I really like Caldwell, but...

[CincyColtsFan]

The guy seems completely lost out there. Last night against the Bucs, the Colts recover a catch and fumble before the ref blows it dead as an incomplete pass. They have a clear shot of it on replay, 2nd quarter, all 3 timeouts left, CHALLENGE IT!!! ...or stand there like a deer in headlights. Then, down by 7 with 3 minutes left looking at 4th and 5, he sends out the punt team. What is there to gain from that? Best case senario, you force 3 and out, they punt it back and now you have it at the same place you had it before, only now with 2 minutes left and no timeouts. At some point, he's going to have to put down his Coaching 101 textbook, think for himself and and take a gamble now and then. I like Caldwell and wish he was a better coach, but someone either needs to light a fire under him or cut him loose. And as a side note to Larry Coyer, when it's 3rd down THEY'RE THROWING IT OVER THE MIDDLE.

[IndyLady]

HIre Peyton! He's not doing anything.

[ALuck12]

Caldwell is plain and simple not an NFL caliber coach. He should go back to college and coach at Ohio State.

[LUVTHESHOE]

The guy seems completely lost out there. Last night against the Bucs, the Colts recover a catch and fumble before the ref blows it dead as an incomplete pass. They have a clear shot of it on replay, 2nd quarter, all 3 timeouts left, CHALLENGE IT!!! ...or stand there like a deer in headlights. Then, down by 7 with 3 minutes left looking at 4th and 5, he sends out the punt team. What is there to gain from that? Best case senario, you force 3 and out, they punt it back and now you have it at the same place you had it before, only now with 2 minutes left and no timeouts. At some point, he's going to have to put down his Coaching 101 textbook, think for himself and and take a gamble now and then. I like Caldwell and wish he was a better coach, but someone either needs to light a fire under him or cut him loose. And as a side note to Larry Coyer, when it's 3rd down THEY'RE THROWING IT OVER THE MIDDLE.

i dont' like him as a coach dont' know him as a person, but when lee corso could out coach you, ought O. TIMEOUT! could they please release our timeout/challenge coach from his suspension.

[Coltsman1788]

Caldwell leaves much to be desired and we've known this for some time now. So his failing to challenge that play was not surprising. Also Coyer is also horrible and has turned our secondary which was once a team strength into our most glaring weakness. How many times does he have to see his defense get exploited down the middle of the field before he makes an adjustment? It is driving me crazy watching the same crap happen week after week.

Also which one of them is responsible for taking Freeney AND Mathis off the field AT THE SAME TIME?! I understand if this is necessary occasionally but not to this extent! Just take one out and leave the other in and alternate if you must. Teams are waiting for us to do this and then they are taking their free shots down field.

[likm]

The guy seems completely lost out there. Last night against the Bucs, the Colts recover a catch and fumble before the ref blows it dead as an incomplete pass. They have a clear shot of it on replay, 2nd quarter, all 3 timeouts left, CHALLENGE IT!!! ...or stand there like a deer in headlights. Then, down by 7 with 3 minutes left looking at 4th and 5, he sends out the punt team. What is there to gain from that? Best case senario, you force 3 and out, they punt it back and now you have it at the same place you had it before, only now with 2 minutes left and no timeouts. At some point, he's going to have to put down his Coaching 101 textbook, think for himself and and take a gamble now and then. I like Caldwell and wish he was a better coach, but someone either needs to light a fire under him or cut him loose. And as a side note to Larry Coyer, when it's 3rd down THEY'RE THROWING IT OVER THE MIDDLE.

The guy seems completely lost out there. Last night against the Bucs, the Colts recover a catch and fumble before the ref blows it dead as an incomplete pass. They have a clear shot of it on replay, 2nd quarter, all 3 timeouts left, CHALLENGE IT!!! ...or stand there like a deer in headlights. Then, down by 7 with 3 minutes left looking at 4th and 5, he sends out the punt team. What is there to gain from that? Best case senario, you force 3 and out, they punt it back and now you have it at the same place you had it before, only now with 2 minutes left and no timeouts. At some point, he's going to have to put down his Coaching 101 textbook, think for himself and and take a gamble now and then. I like Caldwell and wish he was a better coach, but someone either needs to light a fire under him or cut him loose. And as a side note to Larry Coyer, when it's 3rd down THEY'RE THROWING IT OVER THE MIDDLE.

It was a running joke last night at my house. Third down "throw it over the middle"."First down". PATHETIC

[CincyColtsFan]

And let's not forget accepting the holding penalty that gave them another shot at 3rd down instead of 4th and 3, or punting on 4th and 1 at midfield with 10 minutes left, or standing there bewildered instead of letting the refs hear about it when Freeney was clearly being held on a key 3rd down at the end of the game.

[GoDeep]

I want to see him do SOMETHING.

[Jaric]

I want to see him do SOMETHING.

Me too.

As long as that something is packing his bags and leaving and taking his coaching staff with him.

[wercolts]

Yeah! Players don't bare any of the responsibility. The LB's, with the exception of Angerer, corners and safeties sucked. Garcon drops another, the 3rd string O linemen, a tight end or 2 and the RB's all missed key blocks, and Shankapotomus missed another one. Painter is improving but still had several bad throws and fumbled another one. Has he ever played a game without fumbling?

[Jaric]

Yeah! Players don't bare any of the responsibility. The LB's, with the exception of Angerer, corners and safeties sucked. Garcon drops another, the 3rd string O linemen, a tight end or 2 and the RB's all missed key blocks, and Shankapotomus missed another one. Painter is improving but still had several bad throws and fumbled another one. Has he ever played a game without fumbling?

No one said the players were blameless.

But it's Jim Caldwell's JOB to get them ready to play. He clearly hasn't. That or they just suck in which case Bill Polian needs to be held accountable.

Which he does. It's become pretty clear that our success the past 10ish years was due to Peyton Manning. He goes down and it all falls apart. That's a reflection of our front office.

If the current trend continues, both Polian AND Caldwell need to fall on that grenade and we bring in someone who is committed to building a team that doesn't rely on specific circumstances to achieve competency. If that means the entire team isn't built around Manning, so be it. He'll have to get over that and accept that without help we aren't going to achieve our goals (superbowl)

How long have we heard the same song and dance about the defense? How long have our special teams been embarrasing at best? How long has our offensive line been offensive? How long have we been completely unable to run the ball?

We do one thing consistantly well. We pass the ball when Manning is on the field. That's it. That's not how you build a winner, and it's precisely why we have the nasty habit of losing in the first round the playoffs when we face good teams. Because we are imbalenced and that gets exploited by good teams.

[fthoodcoltsfan]

Yeah! Players don't bare any of the responsibility. The LB's, with the exception of Angerer, corners and safeties sucked. Garcon drops another, the 3rd string O linemen, a tight end or 2 and the RB's all missed key blocks, and Shankapotomus missed another one. Painter is improving but still had several bad throws and fumbled another one. Has he ever played a game without fumbling?

Sure, the players do need to play better, but we were in this game last night. The defense's main problem was all on the coaches last night. Did you see the middle of the field on all those passing downs? There wasn't a defender within 10 yards of the guy catching the ball most of the time, and more often than not he was catching it at the first down marker! This has to be fixed. If it's not the coach's job to fix these problems, then what are they even there for? We either need a new DC or Coyer better start doing something. Anything at all would be an improvement over what I've seen

[GatorColts]

I have voiced my opinion of Caldwell on here in the past, so I will not do it again. But plain and simple, he is not a NFL coach, horrible game manager, awful at calling good constructive timeouts, not a motivator, and just seems lost during the games.

[fthoodcoltsfan]

And let's not forget accepting the holding penalty that gave them another shot at 3rd down instead of 4th and 3, or punting on 4th and 1 at midfield with 10 minutes left, or standing there bewildered instead of letting the refs hear about it when Freeney was clearly being held on a key 3rd down at the end of the game.

Accepting that penalty was my biggest problem with him last night. Obviously I wanted him to challenge that fumble, but it worked out ok, as we ended up scoring after they punted it to us...Although that still doesn't change the fact that Caldwell (and the staff up in the booth) still did absolutely nothing to show that they really want to win a game. I take it back. Even though we did score, I'm very upset that he didn't challenge the fumble. He needs to wake up and start doing something! Of course after the past 2 seasons I guess we shouldn't expect too much.

As for the holding penalty, I couldn't understand that one either. We FINALLY got a stop on 3rd down, and we decided to give them another try? What's the reasoning behind that? I can't remember, were they in field goal range at the time? Did the penalty take them out of it if they were? Otherwise there really is absolutely no reason to take that penalty.

[Superman]

Accepting that penalty was my biggest problem with him last night. Obviously I wanted him to challenge that fumble, but it worked out ok, as we ended up scoring after they punted it to us...Although that still doesn't change the fact that Caldwell (and the staff up in the booth) still did absolutely nothing to show that they really want to win a game. I take it back. Even though we did score, I'm very upset that he didn't challenge the fumble. He needs to wake up and start doing something! Of course after the past 2 seasons I guess we shouldn't expect too much.

As for the holding penalty, I couldn't understand that one either. We FINALLY got a stop on 3rd down, and we decided to give them another try? What's the reasoning behind that? I can't remember, were they in field goal range at the time? Did the penalty take them out of it if they were? Otherwise there really is absolutely no reason to take that penalty.

I disagree on the challenge, but you're absolutely right about the accepted penalty. When your defense gets off the field, let them get off the field.

[Chandler07]

I agree he is not an nfl caliber coach. He never challenges anything, never goes for it on fourth down (when your down 7 pts and only 3 mins left go for it you *!), and never changes anything up it's the same plays over and over. We need a coach that gets excited and lets his players know when he likes what he sees and gets in their faces when they drop balls over and over again or creates costly stupid penalties. And 3rd and inches hand the rock to Carter!