Week 1 Report Card

[Danfish98]

Here's how I would grade last night's performance.  Feel free to post up your report card here as well.

 

Offensive Line - B-  More pressure than you'd ideally like to see but an improvement on most efforts last year, and a stellar effort from Shipley given how little time he's been here.  He gave up one sack early where he just didn't see the blitzer coming but otherwise he was good if we're grading on the Satele curve.  What little running we did looked better, but that gets an incomplete grade due to how quickly things got out of hand in the first half causing Pep to completely abandon the run.

 

Running Backs - B  Richardson showed some small signs of life in few opportunities.  That being said, Bradshaw needs to be getting 60 to 65% of snaps.  Not a knock on Richardson's performance last night, just that Ahmad was fantastic.  Hope he can stay healthy all year.

 

Wide Receivers/Tight Ends - C+  Reggie is still Reggie and that was great to see.  Nicks didn't have as much of an impact as I expected, but did provide a critical late TD grab.  TY is maddening to watch at times.  We like to focus on the good TY, the guy that can go off for 250 yards and multiple TDs but he just as often disappears like last night.  One awful drop too.  Looking forward to Allen getting more comfortable again.  He's a huge weapon.  Fleener needs to get tough.  He's too big to be dominated by physical play like he is.  With the number of weapons we have on offense I expected more from him, hopefully we'll see it next week against a much weaker secondary.

 

Luck - B  I struggle to know what grade to give here.  On the one hand there were some inaccurate throws and he still struggles with locking on to one receiver and forgetting about other options.  On the other hand he put up massive yards in the second half and nearly completed what would have been the most unlikely comeback in his career full of ridiculous comebacks.  Luck needs to get better at getting rid of the ball quicker.  Peyton was, and still is, a master at getting rid of the ball in so little time that it wouldn't matter if I were one of his lineman, he'd still not get sacked.  Luck isn't good at that and it's the biggest area he needs to work on IMO.

 

Defensive line - C+  Not enough pressure, though, as I mentioned above, Peyton's a master at getting rid of the ball within 2 seconds of the snap.  Arthur Jones was a great pickup and it was good to see Kerr make a few plays in a real game.  I didn't think RJF was bad last year, but the coaching staff must agree with many on this board as he was nowhere to be found most of the game.

 

Linebackers - C-  They were ok in run support but got destroyed trying to cover Thomas in the first half.  It's not a situation they should have been put into and that's on Manusky, but it was ugly out there.

 

Secondary - C  This grade is helped by Davis once again playing like a man among boys against his arch nemesis Tom Brady.  Toler has a miserable first half, and a decent second half.  Very concerned for the number of penalties he's going to rack up this year if he doesn't change his playing style though.  IMO it might be a good idea to move Butler to the #2 corner spot and put Toler in the slot where he played in Arizona.  Butler wasn't Davis good, but was solid.  The safety position was what I was most concerned about coming into the year and I see no reason for that not still to be the case.  Landry is about as bad in coverage as any safety in the league.  Adams wasn't bad but wasn't anything special either.  Hope Grigson gets us 2 new safeties next off season.

 

Special Teams - B  Adam took care of business, as did Boomstick.  Pat needs to not have a touchback on the first punt for this grade to be higher than a B though.

 

Overall there's reason for optimism, not something I was feeling after a horrific first half.  This team is frustrating to watch as they continue to look as outclassed as Purdue against a middling MAC opponent in the first half, and then come out after halftime looking like they could destroy the Seahawks.  I hope for consistency at some point in Andrew's career.  We'll be true Super Bowl contenders when and if that happens. 

[Bravo]

Offense: C

Defense: B-

Offense was really off at first....

O Line- C+ awful first half. Seemed to mold together a little more in 2nd half!

WR/TE- B- missed a couple balls and yards but overall okay. For sure could be better.

RB- B Trent played hard, Bradshaw played like a monster.

QB: B- Luck played well. Not best game but not awful. The INT could have been avoided.

Defense.. Was in field way to much in 1st half.

D-Line- C Let some holes open up in first half,little pass rush. Stepped up in 4th quarter.

LB- B- Could not cover J.Thomas, missed some big tackles in first half! Played a little better in 2nd half.

CB- B+ Couldn't keep their hands off Denver WR's. Gave up a bunch of penalty yards. Played okay in 4th quarter.

S- C Adams played average the whole game, Landry was very up and down.

Overall a good showing in the 2nd half! Showed we could hang with the big boys in the AFC if things are going our way!

Overall C+ have a lot to improve on. It's only week 2 though!

[Bluefire4]

Nice write up.. only thing I strongly disagree with is Butler moving.. already seen that result.

[Coffeedrinker]

I disagree with several things.

 

Line was a solid B.  They played better in the 1st quarter and half than they did in the 2nd half but a solid game all around against one of the better front 7s in the league.  Plus why knock the line because Pep threw the ball like it was an Arena league game?

 

WR/TE - Agree.

 

RBs - Disagree.  Richardson solidified his spot as the starter.  He ran the ball better, blocked better and caught the ball just as well as Bradshaw. 

 

DB - Toler played an outstanding game.  Half the refs in the league would not have called him for illegal contact those times and he did as well at shutting down DT as Vontae did.  Landry had a bad game but Adams was good.  Nothing spectacular but he didn't make any mistakes either.

 

Qb - C.  Luck needs to quit double clutching and patting the ball before he throws or he will end the year with more INTs than TDs.

[frankyk]

Luck was a C in the first half but an A in the second half.

 

Our offensive line was pretty terrible, Luck got hit/sacked a lot.  D.

 

What's going on with Fleener?  He played terrible yesterday.  He couldn't get out of bounds, he couldn't catch on key plays.  Why aren't we playing Dwayne Allen more (Though 2 fumbles or near fumbles was pretty bad).

 

Wayne was great.  Bradshaw looked really good.  Trent Richardson... meh, we'll see.

[esmort]

C is average ... the o line was not above average. 

[masterlock]

Luck was a C in the first half but an A in the second half.

 

Our offensive line was pretty terrible, Luck got hit/sacked a lot.  D.

 

What's going on with Fleener?  He played terrible yesterday.  He couldn't get out of bounds, he couldn't catch on key plays.  Why aren't we playing Dwayne Allen more (Though 2 fumbles or near fumbles was pretty bad).

 

Wayne was great.  Bradshaw looked really good.  Trent Richardson... meh, we'll see.

You almost seem surprised at Fleener's level of play. That's just Fleener being Fleener, which is to say an average tight end at best and just a so-so receiver. He is what he is by now.

[akcolt]

Our problem on O will not go away as long as Pep is calling plays.

[ColtsLegacy]

You almost seem surprised at Fleener's level of play. That's just Fleener being Fleener, which is to say an average tight end at best and just a so-so receiver. He is what he is by now.

Yeah, I'm quickly losing hope in Fleener. It seems he's just not confident in himself out there and he plays much smaller than a 6'6" 250 lb man.

I certainly don't like seeing so many passing downs where Fleener is on the field with Dwayne Allen on the sideline. According to PFF, Fleener ran 41 routes last night compared to 27 for Allen. That's unacceptable, Allen is our best receiving threat at TE by far and their snap count needs to reflect as much. It especially hurts to see Allen isn't on the field during crucial downs but unreliable Fleener is.

[masterlock]

Yeah, I'm quickly losing hope in Fleener. It seems he's just not confident in himself out there and he plays much smaller than a 6'6" 250 lb man.

I certainly don't like seeing so many passing downs where Fleener is on the field with Dwayne Allen on the sideline. According to PFF, Fleener ran 41 routes last night compared to 27 for Allen. That's unacceptable, Allen is our best receiving threat at TE by far and their snap count needs to reflect as much. It especially hurts to see Allen isn't on the field during crucial downs but unreliable Fleener is.

Yeah, I just don't understand the bias toward Fleener, when Allen has MUCH better hands and be counted on to move the chains.

[ColtsLegacy]

Yeah, I just don't understand the bias toward Fleener, when Allen has MUCH better hands and be counted on to move the chains.

 

No doubt. I love Dwayne Allen. Allen has been way better than Fleener in all aspects since day one but I was optimistic that Fleener could grow into a great TE too. He hasn't, I see very little progression.

[Danfish98]

I figure Allen's getting his game legs under him. Can't imagine that he won't get more plays than Fleener soon.

[thedude]

I

 RBs - Disagree.  Richardson solidified his spot as the starter.

Six carries for 20 yards? I don't think he established himself as a feature back.

[Coffeedrinker]

Six carries for 20 yards? I don't think he established himself as a feature back.

A feature back is different than a starter is it not? 

 

And yes, in those 6 carries for 20 yards, 3 receptions for 30+ yards and pass blocking and route running he established himself as the starter.

[TKnight24]

Andrew was a C- in this game