colts offense-one of the best in the league or product of two bad teams

[TKnight24]

You ony listed 3 teams...

We play Houston twice

[TKnight24]

new england, dallas, pitt , cleveland doing good.

Defensively..... Only Dallas on that list is playing well

I was talking about defensively

[lollygagger8]

That's what I've struggled with. I'm trying to understand the overall philosophy of the coaching staff, whether they lean toward being aggressive or conservative, whether they're risk averse or just trying to do the right thing, etc. I'm still not sure I get it, because some decisions seem to be more conservative, and others seem more aggressive. The last thing I expected today was a first quarter onside kick.

 

But like you said, it does speak to the confidence the team had coming into this game. "We can take this risk, because we believe that even if it doesn't go our way, we're good enough to beat you regardless." It's not like we were scared of their offense, it was just a nervy move. I like that attitude.

 

I don't think the staff even knows yet, and they are just trying stuff out still. I'm all for taking chances, but you'd think they'd have figured all this stuff out already. 

 

The on side kick was a beauty, and Patty Mac's wave after was absolutely genius. That guy is so freakin funny!!! 

[IndyD4U]

Still collecting data....

 

I think we'll have a better idea after next week.

[Narcosys]

I think we're somewhere in between. I don't think we can measure or team off of the two worst teams in our division, and one is the worst in the league. My concern is that if we are so amazing, why do we struggle against average defenses. Now ColtsFanMikeC said Tenn had a to 5 D, but I don't believe they actually are. But that's just me. I think the Baltimore game will be a good measuring stick. After the next 3 we will have a solid idea of who we are. Same goes for pep. Not trying to make this into a pep topic but I think we will find out how good his play calling and game planning will be. All 3 teams are going to be tough defensively.

I'm not giving him or our offensive a pass just yet. Let's see how we are after these next few games.

Now after looking, or schedule looks rough all the way up to the bye and not so hot after the bye.

[Buck Showalter]

We play Houston twice

Oh yeah, duh...

[Adonai]

We played two of the worst teams in the league. And as a result our numbers are inflated. With that said, these last two games were great opportunities to work out some kinks and I suspect we will be better against Baltimore than we were against Philadelphia & Denver.

[Coffeedrinker]

It's a combination of both.  I think the Colts have a good offense, so many weapons for throwing the ball and two grinders for the running game.  It has helped the Colts to play two bad teams in a row, to work some things out offensively that is harder to do when the game is on the line.

 

I think they are a top 10 offense in the NFL.  I won't be shocked if they end the year as a top 5 but I think they need to become a bit more efficient against better Ds for that to happen.

[Superman]

I don't think the staff even knows yet, and they are just trying stuff out still. I'm all for taking chances, but you'd think they'd have figured all this stuff out already. 

 

The on side kick was a beauty, and Patty Mac's wave after was absolutely genius. That guy is so freakin funny!!! 

 

We were talking about this in another thread, about how baseball's analytics are changing the game, but football is lagging behind. And I think one of the big considerations is that you get so few opportunities to try things out in football, so it's hard to determine how a team is going to handle 4th down go-or-no situations without a lot of opportunities to analyze. And then, every opportunity has different variables.

 

The onside kick thing is just a wild card kind of situation. I don't think we'll be pulling that one out with any regularity. But when it works, there's no reason to complain about it.

[superrep1967]

I think it is a little of both.  The two teams were not very good with not good QBs we beat.  So their defense had more pressure on them.  But I will say that I think Pep is continuing to add more the offense and they are doing a bit more unpredictable things instead of a heavy set into the A gap.    I think by playoff time, our offense will be very rounded on running and passing.  I just wish Werner or someone else would suddenly find their inner Robert Mathis.  Or even Tony Bennett for that matter.  Or Fred Cook.

So true!

[superrep1967]

We played two of the worst teams in the league. And as a result our numbers are inflated. With that said, these last two games were great opportunities to work out some kinks and I suspect we will be better against Baltimore than we were against Philadelphia & Denver.

Yeah Baltimore will be a tough game for us. I'm not sure who's going to win this one. 

[superrep1967]

I think we're somewhere in between. I don't think we can measure or team off of the two worst teams in our division, and one is the worst in the league. My concern is that if we are so amazing, why do we struggle against average defenses. Now ColtsFanMikeC said Tenn had a to 5 D, but I don't believe they actually are. But that's just me. I think the Baltimore game will be a good measuring stick. After the next 3 we will have a solid idea of who we are. Same goes for pep. Not trying to make this into a pep topic but I think we will find out how good his play calling and game planning will be. All 3 teams are going to be tough defensively.

I'm not giving him or our offensive a pass just yet. Let's see how we are after these next few games.

Now after looking, or schedule looks rough all the way up to the bye and not so hot after the bye.

Yes I agree! We will know how good our offense is when the bye hits that's for sure. 

[krunk]

Steve Andress@ColtsReporter

#Colts offense now #1 in both scoring offense (34 pts/game) and total offense (444 yards/game). #NFL

[throwing BBZ]

We've scored 24, 27, 44, and 41 points so far.

 

Against Denver we were stopped on 4th and 1 at the goal line (or maybe we were on the 2 yard line) in the 3rd quarter -- we convert that or kick a FG and we have 31 or 27 points in that game.  We also threw a costly pick in scoring position in the 4th quarter, we don't do that and we have at least another 3 points --- so we should have scored at least 30 vs. Denver and if we don't turn the ball over there, we have a very real chance of tying or winning that game.

 

Against Philly we again threw a pick in scoring position in the 4th quarter.  We don't do that and we score at least 30 on them, and probably win that game.

 

I don't think Denver or Philly have great defenses, but both are better than what we played the past 2 weeks.  Our game plan vs. Philly, IMO, was very sound -- the 9ers showed today that the way to beat that quick offense is to control the clock and keep them off the field.  We had a great running game vs. Philly and if not for that pick at the end, we win that game. We could probably have aired the ball out a bit more and maybe scored additional points, but then you run the risk of getting in a shootout with them and it was clear that our D could not stop the Eagles' offense, so who knows what would have happened then.

 

Jacksonville and Tennessee are not great teams, but Tennessee does have a decent defense, being ranked top 5 in NFL in yards/game before we put up almost 500 on them today.  Regardless, these are still NFL defenses and any time you put up >40 points, it is impressive.  What I have liked the most about it is we are able to move the ball effectively and have shown the ability to control the clock or score fairly quickly.

 

Our offense is for real -- we need to lessen the hits to Luck and we need to reduce turnovers and we will be fine (5 turnovers in 4 games is not terrible, but if we can get to averaging below 1 turnover per game it will be very beneficial to our team).  We have been pretty good in the red zone, but I think we can improve here a bit, too -- we have the right weapons to excel in the red zone, but we've got to execute a little better to make sure we come out of there with 7 instead of 3 points.

 

The game against the Ravens will be interesting.  It will be interesting to see how we game plan for that game, and will be interesting to see if we can execute our game plan.  So far, we executed our plan very well (minus the late INT) vs. Philly, and almost flawlessly vs. Jacksonville and Tennessee.  Unfortunately, we got off to a rocky start vs. Denver and were playing from behind so it is tough to tell what our game plan for that game was, I imagine if we had scored early and didn't have to try for a major comeback, we would have seen a much different plan of attack.  Overall, I am very pleased with our versatility on O and think we'll be just fine.  It's very exciting to see we are finally getting pressure on the opposing QBs, if we can keep that up vs. our tougher opponents, we'll be just fine as the season rolls along.  Let's not forget, Denver and Philly are probably the 2 toughest teams on our schedule.

 

On a side note, I think Patty Mac needs some credit for our offensive success.  He has been giving our D great field position with his kickoffs and punts, which in turn gives our offense very good field position (assuming our D can force punts early on the opposing teams' drives).

 

 We didn`t have a great running game against Philly. 5 plays got us over half our yards, and we were our typical 2.6ish on the other 33 runs.

[ColtsFanMikeC]

 We didn`t have a great running game against Philly. 5 plays got us over half our yards, and we were our typical 2.6ish on the other 33 runs.

 

Our run game played fine vs. Philly.  We had 12 drives and controlled the clock with a balance of run and pass (36:15 for us to 23:45 for them).  When we didn't score touchdowns, it was more often our passing game that faltered than our running game.

 

Of our 12 drives we scored on 5 of them.

 

Here is how the went:

(1) 3 and out -- incomplete pass, run -4 yards, 5 yard pass, punt

(2) TD

(3) FG -- the last 3 downs before field goal, incomplete pass, -5 yard pass, incomplete pass

(4) 3 and out -- 3 incomplete passes

(5) TD

(6) Kneel (if you're gonna only count the top 5 yard runs, you should also count the top 5 worst runs, here we got a -1 yard run for kneeling which negatively affects our average)

2nd half:

(7) 3 and out -- 5 yard run, 3 yard run, incomplete pass (getting to 3rd and 2 by running on the first 2 downs is fine, you can't blame our run game for not moving the chains there

(8) FG -- 3 plays before FG -- 5 yard run, incomplete pass, Luck scramble

(9) Fumble -- 1st play from scrimmage and T-Rich fumbles

(10) TD

(11) INT

(12) 3 and out -- 6 yard run, -1 yard run, incomplete pass

 

Our run game effectively moved the chains -- other than the first and last 3 and outs (which we got 6 yards on a first down run) and the fumble it was more our passing game that faltered to stop the chains from moving (whether we punted our kicked a FG).  Take away the fumble and the INT and we probably go to around 40 minutes of ball possession and win that game.  There may be some argument about the play calling from Pep on that last drive, but picking up 6 yards on a first down run, you can't blame him for running again on 2nd down.

 

 

Our drives we didn't score a TD (I bolded the numbers of the drives where I think you can blame the run game for stopping the chains from moving);

(1) 3&out-- Incomplete pass, -4 yard run, 5 yard pass -- our run game is somewhat to blame here (though we threw an incomplete pass on first down)

(3) FG -- an incomplete pass, a -5 yard pass, and an incomplete pass on 3 consecutive downs -- our passing game stopped us from moving the ball here

(4) 3&out -- 3 incomplete passes -- our run game had nothing to do with our inability to move the chains on this drive

(6) Kneel -- our run game not accountable for not moving the chains here as we went to halftime

(7) 3&out -- 5 yard run, 3 yard run, incomplete pass -- sorry, but you can't fault the run game here, if they can get us to 3rd and 2 every time we should be in good shape

(8) FG -- 5 yard run, incomplete pass, Luck scramble -- again, 5 yards on 1st down is great -- can't blame the run game for stopping us from moving chains here

(9) Fumble -- blame the run game

(11) INT -- run game had nothing to do with this one

(12) 3&out -- 6 yard run, -1 yard run, incomplete pass -- 6 yards on 1st down running is excellent, can't really blame Pep for putting it on the ground on 2nd down -- our run game is somewhat accountable here, but 3rd and 5 is not terrible.  Considering they just moved the ball 76 yards on us in less than 2 minutes for a TD, it makes sense for Pep to have ran on 2nd down, especially with our success on first down -- our goal was to kill as much clock as possible here so we could score and leave them with no time.

 

 

So really of the 7 times we failed to move the chains before scoring a TD, it was only solely on our run game once (fumble), and kind of on them twice.

 

I'd consider that a good running day.  I don't buy the 'take away the 5 best runs' -- if you do that to calculate our average then you should at least take away the 5 worst runs.  The long runs are good, as they force the defense to respect the run, which should open up the pass.  Other than the fumble, our run game was not as much to blame as drives ending before TDs as our passing game.

 

Bottom line, if we move the ball like that and control the clock like that, we should win almost every game.  You take away our 2 turnovers that led to 7 points for them and we do win that game, and we win it pretty easily.  No blaming Pep or our run game here -- that was a well coached game and other than those 2 turnovers, a well executed game.  If we want to be a championship team, we gotta win the turnover battles, especially against teams that are as dynamic as Philly.

[Blue Horseshoe]

It is a good offense which looks better than it is because they played two horrible teams.

[Adonai]

Yeah Baltimore will be a tough game for us. I'm not sure who's going to win this one. 

 

The return of a well-rested Robert Mathis sure can't hurt.

[Stephen]

Mathis won't play tore Achilles

[Dustin]

The return of a well-rested Robert Mathis sure can't hurt.

I have some bad news for you....

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap3000000391569/article/colts-robert-mathis-tears-achilles-out-for-season

[Imped]

The return of a well-rested Robert Mathis sure can't hurt.

Wow.....a little behind are we?

[krunk]

I picked this up from the Ravens website. "Sure, there’s plenty about the Ravens that we still don’t know. The pass rush has generated just four sacks in four games. Can it do better? If so, that would help the secondary. "

 

People talk about us having no pass rush, but we have generated in 4 games more sacks than the Ravens who are supposed to be better than us if you listen to people talk.  Has anyone thought about what our offense will do to them if they continue this trend? People keep speaking on what Flacco will do to us if we don't get pressure on him.  What about the above?

 

4 sacks in 4 games is pedestrian. We've gotten 4 sacks i think in each of the last two games plus a sack against Peyton.

 

http://www.baltimoreravens.com/news/article-1/Eisenberg-What-Weve-Learned-About-Ravens/fec30b12-3763-48f7-a9db-7d879404afb6

[BOTT]

It is a good offense which looks better than it is because they played two horrible teams.

The Titans D isn't great, but it's not horrible either.

[sweetsurrender]

I picked this up from the Ravens website. "Sure, there’s plenty about the Ravens that we still don’t know. The pass rush has generated just four sacks in four games. Can it do better? If so, that would help the secondary. "

 

People talk about us having no pass rush, but we have generated in 4 games more sacks than the Ravens who are supposed to be better than us if you listen to people talk.  Has anyone thought about what our offense will do to them if they continue this trend? People keep speaking on what Flacco will do to us if we don't get pressure on him.  What about the above?

 

4 sacks in 4 games is pedestrian. We've gotten 4 sacks i think in each of the last two games plus a sack against Peyton.

 

http://www.baltimoreravens.com/news/article-1/Eisenberg-What-Weve-Learned-About-Ravens/fec30b12-3763-48f7-a9db-7d879404afb6

The Ravens are an interesting team. They have a great coach and are battle tested, resilient and added a gamer in Smith. Their defense is stout no matter what the stats say. That being said, I have to feel like we can get after that secondary assuming Luck has some time. I think we also have some mojo after the last two blow out wins so hopefully that carries over but I think the Ravens bring a certain East coast swag. It will be very physical so we have to be ready to take their blows and dish out our own too.