As we all know....Our biggest issue

[SteelCityColt]

Shipley was playing well.

 

This I can agree with, but I sorta understand what they were trying, it was just clumsily done and didn't work out too well but I do get the intentions behind the change. 

[LJpalmbeacher2]

There are plenty of needs for sure. But the heart & soul of this team is Offense, and always will be. We can not expect to have major success without a very good offense. And it's very Difficult to do with a below average OL.

We need better, consistent pass protection for Luck and his weapons to do What they do. And we need to be able to RUN, even when the other team knows we will run. How many times have we not converted 2nd & 3, 3rd & short in the past 15 years?

Acquiring a elite T and a good G and or C would be a major step in actually building the monster we've been hearing about for 4 years.

[ColtsFanMikeC]

Shipley was playing well.

He was playing OK versus mediocre talent.  It is obvious he isn't the C of our future.  Harrison didn't exactly light it up when he went in, but he was playing against a higher level of competition and has a higher upside than Shipley.  I firmly believe the coaches were not wrong to throw Harrison into the fire and let him have his shot.  It is also interesting the switch happened prior to the Ravens game -- where Shipley was at prior to rejoining us -- they might have expected the Ravens to be familiar with Shipley and for Ngati to dominate him.

[Dark Superman]

Shipley wasn't exactly playing great for us.  He started the first four games of the year and the last game of the year.  Denver and Philly have decent defenses, but nothing too spectacular (both were better on the end than up the middle last year) and we lost those 2 games.  Then we beat Jacksonville and Tennessee with AQ as our starter (nothing to write home about).  I am not saying he was playing bad, but he is very limited in his abilities and (IMO) it made sense for the coaches to switch to a young guy who does have a higher ceiling and who played OK (really not much better or much worse than Shipley).  For Harrison's sake, please note he started his career against Baltimore (better line than any of the 4 teams AQ started against), Houston (better d-line than any of the 4 teams AQ started against), Cincy (arguably better DL than the 4 AQ started against), and NYG (who had as good of an interior DL as any of the 4 AQ faced).  Hoosier, you are right, we don't know what goes on at practice.  The coaches obviously thought Shipley is more of a back-up type player than a starter, and the only way to really know what we have in Harrison (or other younger guys with more potential) is to see what they can do in a game. 

Jones can't do it all himself and I'm not banking on guys like Chapman, Quarles and Kerr to push us past the Patriots. We really need to nail our defensive line drwft picks.. The pass rush should be better. But could you imagine how good this defense could be with a legit run stuffer? Another safety would help too. But I'll wait and see what we do in the draft.

 

 

 

I am pretty confident Hughes, Chapman, Kerr, and others will improve and am very happy to hear Art Jones sounds like he is finally healthy again.  Art Jones, when healthy, is one of the better run-stoppers in the league.

[Dark Superman]

Yet Sergio Brown played well as our 3rd safety and YOU THINK W Guy, who arrived in October, should have been ahead of McDonald who had a training camp and pre-season experience.

 Not particularly sound logic IMO.

 

 

 No, but dumping Redding helped, and improved ILB`er and safety play would help. And some scheme improvements it looked like.

I agree with adding another safety (that's something every member of this board can agree on) but I do think we need to add another piece or two to the defensive front. I do believe our pass rush will be decent this year, which should help the secondary out dramatically.

[OLD FAN MAN]

true, this is why we cant run up the gut, and luck is hurried or sacked, we have one on the o-line who is average at best. the left tackle position is average, the left guard is a project who may never pull an run block, the center is made up of poor projects, bruce grabbed our best center . right guard we may be ok, right tackle is iffy

[a06cc]

I'm not sure OLine continuity is our BIGGEST issue, but it is a big one. We could spend every draft pick on OL, and we would have the same issue...sorting through the guys we have an configuring who represents our best five. To me, continuity means picking 5 guys, keeping them together and letting the reps mount up. No team has five or six outstanding olinemen, but the successful teams let their group build and grow that chemistry together. Simply put, we need to stop taking guys out, putting others in, etc.

Obviously injuries play a role in that, and we could certainly upgrade our overall talent level...but we finished 4th in total offense. Every RB we put in our system (aside from Trent) has been moderately successful.

If our defense could finish in the top 5 in total defense, even for one season, I think our fanbase would be running around giving each other high fives and we would be on our way to the Superbowl. Thats where our biggest issues lie.

I know what youre thinking, we have Andrew Luck and we are guaranteed to be in the top 5 in all offensive stat categories for the next decade. Thats simply not true. There have been dozens of quarterbacks to come out of college over the years that have recieved considerable hype and havent been half as successful as Luck. Andrew has literally been the more successful (in terms of passing statistics) in the first 3 years of his career then any other QB in league history. I dont think that is by accident, and I think our OL, TE, and WR groups deserve at least a little bit of credit for that.

Well said!

[Horse Shoe Heaven]

I read that earlier today.  I believe this is an issue but not the biggest.  Their biggest issue is stopping the run imo.

I agree with that but they are really close!! No Luck for us would be a disaster!!

[Jason_]

true, this is why we cant run up the gut, and luck is hurried or sacked, we have one on the o-line who is average at best. the left tackle position is average, the left guard is a project who may never pull an run block, the center is made up of poor projects, bruce grabbed our best center . right guard we may be ok, right tackle is iffy

 

the word "project" is getting way too overused (not to mention, misused) around here lately. 

[OLD FAN MAN]

the word "project" is getting way too overused (not to mention, misused) around here lately. 

have you become the word police or just a colts fan on the forum?

[Jason_]

have you become the word police or just a colts fan on the forum?

that was just my way of saying some people have no idea what they're talking about. ;) adongo and swoope are project players.....mewhort, harrison and holmes are not.