The flow of the game....Cribbs fumble. 2nd part, Pats O line scheme

[cmgww]

I'm always one to look at the flow and momentum of the game. When we stopped NE's first drive and forced them to punt, ok! Then came the Cribbs fumble. That set the tone right there. Of course the Pats take advantage of it and like that we are down 7. Had that not happened...does it change the outcome? Do we march down the field, mixing runs and passes and take the lead? Maybe. I do not think we get blown out 45-7. That fumble flipped the script and caused the Colts to "play left handed"...that just can't happen on the road, against NE. Am I saying we win if Cribbs doesn't botch the fair catch? Of course not. But I do think it really changed things for us. We never could establish a rythm.

Secondly....we need to hire the Pats offensive line coach, or a clone. Stork went out, and I foolishly thought we had a chance. But watching the replays, they have great blocking schemes. So instead of wailing on the Colts D line, I'm giving credit where it is due....to the Pats line. They're constantly pulling, getting to the next level, washing out stunts, picking up blitzes, etc. That is taught. Their talent isn't all world like it was in the mid to late 2000s, it's coaching.

[bababooey]

we make average runningbacks look like superstars, i would worry about defense first so luck doesnt have to go out there cold (seriously i think between his last snap of the half aside from the kneel down and first snap of the third quarter was probably 45 minutes). we go down 14-0 and luck feels like he has to get it back in one shot. i thought we withstood the haymaker by responding with the long drive after the pick but the D let us down, again.

[Mikemccoy84]

It looked like the pats just let us take ourselves out of the game. We would go to twist or stunt they waited for it then sealed us out. Blount did the rest was patient to see where it opened a hole then ran through it hard. What blows my mind is that is pretty much what the texans try to do but we are much better at stopping it against them or maybe they give up on it a lot earlier than new england does.

[Gavin]

It looked like the pats just let us take ourselves out of the game. We would go to twist or stunt they waited for it then sealed us out. Blount did the rest was patient to see where it opened a hole then ran through it hard

Bingo, our D Line lacked run lane discipline....particularly Redding in this game

[cmgww]

I think the Cribbs fumble just gave the Colts that "here we go again" mentality. That's part of being a young team (which they are, a few players like AV, Wayne, Adams skew the average age) and not being ready for the moment....and part comes from coaching. This is playing out like Mannings first meetings with NE. They lost several times and eventually got it figured out. I think the same will happen with this bunch. The main difference is back then BB and Brady won with defense and were relatively young. Face it....they've been together 15 years now. This iteration of the Colts has been together 3 years

[Mr.Debonair]

The fumble to me was not as big as the WRs being completely shut down. Nobody on Offense stepped up and made a play. Luck had time back in the pocket but no one beat their man. Pep got schooled last night by BB and his D-coordinator. Luck didn't attempt to get out the pocket and become a running threat. Offense was putrid

Defense, where do you start? Missed tackles (freeman got juked by Tom freakin Brady). DQ, Freeman, the D-line. We let Brady throw short routes all day for 5 yards a pop at least. Pressure was non-existent.

[cmgww]

Agreed. How many times did they run the play where Edelman was stacked behind Gronk...and Gronk would clear it out for Edelman to get a quick 5 yard pass. Adjust to that! Why were we not jamming them? Our DBs played off most of the night. That isn't who we are.

[dgambill]

There was not one play or one thing that caused us to lose. We lost in every facet of the game. QB, running game, pass defense, special teams, run defense, and especially coaching. I don't like to pile on but why kick a 50+ FG into a very windy end of the field instead of punt when its still very early and make NE try to go 90 yds. Granted they probably would have but our defense hadn't yet been exposed...perhaps we flip the field if we hold them. NE used the same game plan from the last 2 games and we had no answers for it...we made no adjustments (that worked at halftime). Trying to figure out how we didn't get our TEs more involved in the game...and why we didn't run more sweeps and runs to the outside that seem to be successful...and the only xfactor we had was letting Luck run some and make some plays and we didn't really imploy that either. I'm not asking for a lot but why not put in a package of plays where we run a few read options for him? Thats not something I want during the regular season but as a wrinkle in the postseason...especially when the offense is bogged down. I don't know...I saw a few plays be successful like on that drive we scored on and the crossing routes with Fleener etc and we just never came back to it or worked off it.

 

All in all getting down early didn't stop us from running it or really anything in particular...just a cumilation of not tackling on defense and executing getting us behind more and more. We were not ready to win that game...nor did we deserve to win.

[tfunky14]

Defense was the issue last night period....Again Defense was the issue last night period

[dgambill]

Agreed. How many times did they run the play where Edelman was stacked behind Gronk...and Gronk would clear it out for Edelman to get a quick 5 yard pass. Adjust to that! Why were we not jamming them? Our DBs played off most of the night. That isn't who we are.

It is very difficult to jam a receiver who is in a stack formation like that. As you saw Gronk just cleared out because no one can jam him at the line. Denver rarely used the stack formations which I think they should have to clear out room for their guys. We had issues with this type of formation against other teams like Pittsburgh etc. I don't think the passing game obviously hurt us too much last night. Clearly the run game and lack of tackling was terrible. Its ok to give up those short passes but if you come up and hit them and take them down then we keep them in front of the sticks. We did neither last night....all around a poorly played game. The corners played pretty well...just didn't tackle.

[throwing BBZ]

The fumble to me was not as big as the WRs being completely shut down. Nobody on Offense stepped up and made a play. Luck had time back in the pocket but no one beat their man. Pep got schooled last night by BB and his D-coordinator. Luck didn't attempt to get out the pocket and become a running threat. Offense was putrid

Defense, where do you start? Missed tackles (freeman got juked by Tom freakin Brady). DQ, Freeman, the D-line. We let Brady throw short routes all day for 5 yards a pop at least. Pressure was non-existent.

 

 There is no creativity in Peps short game and it wouldn`t matter because Andrew doesn`t think fast enough nor throw precisely enough to execute the short mid-range game.

 Andrew is going to the Super Bowl throwing the long ball or not at all. So...

 Under slight pressure, Andrew threw high to the wrong receiver time and again.

[throwing BBZ]

Defense was the issue last night period....Again Defense was the issue last night period

 

 Andrew was the worst player on the field.

[cmgww]

No he wasn't. What game were you watching? His WRs were covered! His TEs were covered. Once we abandoned the run....they simply pressed down and locked up his targets. How many times did we see him get good time, only to check down or throw it away? That's why we need a better run game. It keeps the defense from locking down on guys. It isn't rocket science. The one time he tried to test Revis, he got bit. It didn't help that Boom and TY dropped catchable balls. Luck didn't play that well, but he didn't have a lot of help either.

[tfunky14]

 Andrew was the worst player on the field.

How.. he hardly was on the field as the defense let up multiple drives by the Patriots offense....

[tfunky14]

No he wasn't. What game were you watching? His WRs were covered! His TEs were covered. Once we abandoned the run....they simply pressed down and locked up his targets. How many times did we see him get good time, only to check down or throw it away? That's why we need a better run game. It keeps the defense from locking down on guys. It isn't rocket science. The one time he tried to test Revis, he got bit. It didn't help that Boom and TY dropped catchable balls. Luck didn't play that well, but he didn't have a lot of help either.

The run game actually ran a 4.0 average last night

[Stephen]

Not scoring on first drive killed us.against the pats we need to start fast and we were down by two scores before we scored

After that it was all pats

[bertjones#1]

It is very difficult to jam a receiver who is in a stack formation like that. As you saw Gronk just cleared out because no one can jam him at the line. Denver rarely used the stack formations which I think they should have to clear out room for their guys. We had issues with this type of formation against other teams like Pittsburgh etc. I don't think the passing game obviously hurt us too much last night. Clearly the run game and lack of tackling was terrible. Its ok to give up those short passes but if you come up and hit them and take them down then we keep them in front of the sticks. We did neither last night....all around a poorly played game. The corners played pretty well...just didn't tackle.

The Pats don't seem to have any problem jamming our receivers when we're in the stack formation. Its all about coaching and attitude. Our receivers take a beating in the first 5 yards.

[dgambill]

The Pats don't seem to have any problem jamming our receivers when we're in the stack formation. Its all about coaching and attitude. Our receivers take a beating in the first 5 yards.

Again those little passes didn't hurt us much at all the other night. If we tackle we stop them in front of the sticks....it was not being able to stop the run obviously that killed us. Left NE in managable down and distance all night...kept us from blitzing because they could run or pass at any time based on how successful they were. I'm not debating that you can't jam a stacked receiver set but its obviously not what hurt us.

[will426]

Again those little passes didn't hurt us much at all the other night. If we tackle we stop them in front of the sticks....it was not being able to stop the run obviously that killed us. Left NE in managable down and distance all night...kept us from blitzing because they could run or pass at any time based on how successful they were. I'm not debating that you can't jam a stacked receiver set but its obviously not what hurt us.

Edelman was open almost every Play so those short passes did hurt us because it kept them in a manageable distance to let Blount get first downs but ofc we know he was ripping off more than he needed for those lol