Game 1 Recap & Thoughts

[SteelCityColt]

Another thing: Cam Johnson can't set an edge period, and he didn't do much as a pass rusher either. 

 

Do you expect him to make the final roster? 

[Narcosys]

Eagles W 36-10

Offense

Passing Attack

Andrew Luck look very good for the very few plays he was out there. 5 of 6 for 43 yards and was able to hook up with Dorsett 3 times for 31 yards and was able to connect with Johnson for a 9 yard gain on 3rd down. Hasselbeck and Bennett were a combined 12 of 33 for 107 yards and two interceptions. Hasselbeck was overthrowing WRs and Bennett just wasn't in rhythm at all. Bennett was intercepted twice by S Ed Reynolds and was 4 of 16 for 35 yards. Due to the low completion percentages of Hasselbeck and Bennett, there wasn't a lot to show for the WR group. Dorsett had 4 grabs for 51 yards but fumbled on a 20 yard completion, which was also the longest play offensively for the Colts om that game. It's his first game so I'm not too concerned about that. He just needs to show more awareness with the ball in his hands, and Eric Rowe did make a nice strip. Carter was held to one catch for 16 yards. Tipton had 4 catches for 22 yards. The offensive line wasn't really giving the QBs a real clean pocket which caused some of the mistakes.

Grade: D

Just didn't see a lot of success with the 2nd and 3rd string passing attack.

Rushing Attack

Tipton was being fed the ball like a feature back in the first half of the game but wasn't running like it. The run blocking wasn't too good, but Tipton was not doing a good job of evading tacklers. He appears to lack vision when running towards the line and can't find the right way to run. Tipton finished with 34 yards on 16 carries, 2.1 yards per carry. I don't see Tipton making the 53-man roster. He still has three games to prove himself, but he just does't seem to have a grasp on carrying the ball well. Robinson I believe was a big plus in this game. He was running hard and wasn't going down to easily. Had a nice 3rd and goal TD run from the 9-yard line, where he was able to go off tackle to the left and bounce off of three defenders. Finished with 10 carries for 44 yards, 4.4 yards per carry. So far Robinson looks like a solid #3 RB. Varga carried the ball three times for 16 yards, longest gain of 10. Longest run of the day was Bennett, who had a 15 yard run. Abou Torre got end-of-game carries and finished with 25 yards on 4 carries.

Grade: C+

Robinson has a very good game but not a lot of rushing success outside of him.

Offensive Player of the Game: HB Josh Robinson

Defense

Run Defense

Colts defensive line seemed to have trouble with the read option and allowed to decent run gains. The line didn't seem physical enough against the offensive line, and the Eagles running backs were able to some decent yardage on a couple of carries, but they didn't have a run of over 13 yards. Henry Anderson was providing very good penetration in the time he saw in the first half and is so far looking like a great pick to help solidify the D-Line. The defense didn't allow to many rushing yards, but the Eagles had a 4 yards per carry average as a team.

Grade: B-

The run defense didn't look awful. Probably being generous here with a B-, but all in all they didn't seem to bad. Would like to see better containment on the QB during read option. They haven't had a lot of practice against the up tempo offense and the read option based offense that the Eagles run.

Passing Defense

The pass defense look very good the first couple plays but really started to give up big passing players. Toler broke up a couple passes early on but was lost on a throw to Agholor, who would then run in for the TD. Barkley was looking really comfortable in the pocket and was completing a lot of his passes and gaining a lot of yardage. They allowed 8 pass plays of 18 yards or more. Deveron Carr was getting beat on plays and Casey wasn't looking too great either. D'Joun Smith had to come out of the game due to a concussion. Geathers had some nice tackles but was looking "iffy" in coverage. Pass rush was really lacking in this game, but ILB Junior Sylvestre had two sacks and DL Earl Okine had one sack. Werner had a nice pass deflection on the line that led to a Herrera INT.

Grade: D

Not a lot of good pass defense in this one.

Defensive Player of the Game: ILB Junior Sylvestre with 2 sacks. Amarlo Herrera also had a nice game with 5 tackles and an INT.

Special Teams

Coverage on punts were looking good until seconds to go before the half, when Barner ran a punt back 93 yards for the TD. McAfee had some long punts in this game but also had a few short ones. Vinatieri made a 32 yard field and converted on an XP attempt. Carter had 1 KR for 24 yards out to the 19-yard line, Tipton had a 22 yard return, and Quan Bray had a 32-yard return with seconds remaining in the 4th quarter. Bray also had 3 PRs for 5 yards and Dorsett had one PR for 5 yards.

Grade: C

Outside the TD, the special teams were the main positive in the game. I'm not too concerned about the punt coverage, and I'm sure the mistakes will be fixed in practices this week.

Hey, it's the first preseason game and mistakes are going to happen. It's backups playing so there isn't anything major to complain about. Let's see how they do next game. Who were your players of the game and what did you think about this game?

So what's the bell curve you used to grade?

[ProblChld32]

i only caught a bit of the third qtr and the entire 4th qtr. from what i saw Josh Robinson had a Heck of a Game. He proved me wrong. 

[JColts72]

Whoever obsesses about exhibition football is just sad.

[Smonroe]

Well I think we might as well not play this season.

Luck couldn't even score a touchdown all day.

Gore had ZERO rushing yards. That's unacceptable.

We'll be lucky to even win a game this season.

Just sit everyone important and grab the #1 pick for next season.

 

You forgot to mention that after getting that big contract TY was nearly invisible out there. 

[IndyD4U]

i only caught a bit of the third qtr and the entire 4th qtr. from what i saw Josh Robinson had a Heck of a Game. He proved me wrong. 

 

Definitely a bright spot. He played outstanding. His style reminds me of Ray Rice (hopefully he'll be half as good)

[PeterBowman]

Definitely a bright spot. He played outstanding. His style reminds me of Ray Rice (hopefully he'll be half as good)

as long as he's the anti Ray Rice off the field we'll be good

[HtownColt]

@MyColtsAccount: Top-Graded Colts on Defense:

Parry (+4.3)

[Dustin]

Interior O-line was awful.

[lollygagger8]

My cliff note version thoughts: 

 

Robinson was making #34 look good again! Pleasantly surprised by him. His story alone is enough to root for the guy, but he played really well. 

 

Hasselback was terrible. 

 

If Bennett quits staring down receivers, he could be ok. Some of his moves were pretty impressive. 

 

When did we forget how to tackle? 

 

The first AJ slant sighting!!! We are going to destroy with that play. 

 

The "smoke" play where Luck reads the safety and checks out of a run and throws to WR instead and picks up 7 yards.....that play is MONEY. Hope to see a lot more of that. 

 

I realize the Eagles tempo was exhausting, but when we let Tim Tebow look decent against us.....that's pretty pathetic. 

 

I don't know who Casey is, but he is terrible. He looked lost the entire game. 

 

 

Oh, and I realize they put in the 3rd stringers on the TV replay team, but geesh that was hard to watch. Get on with it and quit running over the next plays! 

[Steamboat_Shaun]

Anyone know when the joint practices with Chicago begin? I know it's this week, just wasn't sure if today was an off-day, or if they're right back at it.

[Gavin]

They need to do a better job of announcing subs in my opinion and not just the QB

[ÅÐØNϧ 1]

another great write up Superman... I'll be able to watch it tomorrow,but on the outdife looking in and seeing the scores.. it looks like again we were OUT Coached and ill prepared.... hope the tape shows different

 

You nailed it dude   "  Out Coached & ill Prepared "    says it all ..  

[ÅÐØNϧ 1]

You forgot to mention that after getting that big contract TY was nearly invisible out there. 

 

The Ghost had an excused absence he was invisible out there .

[tncoltsfan57]

I have a grade for the game yesterday as well..."F" as in failure. As far as a suckfest I'll give it an "A". It seems from the chat room most of the folks are still living in fantasy football land. Fantasy football is something that guys that never played a down of football give advice to other people that have never played before about how to rate and grade the efforts of the players and the game as a whole. They arleady have a method for that and it's called a scoreboard. Grade "A" if you win, "F" if you lose. I hope the Colts fans get their heads out of fantasy land and realize we have a great starting offense, a lousy defense and pitiful depth outside the offensive skill positions. We should not, as fans put up with a meodiocre "kiss your sister" team....where is that "Monster" we were supposed to build? The coaching staff seems always to be reactive to what the other team is doing and we seldom set the tempo or dominate a game, we have been the beneficiary of a weak division for many years and should have 4-5 super bowls to show for it. Looks like we are going to repeat the Manning days with the Luck days and end up like the Braves of MLB, Irsay spend the money to get some defensive studs and lets win a couple of Super Bowls....NOW. Sorry, I needed that...whew!!!!

[Valpo2004]

Liked how all the RB's looked quite honestly.  Even the UDFA from Yale seemed to have some solid runs.

 

Bennett made some plays and flashed some but made a lot of bone headed mistakes.  He's athletic and it looks like he has an NFL arm.  I'm willing to give him a year on practice squad to see if he can be developed into a decent backup.  His problems seem to be entirely mental.

 

DB's did horribly after first team left the field.  However we where playing without Davis and Butler and Smith got hurt early.  Most of those guys probably won't be on the roster come September.

 

Was impressed with the D-line second string.  A lot of pressure was put on QB's.  

 

Thought Carter could have done better, he had a bad drop.

[HtownColt]

@MyColtsAccount: Other Notable @PFF Grades:

Geathers (-3.4)

C. Johnson (-3.3)

Kerr (-3.3)

Muamba (-3.1)

Tipton (-2.9)

Good (-2.6)

Hughes (-1.6)

McAfee (+1.6)

[Coffeedrinker]

I disagree about the run blocking of the line, there were two main problems with the running blocking that I saw:

1. The gaps were there, Tipton was just slow getting to them.  I think Tipton lacks some acceleration but Luck does not get that ball into is gut very quickly either.
2. I really think the Colts need a new offensive line coach and a new scheme, there are too many times when the oline is doubling a guy but a guy on the near backside is free to come make the play.  You have to account for that guy somehow to at least slow him up a bit either with a TE or counter moves or misdirection.  But they will run a straight run up the 5 hole and leave the backside ILB open to come make the play.  Or on one the backside OLB was lined up just outside the tackle and he was left unblocked and he came down the line and made the stop for a 1 yard gain.  The QB should have moved a TE to that side or a WR to move that OLB out.  The line executed that play just fine but there was a major flaw in the design.

[NewEra]

You forgot to mention that after getting that big contract TY was nearly invisible out there.

No doubt! Dude didn't even make a catch! One single catch! We are in serious trouble

;)

[NewEra]

I have a grade for the game yesterday as well..."F" as in failure. As far as a suckfest I'll give it an "A". It seems from the chat room most of the folks are still living in fantasy football land. Fantasy football is something that guys that never played a down of football give advice to other people that have never played before about how to rate and grade the efforts of the players and the game as a whole. They arleady have a method for that and it's called a scoreboard. Grade "A" if you win, "F" if you lose. I hope the Colts fans get their heads out of fantasy land and realize we have a great starting offense, a lousy defense and pitiful depth outside the offensive skill positions. We should not, as fans put up with a meodiocre "kiss your sister" team....where is that "Monster" we were supposed to build? The coaching staff seems always to be reactive to what the other team is doing and we seldom set the tempo or dominate a game, we have been the beneficiary of a weak division for many years and should have 4-5 super bowls to show for it. Looks like we are going to repeat the Manning days with the Luck days and end up like the Braves of MLB, Irsay spend the money to get some defensive studs and lets win a couple of Super Bowls....NOW. Sorry, I needed that...whew!!!!

Can't be serious?!? Am I right?!? Lol

[TKnight24]

You don't really game plan. You just work on our own things. There was lots of plays they were loaded in the box that we could of checked out of.

You game plan (somewhat) week 3 when the starters see the most time

[TKnight24]

@MyColtsAccount: Other Notable @PFF Grades:

Geathers (-3.4)

C. Johnson (-3.3)

Kerr (-3.3)

Muamba (-3.1)

Tipton (-2.9)

Good (-2.6)

Hughes (-1.6)

McAfee (+1.6)

Eh, probably only 3-4 of them are making the roster anyway. Other half are cut

[King Colt]

Like most of us I watch this preseason "football" because it is football. I hate to see the Colts look bad, win or lose so watching first preseason it is all I can do to just chalk it up as a meaningless game even though it is not. So the Bears are next and I will watch again (the Bears are my NFC team) and again win or lose I'll say "it' a meaningless game" even though it is not.

[ColtStronger]

You forgot to mention that after getting that big contract TY was nearly invisible out there. 

He is the ghost lol

[ColtStronger]

Interior O-line was awful.

What's new?

[braveheartcolt]

I have a grade for the game yesterday as well..."F" as in failure. As far as a suckfest I'll give it an "A". It seems from the chat room most of the folks are still living in fantasy football land. Fantasy football is something that guys that never played a down of football give advice to other people that have never played before about how to rate and grade the efforts of the players and the game as a whole. They arleady have a method for that and it's called a scoreboard. Grade "A" if you win, "F" if you lose. I hope the Colts fans get their heads out of fantasy land and realize we have a great starting offense, a lousy defense and pitiful depth outside the offensive skill positions. We should not, as fans put up with a meodiocre "kiss your sister" team....where is that "Monster" we were supposed to build? The coaching staff seems always to be reactive to what the other team is doing and we seldom set the tempo or dominate a game, we have been the beneficiary of a weak division for many years and should have 4-5 super bowls to show for it. Looks like we are going to repeat the Manning days with the Luck days and end up like the Braves of MLB, Irsay spend the money to get some defensive studs and lets win a couple of Super Bowls....NOW. Sorry, I needed that...whew!!!!

Thanks Jeff. That cheered me up. And I for one am not going to put up with it either. That's it. I'm off to support the Jags. No, the Buccs. Yes, I'll become a Tampa Bay fan. Or maybe even the Jets. That will teach Mr Irsay for building such a girlie team.

Bye forum friends, it's been a fun 12 years on here, but it's time to go and find that new monster team...

[braveheartcolt]

Definitely a bright spot. He played outstanding. His style reminds me of Ray Rice (hopefully he'll be half as good)

Agreed. Hopefully along with Gore he packs a real good 1-2 punch...

[Bluefire4]

We will play better than this. I seem this as the game was on, and Chuck alluded to it afterward. They don't gameplan against this type of offense which let many of our young guys confused and tired. The Eagles will be 4-0 in preseason and we will be better Saturday.

[PeterBowman]

honestly outside of Smith's concussion, there were no major injuries....I consider that a win right there.

[MrNLM]

We had some good plays and I went back and looked at them to see what else was going on. Feel free to add plays for us to view.

 

Offsides Dorsett Catch

 

Trying to figure out what happened to Mewhort here. He was the last one to engage a defender on the line and nearly allowed the defender to get to the ball/Luck. All other linemen did a good job of protection. Any insight as to what might have happened here?

 

Robinson Touchdown

 

Great run first of all. In review, it didn't have to be that hard. O'brien let the first and second defenders go have a shot at stopping the run and then Carter barely engaged the third and let him go too. Carter was not impressive and appeared to be lost most of the game. Blocking like that while you are trying to make a name for yourself in unacceptable. Bray and Ruffin did much worse on the other side of the play and allowed a defender to come across the formation towards the play.

 

I'll leave these for your viewing and add thoughts later maybe. Feel free to point out what you see so we can discuss.

 

Agholor TD

 

Mathews Catch

 

Austin Catch

 

Barner TD

 

Barner Return

[Superman]

Do you expect him to make the final roster? 

 

Not off of Game 1's performance. He'll have to play a lot better than that moving forward. 

[Superman]

Barner TD

 

Thanks for breaking those out. This one is what I was talking about with Cam Johnson. He gets blown up on the playside, and everyone else is useless because of it. 

[SteelCityColt]

Not off of Game 1's performance. He'll have to play a lot better than that moving forward.

I'm more than ok with that personally, Newsome has shown a lot more and adding Cole makes him surplus to requirements for me.

[MrNLM]

Thanks for breaking those out. This one is what I was talking about with Cam Johnson. He gets blown up on the playside, and everyone else is useless because of it. 

I have the Tipton catch and the Dorsett fumble as well but they seemed to be pretty straight forward. If you want them I can add them for viewing.

[bababooey]

 

Barner Return

 

I missed the game sitting in traffic on 95 all afternoon. I just threw up watching this.

[Superman]

I have the Tipton catch and the Dorsett fumble as well but they seemed to be pretty straight forward. If you want them I can add them for viewing.

 

There was a 2nd and 10 carry by Ryan Matthews with 4:36 left in the first quarter. If you have that, that would be awesome. I can view it, but I can't post it right now. If not, oh well.

 

On that play, Trent Cole slow plays his read on the QB to make sure he's not keeping it, but he stays too wide on the backside, leaving too big of a hole for the RB to cut back through. Not only that, but he stayed on his QB read too long. The play wound up going for 13 yards. Everyone else did a pretty good job, but Cole's misplay cost the defense a first down. That's kind of concerning, because Cole has practiced against read option the past two years; he ought to know how to read the option and play at the proper width/depth. We're probably better off using the scrape/exchange.

 

Another thing on that play, we went to our typical nickel package, with our starting DT and DE, Langford and Jones in the middle, two OLBs, two ILBs. The play flowed to the right, and the Eagles doubled both DL, totally destroying them. The ILBs had no recourse, and although the initial flow of the play didn't yield anything, our front was dominated, leaving the cutback somewhat open. It shouldn't have been as open as it was, but even if Cole had pinched down further like he should have, he would have been one on one in the hole with Ryan Mathews, and if he had been beat to the outside, there would have been no one there to stop the RB. 

 

That's one of four plays that actually bothered me. The other three:

 

1) The punt return -- yeah, it's preseason, but these are the guys who are actually going to play punt coverage for us, and they blew it. Great punt, maybe a little deep, but we had three shots to nail the returner, and blew them all. Can't happen.

 

2) The TD by Agholor, just dumb, dumb, DUMB football by Toler. And it's something that he's known for from time to time. Ugh...

 

3) The TD run by Barner, which you already posted. Terrible edge work by Cam Johnson. He probably won't make the team, but he was on the weakside playing Rush. Cole figures to be the starting Rush while Mathis is out, and we already talked about him misplaying the edge, although he'll probably be better on non-read plays, as he usually does well on the edge. Newsome is his backup, and he's not good on the edge against the run. Neither is Mathis, really. Bad outside contain ruins otherwise good run defense.

 

The rest of the stuff is just poor execution by young players and deep reserves. 

[MrNLM]

There was a 2nd and 10 carry by Ryan Matthews with 4:36 left in the first quarter. If you have that, that would be awesome. I can view it, but I can't post it right now. If not, oh well.

 

On that play, Trent Cole slow plays his read on the QB to make sure he's not keeping it, but he stays too wide on the backside, leaving too big of a hole for the RB to cut back through. Not only that, but he stayed on his QB read too long. The play wound up going for 13 yards. Everyone else did a pretty good job, but Cole's misplay cost the defense a first down. That's kind of concerning, because Cole has practiced against read option the past two years; he ought to know how to read the option and play at the proper width/depth. We're probably better off using the scrape/exchange.

 

Another thing on that play, we went to our typical nickel package, with our starting DT and DE, Langford and Jones in the middle, two OLBs, two ILBs. The play flowed to the right, and the Eagles doubled both DL, totally destroying them. The ILBs had no recourse, and although the initial flow of the play didn't yield anything, our front was dominated, leaving the cutback somewhat open. It shouldn't have been as open as it was, but even if Cole had pinched down further like he should have, he would have been one on one in the hole with Ryan Mathews, and if he had been beat to the outside, there would have been no one there to stop the RB. 

 

That's one of four plays that actually bothered me. The other three:

 

1) The punt return -- yeah, it's preseason, but these are the guys who are actually going to play punt coverage for us, and they blew it. Great punt, maybe a little deep, but we had three shots to nail the returner, and blew them all. Can't happen.

 

2) The TD by Agholor, just dumb, dumb, DUMB football by Toler. And it's something that he's known for from time to time. Ugh...

 

3) The TD run by Barner, which you already posted. Terrible edge work by Cam Johnson. He probably won't make the team, but he was on the weakside playing Rush. Cole figures to be the starting Rush while Mathis is out, and we already talked about him misplaying the edge, although he'll probably be better on non-read plays, as he usually does well on the edge. Newsome is his backup, and he's not good on the edge against the run. Neither is Mathis, really. Bad outside contain ruins otherwise good run defense.

 

The rest of the stuff is just poor execution by young players and deep reserves. 

Adding it to the catalog now.

 

EDIT: NVM too late to edit my post.

 

Here ya go!

 

Mathews Run

[Superman]

Adding it to the catalog now.

 

EDIT: NVM too late to edit my post.

 

Here ya go!

 

Mathews Run

 

Goodness, Art Jones got steamrolled...

[MrNLM]

Goodness, Art Jones got steamrolled...

Yeah that was ugly. His help came is super late.

[RockThatBlue]

Anyone know when the joint practices with Chicago begin? I know it's this week, just wasn't sure if today was an off-day, or if they're right back at it.

I think Wednesday. Could be wrong but feel like I read or heard that somewhere.