Greg Mac and this defense....

[JWF]

Personally, I am not a big Manusky fan. Other than the Denver game, he has been relatively bad at the initial game planning. HOWEVER; to his credit, he is fantastic at making 2nd half adjustments.

 

Kind of my feeling too.

 

To be fair we still are lacking talent wise on D to run his heavy-man scheme, specifically a true #2 CB, another pass rush threat and a FS who fits this defense (I love Bethea but I feel he's a better fit for a zone heavy team).

[NewColtsFan]

A lot of money was spent on this defense and it is STILL subpar. You take away Mathis and it REALLY would be bad as far as getting to opposing qbs. Our second best player on defense is Freeman; past that a toss up between Davis (who looked hurt yesterday) Redding or Bethea who ALL were on the roster BEFORE the offseason speading. That means one or two things: a bad defensive scheme from a dc that's been fired a couple of times before OR money spent on NON-playmakers. I THOUGHT with Chuck as hc we would see an aggressive attacking style defense that would overide Greg when needed due to Greg's past tendency as dc to run a "vanilla" 3-4 scheme. Yes the Colts won yesterday but they made Alex Smith look like the second coming of Dan Marino. (which they have a lot of qbs this year) Last year was a free pass on defense because they didn't have the personnel to run the 3-4 and Chuck battled cancer but upon further review this defense is STILL hit and miss.

 

Of course it's still subpar!

 

From the opening bell until the last play of the game,  we played guys whose last names are.....

 

Pendleton,  McNary,  Gordy and Lynch.    On most teams those guys would not be playing in a playoff game.   By the way, as best as I can tell,  those guys did pretty well.  

 

Either way,  they're playing because we don't have better choices.

 

And even if the guys they're placing were healthy and able to go,  no team builds a good defense in one year.   It takes a number of years.   These things take time.

 

In this thread there are compliments for guys like Landry and RJF....   great, how many games did those guys play?   Didn't each miss roughly 4-6 games?   Tough to make any kind of impact from the sidelines.    Walden isn't an impact guy.   Toler might be if he could stay healthy, but he missed roughly half the season.

 

We have one quality pass rusher right now.   And if a team decides to take away Mathis,  good luck finding a lot of other guys who can bring the heat.     We do not have many playmakers,  many difference makers.    That isn't a Greg Manusky issue.   That's a team issue.   Greg is doing the best he can under difficult circumstances.    It's going to take another year or two to build this defense even close to what we all want. 

 

Pagano stands right next to Manusky.   If he wants GM to do something differently, it's not hard for him to tell him what to do.....

 

Yesterday was great fun.    We'll all remember exactly where we were watching that game.    Always!  

 

But it only gets tougher from here.......    and there are going to be some difficult challenges ahead for our defense.   Good luck slowing down Tom Brady or Peyton Manning......   

 

Sorry,  I don't see much of a Greg Manusky problem here.

 

(That said,  someone yesterday floated the idea of Wade Phillips.   And without saying a negative word about Manusky,  I'm a big fan of Wade Phillips as a DC.   That's a move I'd make if I could...  That's an upgrade!   I just don't know if I can.....?)

[ColtJ82]

Kind of my feeling too.

 

To be fair we still are lacking talent wise on D to run his heavy-man scheme, specifically a true #2 CB, another pass rush threat and a FS who fits this defense (I love Bethea but I feel he's a better fit for a zone heavy team).

I about flipped my lid on that 15 yard gain for the Chiefs at the end of the game (crossing route by AJ Jenkins). The play was completely illegal (WR set a pick). There were actually 2 picks set. The first was by a KC WR; however, that one was no big deal. The highly effective pick was the one set by Ricky Jean Francois because he had dropped back in coverage and gotten turned around. He completely took our CB and Freeman out of the play. That is the stuff I don't like. I'd have to watch it again, but I have to assume he was in coverage because someone blitzed.

[funktacious2]

The defense gets it done when it counts and a lot of guys are now here for a while. Got few key resigning, but we're only likely to get better on D next year before we get worse.

[OJl]

The defense is what it is at this point.  What I saw was Davis and Toler playing hurt.  Period.  Earlier in the year when Davis and Toler were healthy, we were shutting down passing games and chasing down QBs.  Right now, it is all patchwork.  HOPEFULLY, Toler and Davis will be better by game time next weekend.  If they are, I like our chances.  You know Mathis will be there.  Freeman will be there.  It would be nice if a third guy could make some game turning plays ever once in awhile.

[NewColtsFan]

The defense is what it is at this point.  What I saw was Davis and Toler playing hurt.  Period.  Earlier in the year when Davis and Toler were healthy, we were shutting down passing games and chasing down QBs.  Right now, it is all patchwork.  HOPEFULLY, Toler and Davis will be better by game time next weekend.  If they are, I like our chances.  You know Mathis will be there.  Freeman will be there.  It would be nice if a third guy could make some game turning plays ever once in awhile.

 

I'm anticipating Davis to play next weekend,  but not to practice too much.    Don't want to risk further injury....

 

BUT....

 

I'm also anticipating Toler to be put on the IR this week....  maybe Monday or Tuesday.   But he looked bad enough to think he's not going to get healthy enough in 7 days....   and certainly not without much if any practice....  I think he's toast for this year....

 

I'm guessing our CB's will be Davis...   Butler....   Vaughn....  Gordy....  and if we need a 5th....  Price.  (Welcome to the NFL playoffs, young man!!)

[ColtsFanMikeC]

I think we should remember that 2 TD's were the result of our offense turning the ball over inside our own 20 (so we can take 14 points off the board for our D) -- and 1 TD and 1 FG were results of long pass plays.. Not that we should be giving up long pass plays, but after Bowe's big catch the D did a great job holding KC to a FG instead of a TD and then Avery had that 70+ yard TD -- other than those 2 big plays let up, I thought our D looked fairly solid, especially in the 2nd half.  We will need to make sure we don't let any players from NE get behind our secondary like that, but like Chuck said -- everything on the tape was/is fixable and they will make their adjustments and move forward.

[ThaCaliColt]

Begins and ends with the pass rush. Brady is going to go straight after our corners, bank on that...Their success is going to be greatly aided by whatever pass rush we can generate. Belichick will have Mathis bottled up the entire game no doubt. Other guys are going to have to get through their blocks. Who knows what the status on Toler will be. We are going to need a big day from Butler. All I know is we can't fall down 3 or 4 touchdowns to a team like the Patriots. They are not going to implode...Not gonna happen...