Grades: Week 13 vs Washington

[Superman]

Another late entry...

 

Week 12 grades

 

Offense, A-: 49 plays, 487 yards, 19 first downs (14 passing, 4 rushing, 1 from penalty), 5/8 on third down, 1/1 in the red zone, 2 turnovers, 42 points; could have been 63 points with the way the offense was playing

QB: The two turnovers were the only negative spots, and one wasn't really his fault. The rest of the game, he destroyed Washington, finding open receivers throughout the defense, but especially deep. And one was dropped. It's not often that an offense scores 6 TDs with only one red zone possession, but Luck's deep ball made the red zone unnecessary. Great game. A, flat out dominant, while RGIII began his life as a backup

Backs / receivers / tight ends, B+:
Running game: Tale of two RBs. Herron was decisive and explosive, with the huge TD. Richardson got shut down every time he touched the ball. If Boom stops fumbling, he'll wind up with a bigger share of the backfield. B, the good far outweighed the bad, but like Sam Cooke said: "A change is gonna come."

Passing game: Uncoverable. And paced by the secondary guys. Nicks and Reggie weren't and usually aren't a big part of the picture, and they focused on taking away Hilton, but Fleener and Moncrief stepped up and filled the void. Moncrief had the incredible hustle on the Fleener TD also. This is becoming a "pick your poison" passing attack. And Allen is coming back. B+, some say they're still running...

OL / blocking: Cherilus got beat on the opening play, and that wasn't good. He gave up some other pressures also, but I thought the rest of the line played well. As many expected, moving Reitz inside to guard makes a huge difference. As long as he's healthy, he should stay there. Castonzo was a rock on the other side, and he continues to team well with Mewhort. There were a couple of inside pressures, but they were handled well. Harrison had his weekly snap mistake. The run game wasn't blocked as well, but was good enough. Only 16 traditional run plays, and one sweep, so not a lot of opportunities. But the blocking on Boom's TD was excellent. It doesn't get better, really. B

 

Defense, B: 74 plays, 425 yards, 24 first downs (15 passing, 4 rushing, 5 from penalty), 5/15 on third down, 0/2 on fourth down, 2/5 in the red zone, 1 turnover, 27 points (scored a TD, making it a net +20); shut them down in the first half, got a little sloppy after that, but this defense is still 2nd in the league on 3rd down

 
Defensive front: Another strong performance up front. Washington's offensive line isn't particularly formidable, but the defense still did a good job containing the run, with only a couple of exceptions. The read option defense got caught off guard a couple of times, but the ILB (Freeman) has to recognize quickly and then scrape over, and he didn't. The pass rush was excellent, with 6 big sacks and creating the defensive TD, and a ton of pressures otherwise. Those pressures came from everyone, everywhere, all game long. The tackling and pursuit was lacking at times. B+, still very reliant on the blitz

 

Pass defense: Sucks to lose Davis. He was doing this thing, and for whatever reason, they were targeting his man like he's not a shutdown corner. The other corners didn't hold up as well, especially down the stretch. All the safeties covered well. The linebackers, not so much. Newsome, Freeman, Jackson, all got torched for big plays. C+, almost 400 yards and 65% completions, to Colt McCoy?

 

Special teams: Kickoffs and punts were great, as we've come to expect from Pat. Coverage was excellent also, which is a good pairing. Cribbs tackle was nice, and he's really making a difference in no time, even in coverage. One of these days, he'll have a big return that isn't nullified by a penalty, and that's the only negative from special teams. B+

Coaching / playcalling / game management, A:
The transitions to Moncrief and Herron are well under way, and it's adding some extra pep to the offense. It would be nice if we could block screens better. Pep unlocked a cheat code in this one, and we had big plays for scores all game. The game glitched to make up for it, with Fleener's silly drop. Found a good mix on the offensive line, also. A

Kept the opponent reeling up front with good blitzes, and the LB and safety rotations are looking good. Betrayed only by poor coverage and sloppy tackling. Good play call on the early 4th down. B+

Game management had an off day. Pagano joked that he tried to get Pep to slow down with the scoring to protect the defense. That kind of game. And at halftime, I felt like the score should have been 35-0. The offense had it going by then, and put the game away in the third. There's your halftime adjustments. B+

 

Game ball: Andrew Luck, rocked the house, finished up his Player of the Month campaign in front of RGIII, set a career high for TD passes... only one who could stop him was his long-haired Bro.

Next up, hit the road against the Manziels Browns, and it will be cold out there, might be wet. We have four former Browns, including one who is itching to have a good game. Colts are -4 as of right now, but I wonder who Vegas thinks is more likely to earn a Dawg Pound leap, Richardson or Cribbs...

GO COLTS!!!