Polian's Defensive Philosophy

[Buck Showalter]

This team is not a disagrace, it's having a bad season that's all. Bill Polian took a disgraceful franchise and turned it into one of the top franchises in pro sports, let alone the NFL. He built a winning franchise and to "insult" the other players who have won Colt Blue that is do just to Peyton is a joke. I dare you to go up to Jeff Saturday or any Colt and tell them that. Did Polian make some bad moves, YES, all GM's do. Ask the Philly GM right now how he is felling with all the money he spent this past off season for the team and how well that is going.

Going from a perennial powerhouse to dead last is disgraceful, you can not change my mind of that. I am not over reacting I am just supporting the belief that somebody/some people must be held accountable. I am of the believe that Polian has gotten "ALOT" of credit for two genius draft picks- Peyton over Leaf & Edge over Ricky "Burn One Down" Williams. Without Peyton Polian would not have had the success in Indy he has had, again my belief, you can not change that. Do you really think Jeff doesn't know he has been extremely lucky hiking the ball to 18 his whole career...

[dn4192]

Going from a perennial powerhouse to dead last is disgraceful, you can not change my mind of that. I am not over reacting I am just supporting the belief that somebody/some people must be held accountable. I am of the believe that Polian has gotten "ALOT" of credit for two genius draft picks- Peyton over Leaf & Edge over Ricky "Burn One Down" Williams. Without Peyton Polian would not have had the success in Indy he has had, again my belief, you can not change that. Do you really think Jeff doesn't know he has been extremely lucky hiking the ball to 18 his whole career...

No question Peyton is the key to this franchise. No question it was probably the best pick Polian ever made and the colts franchise ever made. But there have been a ton of talent through this organization over the time Polian/Peyton have been here. Going 0-16 if we do is bad, no question, but I will gladly suffer through 1 0-16 season surrounded by winning years, playoff apperances and SB appearances over say 7-10 years of say .500 record or less which a number of NFL teams have gone through.

To me a disaster will happen if we go say .500 for the next 5-10 years each year...then that is a disaster to me....

[Buck Showalter]

No question Peyton is the key to this franchise. No question it was probably the best pick Polian ever made and the colts franchise ever made. But there have been a ton of talent through this organization over the time Polian/Peyton have been here. Going 0-16 if we do is bad, no question, but I will gladly suffer through 1 0-16 season surrounded by winning years, playoff apperances and SB appearances over say 7-10 years of say .500 record or less which a number of NFL teams have gone through.

To me a disaster will happen if we go say .500 for the next 5-10 years each year...then that is a disaster to me....

Agreed, but to avoid mediocracy for the forseeable future the organization is going to have to make several brilliant decisions in this next year or so, and with the way things stand currently it should be obvious poor decisions have been made as of late...

Someone/some people need to be held accountable...

it seems that you feel that moving on, Peytons time has come...

I feel that moving on, Polian/Caldwells time has come...

[dn4192]

Agreed, but to avoid mediocracy for the forseeable future the organization is going to have to make several brilliant decisions in this next year or so, and with the way things stand currently it should be obvious poor decisions have been made as of late...

Someone/some people need to be held accountable...

it seems that you feel that moving on, Peytons time has come...

I feel that moving on, Polian/Caldwells time has come...

Coaching we can agree to disagree on performance over the past few seasons. With the drafting of players I do believe Polian kinda got comfortable in leaning on Manning to much until this past draft. But we also have to look at the position the Colts have drafted in say the past 7-9 drafts. Over that time I doubt we ever drafted higher then say 25th maybe. Also Polian has always looked to add weapons for Peyton over drafting game changers on defense. I think the greatest of Manning allowed others to maybe not perform at their best and now it will be interesting to see if those people can find that magic again in the upcoming draft.

[Corndog]

"We’re going to give up some passes and make the tackle afterwards and hope that by the time they’re down in the red zone they make a mistake or cough the ball up, or later in the game the receivers are tired of getting hit. You get bounce-offs and interceptions and things like that."

Hope they make mistakes? There is a reason it is called creating turnovers, it is because the defense pressured the offense into making a mistake. Do you really think it is good idea to just sit back and wait for guys like Drew Brees and Tom Brady to make a mistake? Even once it happens it will already be 31-0. Also it wouldn't be so easy to criticize this if this team got turnovers, but they don't. 5 positive turnovers and dead last in the league. We can't criticize the Pats and Packers for playing soft defense, because they create turnovers and don't allow alot of scoring. The Packers actually have a very strong defense, but tend to soften up when they comfortably lead the game. Bend but don't break can work alligned with a powerful offense and most of all not breaking, not allowing points. They adapted part of the Dungy philosophy, but not the most important part.

Then there is not allowing the big play. So this team GIVES the opponent first downs. It seems that first and second down defense hasn't been our problem and alot of times holds the opponent to 3rd and 5+. But for whatever reason it softens the pass coverage, playing less aggressive and pretty much allows a first down. If this team does what it does on first and second down, I bet a good amount of the time it would stop them from reaching first down. Occasionally a big play may be allowed, but then again if you just keep allowing a team to get first downs they will eventually score. This team needs to play to win, not to try and not lose.

Then there is it works with Manning. Well actually it doesn't, Manning just finds ways to overcome it. Last season this philosophy was exposed and teams found a way to beat it even with Manning. Their offense simply had to be patient. Don't throw the bomb, just keep passing for ten yards, keep running the ball, control the clock. It even worked into their defensive strategy, keep Manning off the field. The fact that the Colts won against Miami last season, despite having the ball for less than 20 minutes of the game is a testament to Manning's greatest, he had to be flawless to win.

[Smitto]

True, but I'm pretty sure some schemes are better than other schemes and take less talent to be effective. Any person who has played a lick of football will know waiting for the opponent to come to you will get you ran over. I can see why we can't tackle now. It's because of the players and the scheme. Even when our defense was playing at its best we were not a top 5 defense. That means something is wrong with the scheme. Why is it so hard for our team to attack the ball before the offense has thrown it? Why is it so hard for our defense to force TO's and not wait for them? You know I hate to bring this up, but maybe Tryon was right, Caldwell doesn't run this team.

And on the Nnamdi point, that is true, but does that mean all the corners we have are man corners because they can't play the zone well? I understand you can't fit a circle into a square hole but this is different. Instead of trying to fit a circle into a square hole, we are hoping the circle will turn into a square. This scheme is horrible. I don't know how this can sit right with anyone that has played organized football. You tell your team to go out and get punched in the mouth and hope the opposing team misses.

Same Excuse, New year. injuries, injuries, injuries, injuries. Oh, if we wouldn't get injured every year, we would win the SB every year.

I totally agree with you the colts need a new shceme and need to stop trying to refine the old broken one, some man under plays or something do some 46's... i think the best thing colts fans can do right now is scream as loud as they can and hope the front office listens and really take a look at how poor their defense is in the upcoming offseason.