Grades: Week 12 @ Cardinals

[Superman]

 

I waited ten days ... for THAT??? This won't be fun.

 

Alright, enough stalling. Here goes nothin...

 

Box score

Week 11 grades

 

Offense, D+: 55 plays, 239 yards, 15 first downs (9 passing,  rushing, 2 from penalty), 5/13 on third down, 0/2 on fourth down, 1/2 in the red zone, 1 turnover (INT), 11 points; I don't even know if you can call this an offense

 

QB: I don't know how to grade him. He's a really good player, still has a lot to learn about playing NFL quarterback, but everything is there. It's obvious. But we're playing him in a nonsensical offense right now, the passing concepts don't make any sense, the... wait, let me save that for coaching. Bottom line, aside from the stupid pick, Luck was who he always is. Still needs to check down, but our passing schemes don't encourage check downs... There I go again. I'd like to see him tuck it and run sooner and more often. A few overthrows. My complaints about the passing game are mostly with the scheme. C, not impressive, a few mistakes, he's not being put in good positions

 

Backs / receivers / tight ends, D-: I'm gonna break this up more than I usually do. The D- is a composite grade.

 

Running game: The backs did nothing as runners. NOTHING. Not until the game was over and we gave it to Boom, who doubled the 8 carries worth of yardage from Richardson and Brown in 4 carries in garbage time. So yeah, nothing from the running game. And yeah, the blocking was pathetic, but Richardson had some opportunities and failed to bust through the hole, getting tackled from behind by linemen. F

 

Passing game: The receivers aren't getting open. Hilton was covered by their best corner, and he got open a few times, but also got doubled a lot, and no one else offered assistance. Fleener got open a few times, dropped one after getting hit pretty good. But not enough production for nine targets. And in a game where we are completely incapable of running the ball, we only targeted backs on four of our 39 attempts. Again, my frustrations are mostly with the schemes here, but the receivers need to play better. C-

 

OL / blocking: Run blocking isn't really getting any better, but on the 8 meaningful rushing attempts, it wasn't all that bad. I mentioned earlier Richardson having some holes. On one two yard carry, the lead blocker shot through the hole, and Richardson was about two yards behind him. Thornton's man got off the block just in time to catch him from behind. A little more burst and he'd have been out to the second level. So it's not all on the line, but yeah, the run blocking still has to improve. Lots of pressure on the QB, but it was often staggered and late. Luck held onto the ball, no one got open, etc. Plenty of penetration up the middle, but not right away. Picked up some blitzes, others got through. In the second half, when we were throwing basically every play, Luck had time. Just struggled finding open receivers (because there pretty much were no open receivers, especially on third down). Made it look like the line play was worse than it actually was, I thought. But it still wasn't good. D+, there are obvious advantages to being able to run the ball effectively, and this offense simply cannot

Defense, D+: 71 plays, 410 yards, 27 first downs (18 passing, 5 rushing, 4 from penalty), 7/14 on third down, 2/5 in the red zone, 0 turnovers, 33 points; kind of felt like the Chargers game, just kind of got used all game long

 

Defensive front: Pass rush was not consistent. Got there a few times, and pressured the QB, but left a lot of opportunities out there because of failure to close out. Werner was okay closing out; I think the slower rusher that we kept seeing was Andy Studebaker. Either way, against a pretty mediocre offensive line, and a team that's given up a ton of pressures this season, we didn't get enough pressures. The sack total is a little misleading. RJF and Chapman got interior penetration, but sporadically. Not much from Redding. Against the run, we showed ourselves to be susceptible to draws and traps, which is what a good offense does when they want to run against an aggressive front (take notes, Pep; and I'm not an Arians' fan, by the way). Poor tackling against their backs led to a couple long runs, and undisciplined edge play cost us some outside gains; for those who have been complaining about Erik Walden since March, there were at least 7 plays where our OLB didn't pay attention to setting the edge, and it highlights why the team liked Walden. He's not perfect at it, but he's twice as good as every other OLB we have, and would have saved us about 50 yards on Sunday. At one point in the second quarter, Pagano went and chewed out his defensive staff about edge contain. Moala looked awful against the run, and he never looks great, but he just got abused on a couple plays. Our run fits were sloppy, and we didn't tackle well. C

 

Pass defense: Ugh. Just... I can't even... I don't... Just ugh. Seriously. No one can cover. Davis got robbed on an offensive PI that the ref refused to call against Fitzgerald, and it wound up a TD. His coverage wasn't great, but he can't really try to break a pass up while he's being pulled to the ground. Butler got called for a bogus defenseless receiver call. But that's all the defense I can muster for this pass coverage unit. It was just awful. Robert Mathis and Bjoern Werner probably had the best coverage plays of the game. Cassius "Neck Brace" Vaughn (credit to lollygagger, I think) can't cover a scarecrow. Bethea gets burned every week, and pretty much never breaks passes up anymore. The inside linebackers are getting burned, and too often we're allowing them to get crossmatched on wide receivers (I can't blame Angerer for getting beat by Michael Floyd; he shouldn't be on him to begin with). Too many intermediate and long completions, several of them virtually uncontested. Appalling pass defense. D-

 
Special teams: David Reed actually had a solid return. And now he's gone. I won't spend anymore time grading him. No punt returns. AV hit his kick. McAfee punted reasonably well; seemed like he was being overly careful early on, then he started putting some leg into it. Had the blocked kick. Above average outing. B-

Coaching / playcalling, D-:

I've defended Manusky's playcalling for a few weeks now. I can't anymore. The past four weeks, QBs have completed 77 of 115 passes (67%), thrown for 1,133 yards and 8 touchdowns, with zero interceptions. And if I had to approximate, I'd say maybe a total of 12 contested passes. Three of those quarterbacks are backups. We're not getting third down stops. We're giving up big plays. It's starting to look like the Larry Coyer defense in 2010. The run defense has been mostly good, with a few mistakes here and there, but that's not scheme, it's discipline and tackling. What's really bothering me is the pass defense, and it's not just Toler missing. He wasn't playing all that well before he got hurt anyways. We're not contesting passes, and while we get sacks, we're not consistently pressuring quarterbacks. Part of that is hot potato passing schemes, but that's when you contest receivers off the line. Part of me wants to excuse it because our secondary is getting beat like they stole something, but Manusky has to come up with some kind of adjustment that stops this dreadful pass defense and puts his players in position to make plays. This is why we went through a two month turnover drought last season, and if not for a couple of fluke fumbles, we'd be a month into another streak right now. C-

 

The staff spent the offseason talking about the No Coast Offense, and that's proving to be true. Hamilton's offense has no identity, and no heart. It's like all the worst parts of the Wizard of Oz characters. I can't understand why we're sending substandard route runners 10+ yards down the field on every third down pass play, with a late dumpoff on the backside. Give your QB a hot man when the defense is blitzing. Call some simple screen passes. Believe in yards after catch; just get the ball into the quick playmakers' hands. Let your QB push the tempo, which he's damn good at. If you want to pretend you're a vertical passing offense, then go ahead and take some shots. You can't run a Frankenstein offense for four months in the NFL and expect to grow or be productive, especially when you've lost four of your six best playmakers on offense. I understand wanting to be able to run, but throw a draw or trap play in there, which makes things a little easier on your pathetic offensive line, and it keeps the pass rushers honest. I seriously think our coaches are ignoring some basic principles of balanced NFL offensive gameplanning. D

 

Pagano is getting criticized because his team was been outscored 93-12 in the first half in the month of November. That's undeniably on coaching and game prep, and on both sides of the ball. No panic here, but the Texans game was a fluke with the special teams mistakes and coverage mistakes, the Rams game was a fluke with the same mistake, the Titans game was sloppy but was on Thursday night... No weak excuses for this one, not after coming off a long week and spending that entire week talking about not getting down early. And now it's been a month of substandard play. You're lucky to have gone 2-2. Now get control of your team, and get back to building the monster. Don't let the monster destroy you. I was annoyed with not calling a timeout at the end of the second quarter again (he did the same thing against the Rams, and I was annoyed then), but then the pass defense failed on third and long, and I realized it didn't matter this time. We weren't going to win this game. I still believe in Pagano, but I need more "Let's Hunt" out of his team in December than we saw in November. F

 

I don't see any room for game balls.

 

(Honorable Mention: Robert Mathis set the NFL record for strip sacks on Sunday, with 40. The previous record holder was Jason Taylor, who had 39 strip sacks in 233 games. Mathis set the new record in only 158 games. He's also 1.5 sacks off Dwight Freeney's single season franchise record of 16 sacks, and Freeney's career franchise record of 107.5 sacks. I'm thinking Tennessee would like to see Mathis set those records in person this Sunday.)

 

Go Colts? Absolutely!

 

GO COLTS!!!

Edited November 27, 2013 by Superman

[Dustin]

QB: C

 

WR/RB/TE: D

 

Oline: LOL

 

Defense: 

 

Front: D

 

Pass defense: F

 

ST: C

 

Coaching: F- 

 

Game Ball:

 

Mike McGlynn. None of this could have been possible without you.

[Gabriel Alexander Morillo]

Ummm I'd like to buy a Z please.

[BrentMc11]

 

I waited ten days ... for THAT??? This won't be fun.

 

Not ready to post grades yet, but if anyone else wants to share their thoughts beforehand, feel free:

 

Box score

Week 11 grades

 

Offense: 55 plays, 239 yards, 15 first downs (9 passing,  rushing, 2 from penalty), 5/13 on third down, 0/2 on fourth down, 1/2 in the red zone, 1 turnover (INT), 11 points

 

QB:

Backs / receivers / tight ends: 

OL / blocking: 

 

Defense: 71 plays, 410 yards, 27 first downs (18 passing, 5 rushing, 4 from penalty), 7/14 on third down, 2/5 in the red zone, 0 turnovers, 33 points

 

Defensive front: 

Pass defense: 

 

Special teams: 

Coaching / playcalling:

 

I don't see any room for game balls.

Me either on the game balls....or even the Colts.com "Newcomer of the week.  

 

Brazill and RJF in a 44-11 debacle??  

[BrentMc11]

QB: C

 

WR/RB/TE: D

 

Oline: LOL

 

Defense: 

 

Front: D

 

Pass defense: F

 

ST: C

 

Coaching: F- 

 

Game Ball:

 

Mike McGlynn. None of this could have been possible without you.

Bob Kravitz is that you?  

[lollygagger8]

QB: C...Luck missed alot of underneath throws because he kept looking for the long ball. He held the ball a lot longer than he should've many times. He did escape the pressure mulitple times somehow, so that's why a C was given. 

 

Backs / receivers / tight ends: C DHB actually caught a few balls some how.....oh ya, he jumped. 

 

OL / blocking: D-, or an F Satele is the worst Center in the NFL.....and the coaching staff refuses to believe it.....poor Luck 

 

Defensive front: C- RJF played well, but his dance was assanine. Against one of the worst O-Lines in the league, we should've had more sacks though. 

 

Pass defense: F Cassius "neck brace" Vaughn can't turn his head, and the late tomahawk swipe AFTER he lets his receiver catch the ball is disgusting to watch. Davis again is playing like garbage. Bethea and Landry didn't help at all. 

 
Special teams: ??? Where do I start? Reed gets an F just for having a uniform on. Why not start Rainey!?? Just tell him run left, center, or right...not that hard. McAfee isn't punting up to his usual standards. I don't know what to give them for last week's performance. 

Coaching / playcalling: F- Pagano again had no clue how to get the guys prepared, and didn't have an answer. Manusky kept going to prevent defense all game on 3rd down instead of sending the house and we paid the price every single time. Pep thinks every player is interchangeable and no idea how to play to each player's strengths. He keeps calling up the middle runs with Richardson. They gave Brown THREE carries because they refuse to accept Richardson isn't the hot hand, even though Pagano said to play the hot hand last week. This game hurt to watch. BAD. 

[BrentMc11]

 

QB: C...Luck missed alot of underneath throws because he kept looking for the long ball. He held the ball a lot longer than he should've many times. He did escape the pressure mulitple times somehow, so that's why a C was given. 

 

Backs / receivers / tight ends: C DHB actually caught a few balls some how.....oh ya, he jumped. 

 

OL / blocking: D-, or an F Satele is the worst Center in the NFL.....and the coaching staff refuses to believe it.....poor Luck 

 

Defensive front: C- RJF played well, but his dance was assanine. Against one of the worst O-Lines in the league, we should've had more sacks though. 

 

Pass defense: F Cassius "neck brace" Vaughn can't turn his head, and the late tomahawk swipe AFTER he lets his receiver catch the ball is disgusting to watch. Davis again is playing like garbage. Bethea and Landry didn't help at all. 

 

Special teams: ??? Where do I start? Reed gets an F just for having a uniform on. Why not start Rainey!?? Just tell him run left, center, or right...not that hard. McAfee isn't punting up to his usual standards. I don't know what to give them for last week's performance. 

Coaching / playcalling: F- Pagano again had no clue how to get the guys prepared, and didn't have an answer. Manusky kept going to prevent defense all game on 3rd down instead of sending the house and we paid the price every single time. Pep thinks every player is interchangeable and no idea how to play to each player's strengths. He keeps calling up the middle runs with Richardson. They gave Brown THREE carries because they refuse to accept Richardson isn't the hot hand, even though Pagano said to play the hot hand last week. This game hurt to watch. BAD. 

 

Love the analysis Lolly....I am laughing out loud  "Neck Brace?"  I have called him 177 things, but "Neckbrace may be the funniest."

 

Satele actually got mad Sunday afternoon...maybe he and McFat can leave for the WWE????

 

 

[lollygagger8]

Love the analysis Lolly....I am laughing out loud  "Neck Brace?"  I have called him 177 things, but "Neckbrace may be the funniest."

 

Satele actually got mad Sunday afternoon...maybe he and McFat can leave for the WWE????

 

 

 

Oh man those two would make a great WWE Tag Team. The TurnStyles!! 

[Superman]

 

Pass defense: F Cassius "neck brace" Vaughn can't turn his head, and the late tomahawk swipe AFTER he lets his receiver catch the ball is disgusting to watch. Davis again is playing like garbage. Bethea and Landry didn't help at all.  

 

 

Had to co-opt this nickname. Hope you don't mind...

[tenbears1971]

This thread was full of win. Between Neck Brace and The Turnstyles I'm rolling!

[esmort]

 

QB: C...Luck missed alot of underneath throws because he kept looking for the long ball. He held the ball a lot longer than he should've many times. He did escape the pressure mulitple times somehow, so that's why a C was given. 

 

 

Luck definitely didn't target the underneath routes  ... but do you think he missed them, or that he is starting to feel like we have to have the long plays because we are not going to be able to sustain drives with the short underneath passes & running game.

[Farmer colt]

Luck is showing a pattern of not using the check downs consistently and or properly. Arians said himself last year when he was getting asked if he had them in his offense, he said they were there, but Luck was not using them. Luck has also has admitted he has seen open receivers short but didn't throw to them. One huge example was the INT to Reggie in the end zone. Most DC (cough cough manusky ) will see this and use it to their advantage.

[lollygagger8]

Luck definitely didn't target the underneath routes  ... but do you think he missed them, or that he is starting to feel like we have to have the long plays because we are not going to be able to sustain drives with the short underneath passes & running game.

 

Luck is showing a pattern of not using the check downs consistently and or properly. Arians said himself last year when he was getting asked if he had them in his offense, he said they were there, but Luck was not using them. Luck has also has admitted he has seen open receivers short but didn't throw to them. One huge example was the INT to Reggie in the end zone. Most DC (cough cough manusky ) will see this and use it to their advantage.

 

I hope Luck cure's this, and fast. Pep should be all over him about it, but I don't think he is. I never see them talking at all on the sidelines like Luck and Arians did EVERY single time he walked off the field. Clyde should also be all over him too, but I seriously doubt he is either. That lands very much so on the coaches. It's like they just expect Luck to figure everything out on his own. We forget Luck is only in his 2nd year.

 

With our O-Line, this should be priority #1 on the offense!! 

[OffensivelyPC]

Couldn't agree more on the coaching bit.  It was one thing against the Chargers.  We just didn't perform.  Texans, okay bye week, come out a little rusty (which isn't really an excuse since Texans also had a bye).  But whatever, Rams, again?  Almost every game the entire season we've had to come back in the second half, and now it's starting to catch  caught up to us.  Yeah, it's on the players, but the coaches are the primary culprits here.  We're underutilizing our best player, we're not putting Trent out in space like we said we wanted to - when was the last screen we ran?  And the draw, I can't remember the last draw we ever ran.  We're getting so predictable that we had 1 drive out of six in the first half.  JUST ONE?!  Out of SIX possessions?  Unreal.  4 were three and outs and then the interception returned for a TD.  Luck was crazy good as a rookie in 3rd down conversion rates.  And we've been reduced to getting first downs at this rate?  And it hasn't been much better in the previous games, at least November anyway. 

 

I get it, injuries are playing a huge role in this, but there's still no excuse for how bad we've been, and its starts up top.  Not going to say we need to do a fullsail coaching change.  Starting all over again next year wouldn't do us any favors, but each week it's getting harder to fight the urge. 

[lollygagger8]

 

I waited ten days ... for THAT??? This won't be fun.

 

Alright, enough stalling. Here goes nothin...

 

Box score

Week 11 grades

 

Offense, D+: 55 plays, 239 yards, 15 first downs (9 passing,  rushing, 2 from penalty), 5/13 on third down, 0/2 on fourth down, 1/2 in the red zone, 1 turnover (INT), 11 points; I don't even know if you can call this an offense

 

QB: I don't know how to grade him. He's a really good player, still has a lot to learn about playing NFL quarterback, but everything is there. It's obvious. But we're playing him in a nonsensical offense right now, the passing concepts don't make any sense, the... wait, let me save that for coaching. Bottom line, aside from the stupid pick, Luck was who he always is. Still needs to check down, but our passing schemes don't encourage check downs... There I go again. I'd like to see him tuck it and run sooner and more often. A few overthrows. My complaints about the passing game are mostly with the scheme. C, not impressive, a few mistakes, he's not being put in good positions

 

Backs / receivers / tight ends, D-: I'm gonna break this up more than I usually do. The D- is a composite grade.

 

Running game: The backs did nothing as runners. NOTHING. Not until the game was over and we gave it to Boom, who doubled the 8 carries worth of yardage from Richardson and Brown in 4 carries in garbage time. So yeah, nothing from the running game. And yeah, the blocking was pathetic, but Richardson had some opportunities and failed to bust through the hole, getting tackled from behind by linemen. F

 

Passing game: The receivers aren't getting open. Hilton was covered by their best corner, and he got open a few times, but also got doubled a lot, and no one else offered assistance. Fleener got open a few times, dropped one after getting hit pretty good. But not enough production for nine targets. And in a game where we are completely incapable of running the ball, we only targeted backs on four of our 39 attempts. Again, my frustrations are mostly with the schemes here, but the receivers need to play better. C-

 

OL / blocking: Run blocking isn't really getting any better, but on the 8 meaningful rushing attempts, it wasn't all that bad. I mentioned earlier Richardson having some holes. On one two yard carry, the lead blocker shot through the hole, and Richardson was about two yards behind him. Thornton's man got off the block just in time to catch him from behind. A little more burst and he'd have been out to the second level. So it's not all on the line, but yeah, the run blocking still has to improve. Lots of pressure on the QB, but it was often staggered and late. Luck held onto the ball, no one got open, etc. Plenty of penetration up the middle, but not right away. Picked up some blitzes, others got through. In the second half, when we were throwing basically every play, Luck had time. Just struggled finding open receivers (because there pretty much were no open receivers, especially on third down). Made it look like the line play was worse than it actually was, I thought. But it still wasn't good. D+, there are obvious advantages to being able to run the ball effectively, and this offense simply cannot

Defense, D+: 71 plays, 410 yards, 27 first downs (18 passing, 5 rushing, 4 from penalty), 7/14 on third down, 2/5 in the red zone, 0 turnovers, 33 points; kind of felt like the Chargers game, just kind of got used all game long

 

Defensive front: Pass rush was not consistent. Got there a few times, and pressured the QB, but left a lot of opportunities out there because of failure to close out. Werner was okay closing out; I think the slower rusher that we kept seeing was Andy Studebaker. Either way, against a pretty mediocre offensive line, and a team that's given up a ton of pressures this season, we didn't get enough pressures. The sack total is a little misleading. RJF and Chapman got interior penetration, but sporadically. Not much from Redding. Against the run, we showed ourselves to be susceptible to draws and traps, which is what a good offense does when they want to run against an aggressive front (take notes, Pep; and I'm not an Arians' fan, by the way). Poor tackling against their backs led to a couple long runs, and undisciplined edge play cost us some outside gains; for those who have been complaining about Erik Walden since March, there were at least 7 plays where our OLB didn't pay attention to setting the edge, and it highlights why the team liked Walden. He's not perfect at it, but he's twice as good as every other OLB we have, and would have saved us about 50 yards on Sunday. At one point in the second quarter, Pagano went and chewed out his defensive staff about edge contain. Moala looked awful against the run, and he never looks great, but he just got abused on a couple plays. Our run fits were sloppy, and we didn't tackle well. C

 

Pass defense: Ugh. Just... I can't even... I don't... Just ugh. Seriously. No one can cover. Davis got robbed on an offensive PI that the ref refused to call against Fitzgerald, and it wound up a TD. His coverage wasn't great, but he can't really try to break a pass up while he's being pulled to the ground. Butler got called for a bogus defenseless receiver call. But that's all the defense I can muster for this pass coverage unit. It was just awful. Robert Mathis and Bjoern Werner probably had the best coverage plays of the game. Cassius "Neck Brace" Vaughn (credit to lollygagger, I think) can't cover a scarecrow. Bethea gets burned every week, and pretty much never breaks passes up anymore. The inside linebackers are getting burned, and too often we're allowing them to get crossmatched on wide receivers (I can't blame Angerer for getting beat by Michael Floyd; he shouldn't be on him to begin with). Too many intermediate and long completions, several of them virtually uncontested. Appalling pass defense. D-

 

Special teams: David Reed actually had a solid return. And now he's gone. I won't spend anymore time grading him. No punt returns. AV hit his kick. McAfee punted reasonably well; seemed like he was being overly careful early on, then he started putting some leg into it. Had the blocked kick. Above average outing. B-

Coaching / playcalling, D-:

I've defended Manusky's playcalling for a few weeks now. I can't anymore. The past four weeks, QBs have completed 77 of 115 passes (67%), thrown for 1,133 yards and 8 touchdowns, with zero interceptions. And if I had to approximate, I'd say maybe a total of 12 contested passes. Three of those quarterbacks are backups. We're not getting third down stops. We're giving up big plays. It's starting to look like the Larry Coyer defense in 2010. The run defense has been mostly good, with a few mistakes here and there, but that's not scheme, it's discipline and tackling. What's really bothering me is the pass defense, and it's not just Toler missing. He wasn't playing all that well before he got hurt anyways. We're not contesting passes, and while we get sacks, we're not consistently pressuring quarterbacks. Part of that is hot potato passing schemes, but that's when you contest receivers off the line. Part of me wants to excuse it because our secondary is getting beat like they stole something, but Manusky has to come up with some kind of adjustment that stops this dreadful pass defense and puts his players in position to make plays. This is why we went through a two month turnover drought last season, and if not for a couple of fluke fumbles, we'd be a month into another streak right now. C-

 

The staff spent the offseason talking about the No Coast Offense, and that's proving to be true. Hamilton's offense has no identity, and no heart. It's like all the worst parts of the Wizard of Oz characters. I can't understand why we're sending substandard route runners 10+ yards down the field on every third down pass play, with a late dumpoff on the backside. Give your QB a hot man when the defense is blitzing. Call some simple screen passes. Believe in yards after catch; just get the ball into the quick playmakers' hands. Let your QB push the tempo, which he's damn good at. If you want to pretend you're a vertical passing offense, then go ahead and take some shots. You can't run a Frankenstein offense for four months in the NFL and expect to grow or be productive, especially when you've lost four of your six best playmakers on offense. I understand wanting to be able to run, but throw a draw or trap play in there, which makes things a little easier on your pathetic offensive line, and it keeps the pass rushers honest. I seriously think our coaches are ignoring some basic principles of balanced NFL offensive gameplanning. D

 

Pagano is getting criticized because his team was been outscored 93-12 in the first half in the month of November. That's undeniably on coaching and game prep, and on both sides of the ball. No panic here, but the Texans game was a fluke with the special teams mistakes and coverage mistakes, the Rams game was a fluke with the same mistake, the Titans game was sloppy but was on Thursday night... No weak excuses for this one, not after coming off a long week and spending that entire week talking about not getting down early. And now it's been a month of substandard play. You're lucky to have gone 2-2. Now get control of your team, and get back to building the monster. Don't let the monster destroy you. I was annoyed with not calling a timeout at the end of the second quarter again (he did the same thing against the Rams, and I was annoyed then), but then the pass defense failed on third and long, and I realized it didn't matter this time. We weren't going to win this game. I still believe in Pagano, but I need more "Let's Hunt" out of his team in December than we saw in November. F

 

I don't see any room for game balls.

 

(Honorable Mention: Robert Mathis set the NFL record for strip sacks on Sunday, with 40. The previous record holder was Jason Taylor, who had 39 strip sacks in 233 games. Mathis set the new record in only 158 games. He's also 1.5 sacks off Dwight Freeney's single season franchise record of 16 sacks, and Freeney's career franchise record of 107.5 sacks. I'm thinking Tennessee would like to see Mathis set those records in person this Sunday.)

 

Go Colts? Absolutely!

 

GO COLTS!!!

Ran out of Likes.

 

All i can think about when I think of Cassius "Neck Brace" Vaughn is that Brady bunch episode when the guy wears the neck brace and can't/refuses turn his head, but he really can.......

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_PgNQY-SGk

[GoColts8818]

F well special teams did alright, blocked kick, good punts, field goal, and a kickoff return past the 20.

[Superman]

Luck is showing a pattern of not using the check downs consistently and or properly. Arians said himself last year when he was getting asked if he had them in his offense, he said they were there, but Luck was not using them. Luck has also has admitted he has seen open receivers short but didn't throw to them. One huge example was the INT to Reggie in the end zone. Most DC (cough cough manusky ) will see this and use it to their advantage.

 

 

I hope Luck cure's this, and fast. Pep should be all over him about it, but I don't think he is. I never see them talking at all on the sidelines like Luck and Arians did EVERY single time he walked off the field. Clyde should also be all over him too, but I seriously doubt he is either. That lands very much so on the coaches. It's like they just expect Luck to figure everything out on his own. We forget Luck is only in his 2nd year.

 

With our O-Line, this should be priority #1 on the offense!! 

 

There's a huge difference between a checkdown/dumpoff and a hot receiver. It's one thing to have a guy come open late in the play once the QB is already being pressured. What the offense is missing is someone who comes open underneath quickly. That's how you frustrated defenses and nullify pass rushers. Arians' offense often had players come open underneath, but it was a slowly developing fourth option. Much of the time, Pep's offense is doing the same. That's not good enough.

 

Luck does miss underneath guys, no question about it. But again, those underneath guys are deep into his progressions. If he has that option more quickly, and still forces the ball down the field into coverage, then I'd be more critical of him.