Grades: Week 17 @ Titans

[Superman]

I haven't done grades yet, will probably post them tomorrow night. Just curious what everyone else thought. Kind of hard to grade a glorified preseason game against a two-win team...

 

Edit: Since we're all "on to Cincinnati" by now, I'm just posting my grades and a small blurb. Not worried about updating the stats or drawing anything out.

 

Offense: B, nice tune-up, nothing more

QB: Strong game by Luck, I thought. He started a little slow, but just as we could have predicted, he was able to make plays. Two TDs to hit 40 for the year, and no turnovers (though he came close to a fumble). Hasselbeck was adequate as well. B

Backs/receivers/TE: Strong performance in the passing game. Fleener punctuated a strong season well. Reggie's career long reception was sadly hilarious. I don't know what his next step is, but I'm still glad he stayed. Not a lot on the ground, but a couple of decent carries. The backs were much better as receivers, especially Boom. That long first down was nice. B+

Blocking: Decent enough. Not a lot in the run game, but they opened some windows here and there. Gotta do better than 2.7 yards/carry moving forward. Pretty good in protection, aside from a couple of missed assignments. Ironic considering this was one of the more makeshift lineups of the season, with Mewhort at RT after 13 games at LG. He gave up the one sack (kind of on Luck for not stepping up, but Mewhort didn't do a good job), but that was one of just 9 pressures by the entire line all game, on 37 dropbacks. Not bad. C

 

Defense: B, mess of an opponent, but they got the job done.

Defensive front: Good pass rush, nice pressure from pretty much everyone up front. Didn't always get home, but 4 total sacks and 27 total pressures. Run defense got sloppy at times, especially on the edges, and Shonn Greene made quite the impression on Mike Adams on that 52 yarder (reminded me of the Jets game in 2012, when Greene ran all over our defense). Other than that play, though, their backs had 62 yards on 17 carries. I'll take it. B-

Pass coverage: Yeah, 79 yards on 31 attempts is acceptable. Only Delanie Walker really did anything, and he's really doggone good and always produces against us. The LBers were always right there with him, I thought. Wright had the TD, but he was mostly locked up all game. B+

 

Special teams: (poor AV...) Can't believe he missed that kick. Oh well. McAfee had some wind to deal with on punts and kickoffs, and he hit one kind of short, but he mostly got it where it needed to go. Coverage was a little sloppy, and not just on the long return. Cribbs almost got one in the return game. I hope he gets loose in the playoffs. C+

 

Offensive coaching: They shortened up the passing concepts lately, and really used a reserved gameplan. At least there was some production on the ground. Not a lot, but some. INC

Defensive coaching: Still blitzing. It works against the Titans. Might work against the Bengals. Won't work against anyone else, but Manusky doesn't have any other options. B

Game management: INC

 

Next up: Playoffs, ya'll. We shut the Bengals out in Indy last time. They're playing better now; we're not playing as well. Won't be quite the same, no matter what. But there's no reason we can't win this game.

 

GO COLTS!!!

[DougDew]

Just a quick think after watching football all day long: 

 

It looked like a solid performance all the way around, with the exception of some oline struggles early.  Since TY and Reggie were either out of the game or not targeted, the TEs were targeted more and they had a very good game. 

 

Newsome provided a spark to the pass rush, so I think the dfront had a good day.  RJF was pretty active too.

 

Nothing else really stood out other than everybody played pretty well considering all the youngsters and player and position shuffling.

[Superman]

Grades posted.