwell is NOT a motivator. He is just a nice calm man trying to fill a HOF coaches shoes. Not an easy job and harder without the greatest player in NFL history.

It is time for a change, this team needs new energy..... and a DEFINSIVE MINDED COACH, Fisher or Cowher.

The Colts made their bed, now they have to lay in it.

Teams win games up front on both sides of the ball. And Indy has totally avoided this mindset due to the greatness of number 18.

I would have never believed that one NFL player could be worth so much to a team. But i an convinced Manning is worth at least 14 pts per game to the Colts. And that is a conservative estimate. He has covered up so many "blatant" deficiencies.

Sigh...

this front office has a lot of things to think about in the coming weeks.

[chrisfarley]

sometimes a coach needs to be a little rah-rah and other times he needs to get in some grills, and yet others, being more passive. He doesn't understand that. He is one way all the time, stoic. Does that really give the teammates confidence.