Pep Hamilton vs. Andrew Luck [Merge]

[Nesjan3]

For me the play calling in the first half was atrocious, I understand that they knew the Bills were going to blitz early and often, so they thought they could burn them quick with the deep throws, but when that failed to work, instead of going to the run game in order to keep the defense honest (which we were avg over 4yrd per carry), we kept throwing over and over, mainly targeting TY. IMO we would have had a chance if we would have given Gore a chance, but we fell behind and the run game became absolete.

 

At first I was all about blaming pep but now I am hearing reports that Andrew kept switching plays out of runs at the line, do you agree or disagree with this? and furthermore who should be held accountable?

[21isSuperman]

I haven't seen those reports regarding Luck switching out of plays.  But both him and Pep were bad yesterday.  I think we had a 1st and 25, and Pep calls a run.  Complete lack of awareness regarding situational football.

[AndrewQB1]

Where did you hearAndrew kept calling audibles?

[Redbull]

Pag said it in his press conference

[ColtsLegacy]

I haven't seen those reports regarding Luck switching out of plays. But both him and Pep were bad yesterday. I think we had a 1st and 25, and Pep calls a run. Complete lack of awareness regarding situational football.

Where did you hearAndrew kept calling audibles?

https://twitter.com/HolderStephen/status/643519766775373824?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

Stephen Holder – Verified account ‏@HolderStephen

Gotta be more diligent about giving Gore opps despite the loaded tackle box by the defense, Pagano said. Some of that's on Luck (audibled)

[Bluefire4]

Chuck said at his press conference that they didn't run as much because they kept 8 in the box so they switched to passes. I'm guessing Andrew had the decision in his hands so he needs to be more effective if he kept changing to passes.

[21isSuperman]

https://twitter.com/HolderStephen/status/643519766775373824?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

Stephen Holder – Verified account ‏@HolderStephen

Gotta be more diligent about giving Gore opps despite the loaded tackle box by the defense, Pagano said. Some of that's on Luck (audibled)

Thanks!

[COLTS449]

I haven't seen those reports regarding Luck switching out of plays.  But both him and Pep were bad yesterday.  I think we had a 1st and 25, and Pep calls a run.  Complete lack of awareness regarding situational football.

 

YES! I've seen so many teams do this its pathetic. Why would you run on a 1st and 25? I mean it makes no sense. Chances are you aren't going to pick up 10-15 yards or nothing. Hell if it were me I wouldn't ever call a run on a 3rd and 25 like we do sometimes. You know unless we're at our own 1 yard line and just trying to get some space for Patty Mac to punt it off. Take a gamble and go for the 1st down lol.

[esmort]

Luck's mistakes fall on the coaching staff as well as Luck ... I feel like Luck really hasn't had someone who could really coach him up since he has been here. He needs a QB guru who can help him just make small tweaks/adjustments.  Clyde Christensen is not that guy.

[IndyD4U]

My take on yesterdays game.

To start, costly penalties killed us in the first half. The first two drives we were moving the ball and those drives stalled because of stupid penalties. We can clean that up so I'm not too worried. Luck also played one of the worst games, IMO, in his short career. He missed several throws, including a short screen pass for Gore that would have went fro 30 yards or more and under threw TY for a given TD. By my count, Luck could have easily been picked off 6 times yesterday. The receivers were struggling getting open, but I blame field conditions more than anything, so not worried there. The Oline looked okay. Buffalo is a hard test and I think we'll be fine, and improved over last year. Shout-out to Mewhort, btw. He had a solid game.

The Dline played solid as well. Langford was a straight up beast yesterday, and Anderson had a heck of a day too. Parry and Kerr will continue to get better, but I thought they played fine. The weakest vulnerablilty that we have on that side of the ball is this ILB group (Freeman and DQ) they got straight up owned. Missed tackles and just out of place all day. I expect to see Sio and Irving more in the coming weeks. Butler can't play on the outside. We know he excels on the inside, but his got burnt yesterday. With Toler always unavailable and a liability when he is playing, I hope we see Brown and Smith step up. Geathers and Lowry played well too. We all know this already, but Lowry is already a huge upgrade over Landry. I hope Adams turns it around, he struggled yesterday.

The bottom line is that we can fix this. Execution can be fixed, stupid penalties fixed...ILB can even be fixed. It's week one and there is a lot of football left to play. I am just as disappointed as everyone else, but, in the end, it will all be okay.

GO COLTS!!

[jayt327]

Luck needs to continue to get better all around. Yes, he came in NFL ready, but he's still having the same issues as he did the first few years (throwing tons of int's, starring down his WR's). He's a special player, but at some point the rest of the NFL catches up with you, so we have to hope he continues to evolve and that his best is yet to come.

[#12.]

Rewatched the game. The play calling wasn't that bad. Pep actually called some decent drive starting plays. Not bad on 3rd down. The offense looked fairly normal. Two things stopped this offense: horrible field position and penalties. A combination of the two killed practically every first half drive.

[MissyE]

Well, in that case, maybe Pep Hamilton is not as terrible as I always thought.  Maybe.

Edited September 15, 2015 by 21isSuperman

[zibby43]

After reading the post-game coverage and re-watching the game, it appears that Luck was the one opting into many of the passing plays when he was at the line of scrimmage.  It wasn't Pep just dialing up pass after pass on the sideline.

 

Luck is a great QB, and how successful this team is/can be is heavily dependent on Luck playing well.  When he's on, with the weapons he has at his disposal, this team will be very difficult to beat.  That's another topic though.

 

As far as the Bills game is concerned, many of the schemes Pep was trying to implement were working/had the potential to work.  2 factors derailed the offense's success: 1) way too many back-breaking penalties; 2) poor play by Luck and our WR corps (I'll cut Hilton some slack though because despite the fact he had some bad plays, he also hauled in many tough catches).

 

As good as Luck has been (and is), he was simply off his game Sunday.  A stellar Bills defense (a well-coached defense with a plethora of talent) only served to further stifle Luck.

 

Luck had a bad game from both mental (incorrectly diagnosing pressure and making poor checks/pre-snap reads) and physical (bad throws, bad timing, sloppy footwork (made worse by the Bills' pressure), etc.) perspectives.

 

All great QBs have duds, occasionally.  It's just the way it is.  When a great QB has a dud against an elite defense, it's going to be a long day for the offense. 

 

So before completely bagging on Pep, I would advise re-watching the offensive snaps.  Luck has quite a bit of discretion at the LOS and on Sunday, he used that discretion to opt into lots of passing plays.  The unsuccessful results of the particular plays can't be attributed to Pep. 

 

Finally, some of the blame goes to the WRs.  None of our WRs were very physical on Sunday.  They really got abused on 50-50 balls.  On bad throws, our WRs, including Hilton, refused to even attempt to contest the throw.

 

All that said, the Gore "pitch count" makes no sense at all.  The Colts won't have to worry about keeping him fresh for the post-season if they don't make it.  Yes, there's still a long way to go but the idea of a pitch count is a little strange to me, especially given the wafer thin depth at RB right now.

[BleedBlu8792]

After reading the post-game coverage and re-watching the game, it appears that Luck was the one opting into many of the passing plays when he was at the line of scrimmage.  It wasn't Pep just dialing up pass after pass on the sideline.

 

Luck is a great QB, and how successful this team is/can be is heavily dependent on Luck playing well.  When he's on, with the weapons he has at his disposal, this team will be very difficult to beat.  That's another topic though.

 

As far as the Bills game is concerned, many of the schemes Pep was trying to implement were working/had the potential to work.  2 factors derailed the offense's success: 1) way too many back-breaking penalties; 2) poor play by Luck and our WR corps (I'll cut Hilton some slack though because despite the fact he had some bad plays, he also hauled in many tough catches).

 

As good as Luck has been (and is), he was simply off his game Sunday.  A stellar Bills defense (a well-coached defense with a plethora of talent) only served to further stifle Luck.

 

Luck had a bad game from both mental (incorrectly diagnosing pressure and making poor checks/pre-snap reads) and physical (bad throws, bad timing, sloppy footwork (made worse by the Bills' pressure), etc.) perspectives.

 

All great QBs have duds, occasionally.  It's just the way it is.  When a great QB has a dud against an elite defense, it's going to be a long day for the offense. 

 

So before completely bagging on Pep, I would advise re-watching the offensive snaps.  Luck has quite a bit of discretion at the LOS and on Sunday, he used that discretion to opt into lots of passing plays.  The unsuccessful results of the particular plays can't be attributed to Pep. 

 

Finally, some of the blame goes to the WRs.  None of our WRs were very physical on Sunday.  They really got abused on 50-50 balls.  On bad throws, our WRs, including Hilton, refused to even attempt to contest the throw.

 

All that said, the Gore "pitch count" makes no sense at all.  The Colts won't have to worry about keeping him fresh for the post-season if they don't make it.  Yes, there's still a long way to go but the idea of a pitch count is a little strange to me, especially given the wafer thin depth at RB right now.

 

Nope, it was the OL's fault....

[Superman]

To me, the coordinator at any point in the game should be able to tell the QB that the game is getting away from him and we're not going to audible out of every run play four series in a row.

Blame Luck for not being sharp, but blame Pep for not reeling Luck in at some during that 16-3 streak of paases vs runs.

[Bluefire4]

Frank Gore looked ticked in his interview. We better give him the ball more.

[crazycolt1]

It is popular to pile on all the coaches and GM after a loss. Luck was off his game pretty much the whole game. Seems like no one wants to give credit to the Bills for playing an excellent game. Colts came into a buss saw in Buffalo. I have a feeling that the Bills will give a lot of good teams fits this year because they are very good themselves.

[Gavin]

Man I don't even care anymore, We have not had a 1000 yard rusher since 2007. I am so sick of not running the football and not being able to run the football when we actually want to run the football that its well beyond the point of ridiculous.....Its become a joke now. Somebody has to go at the end of this season unless things change....49 passes is just silly...inexcusable. The defense is going to get worn out having to come out on the field if you have a completion rate like Luck did throwing that many passes. Will somebody teach this team what a slant is and what the purpose of it is? How about Coby re-introduce himself to Luck? We could have used our TE's more over the middle, You don't need to throw the ball to Hilton 14 times for him to be affective.

[RockThatBlue]

Frank Gore looked ticked in his interview. We better give him the ball more.

I thought he didn't seem very happy about it either. I don't understand why this team has issues to committing to the run. Gore didn't come to Indy to get 8 carries a game (granted the cramps put him on the sideline for a bit but he came back and still didn't really get a touch)

[esmort]

I am not upset he audibled out of the run, but he should have went to a short quick pass play. Not those med-long slower developing plays when he knows the blitz is coming.  I also agree Pagano or Pep should have given him some guidance or taken control.  I brought this up in a different thread, but Luck needs a good QB coach to help him through some of these rough patches as he develops.

[#12.]

After re-watching the game, had they not started on the 7 yard line every drive, and had they not incurred 115 yards in penalties, what Luck and Pep were doing probably would have worked. It was pretty much our normal offense, what had worked for us last year. Not much of anything was going to work at 2nd and 20 inside the 10.

[mvbighead]

After re-watching the game, had they not started on the 7 yard line every drive, and had they not incurred 115 yards in penalties, what Luck and Pep were doing probably would have worked. It was pretty much our normal offense, what had worked for us last year. Not much of anything was going to work at 2nd and 20 inside the 10.

 

There is a lot of truth to this.  Our field position was seldom good.

 

I do agree that we should stick to the run more.  This team appeared to have Hilton taken out of the deep game.  But I do fail to see why we didn't hit them with Moncrief and Dorsett deep at least once or twice.  If they take away Hilton deep, we still have two guys with very good wheels.

 

All in all, I don't see all the reason for the hate towards Pep.  The players simply didn't execute.  Guess that makes it his fault.  Meh.

[BrentMc11]

Man I don't even care anymore, We have not had a 1000 yard rusher since 2007. I am so sick of not running the football and not being able to run the football when we actually want to run the football that its well beyond the point of ridiculous.....Its become a joke now. Somebody has to go at the end of this season unless things change....49 passes is just silly...inexcusable. The defense is going to get worn out having to come out on the field if you have a completion rate like Luck did throwing that many passes. Will somebody teach this team what a slant is and what the purpose of it is? How about Coby re-introduce himself to Luck? n We could have used our TE's more over the middle, You don't need to throw the ball to Hilton14 times for him to be affective.

This.....and more Andre Johnson....for that matter Dorsett.

 

The team was not ready for the crowd noise either....and we practiced all week with crowd noise.

 

I am finding it surprising on all of the holding calls.  Both teams got nailed on them.  The referees could call holding on every play...lets take note of this officiating crew at #Keeptheflaginthepocket.            

[lollygagger8]

Yes, Luck was off on Sunday, but I think people are piling on Pep because he can't seem to make in-game adjustments. It's like he has the list of plays and just goes down the list regardless of the situation or downs. 

 

Buffalo was bringing the house constantly and we just kept trying to run long developing routes. Where were all the blitz beating plays?  SLANT TO AJ, run off tackle, screens, throw to RB <- I think we did that one time maybe? 

 

We didn't even start dinking and dunking until 3rd quarter (on the scoring drive that took waaaaaay too long) 

[1959Colts]

The Colts, once again, extremely underachieved.

Pep had no answers. He is as much to blame as everyone else.

Very disappointing game to start the new season.

[NagelHausForge]

Don't you think that as the Offensive Coordinator if you see your QB having issues you would tell him to run a couple of running plays just to get the pressure off him?  Tell him not to audible out of the play and let Gore do what he does?  I get it that Pep is giving Luck a lot of control over the offense but the job of the coordinator is to identify what's working and what isn't and when your QB's accuracy and decision making aren't working you have to step in. 

 

I guess we will never know what the conversations were like on the sidelines but hopefully Pep and Luck can look at the film and learn from it.

[Defjamz26]

Man I don't even care anymore, We have not had a 1000 yard rusher since 2007. I am so sick of not running the football and not being able to run the football when we actually want to run the football that its well beyond the point of ridiculous.....Its become a joke now. Somebody has to go at the end of this season unless things change....49 passes is just silly...inexcusable. The defense is going to get worn out having to come out on the field if you have a completion rate like Luck did throwing that many passes. Will somebody teach this team what a slant is and what the purpose of it is? How about Coby re-introduce himself to Luck? We could have used our TE's more over the middle, You don't need to throw the ball to Hilton 14 times for him to be affective.

That's on Pep IMO. Not properly using the TEs. Mainly leaving Luck to throw deep to a WR. He needs to tell Luck to look for Fleener or Allen because either one of them on on one with most LBs is a matchup you like.

Especially with their lack of size and playmakers at safety, we should have exploited the middle of that field.

[Jim H.]

After reading the post-game coverage and re-watching the game, it appears that Luck was the one opting into many of the passing plays when he was at the line of scrimmage.  It wasn't Pep just dialing up pass after pass on the sideline.

 

Luck is a great QB, and how successful this team is/can be is heavily dependent on Luck playing well.  When he's on, with the weapons he has at his disposal, this team will be very difficult to beat.  That's another topic though.

 

As far as the Bills game is concerned, many of the schemes Pep was trying to implement were working/had the potential to work.  2 factors derailed the offense's success: 1) way too many back-breaking penalties; 2) poor play by Luck and our WR corps (I'll cut Hilton some slack though because despite the fact he had some bad plays, he also hauled in many tough catches).

 

As good as Luck has been (and is), he was simply off his game Sunday.  A stellar Bills defense (a well-coached defense with a plethora of talent) only served to further stifle Luck.

 

Luck had a bad game from both mental (incorrectly diagnosing pressure and making poor checks/pre-snap reads) and physical (bad throws, bad timing, sloppy footwork (made worse by the Bills' pressure), etc.) perspectives.

 

All great QBs have duds, occasionally.  It's just the way it is.  When a great QB has a dud against an elite defense, it's going to be a long day for the offense. 

 

So before completely bagging on Pep, I would advise re-watching the offensive snaps.  Luck has quite a bit of discretion at the LOS and on Sunday, he used that discretion to opt into lots of passing plays.  The unsuccessful results of the particular plays can't be attributed to Pep. 

 

Finally, some of the blame goes to the WRs.  None of our WRs were very physical on Sunday.  They really got abused on 50-50 balls.  On bad throws, our WRs, including Hilton, refused to even attempt to contest the throw.

 

All that said, the Gore "pitch count" makes no sense at all.  The Colts won't have to worry about keeping him fresh for the post-season if they don't make it.  Yes, there's still a long way to go but the idea of a pitch count is a little strange to me, especially given the wafer thin depth at RB right now.

The was in Buffalo's stadium, not the "LOS."  Oops..."line of scrimmage."  Heheheh.

[NagelHausForge]

The was in Buffalo's stadium, not the "LOS."  Oops..."line of scrimmage."  Heheheh.

 

LOS = Line of Scrimmage.... not Lucas Oil Stadium... Context matters.

[NagelHausForge]

The was in Buffalo's stadium, not the "LOS."  Oops..."line of scrimmage."  Heheheh.

 

HAHAHA you edited your response just as I was ribbing you!

[Jim H.]

Don't you think that as the Offensive Coordinator if you see your QB having issues you would tell him to run a couple of running plays just to get the pressure off him?  Tell him not to audible out of the play and let Gore do what he does?  I get it that Pep is giving Luck a lot of control over the offense but the job of the coordinator is to identify what's working and what isn't and when your QB's accuracy and decision making aren't working you have to step in. 

 

I guess we will never know what the conversations were like on the sidelines but hopefully Pep and Luck can look at the film and learn from it.

I tried to listen to their conversations, but all I got was music from a Boston radio station.

[NagelHausForge]

I tried to listen to their conversations, but all I got was music from a Boston radio station.

 

Well played...

[throwing BBZ]

Man I don't even care anymore, We have not had a 1000 yard rusher since 2007. I am so sick of not running the football and not being able to run the football when we actually want to run the football that its well beyond the point of ridiculous.....Its become a joke now. Somebody has to go at the end of this season unless things change....49 passes is just silly...inexcusable. The defense is going to get worn out having to come out on the field if you have a completion rate like Luck did throwing that many passes. Will somebody teach this team what a slant is and what the purpose of it is? How about Coby re-introduce himself to Luck? We could have used our TE's more over the middle, You don't need to throw the ball to Hilton 14 times for him to be affective.

 

 It`s wonderful Andrew is this Genious regarding where everyone is supposed to line up.

 And maybe his pre-snap reads are amazing. 

 But after the snap against good D`s, ????    Overtargeting and Overthrows galore. lol

 Agree we gotta run the ___ ball to be a top team. Go Colts!!

 

 Lots of Yutes out there trying to get better for sure.

 I`m a testy old fart i know, but i know we have to grind it out for half a season or so to see what these players can become.

 Ugh, so far, and it looks iffy for a few more games. Oh well.

 DQ says it was a wakeup call. Yip, for this forums load of Homers.

 

[NewEra]

To me, the coordinator at any point in the game should be able to tell the QB that the game is getting away from him and we're not going to audible out of every run play four series in a row.

Blame Luck for not being sharp, but blame Pep for not reeling Luck in at some during that 16-3 streak of paases vs runs.

Had to quote so maybe it will sink in with some. It's ultimately on the coaching. You are in charge of your QB. Like you said you tell him to reel it in. What I don't get is why aren't we using screens and dump offs like other teams do to be the blitz. Manning would shred blitzes apart.

[Superman]

Had to quote so maybe it will sink in with some. It's ultimately on the coaching. You are in charge of your QB. Like you said you tell him to reel it in. What I don't get is why aren't we using screens and dump offs like other teams do to be the blitz. Manning would shred blitzes apart.

Luck plain missed on two well designed screen plays in the first half. One was 3rd and 4, and would have been a big play for Gore.

[crazycolt1]

Had to quote so maybe it will sink in with some. It's ultimately on the coaching. You are in charge of your QB. Like you said you tell him to reel it in. What I don't get is why aren't we using screens and dump offs like other teams do to be the blitz. Manning would shred blitzes apart.

Manning has one of the quickest releases in the NFL. Luck don't.

[12dalegend]

To me, the coordinator at any point in the game should be able to tell the QB that the game is getting away from him and we're not going to audible out of every run play four series in a row.

Blame Luck for not being sharp, but blame Pep for not reeling Luck in at some during that 16-3 streak of paases vs runs.

SPOT ON!  Gore ran on some of the toughest Dʻs in the NFL especially in the NFC west even on blitz packages....feed the ball to Gore Iʻm pretty sure theyʻre not paying him about 4 mil. to just block

[Jonathan24]

I still blame PEP... didnt have any problems when bruce was calling plays as OC... offense went dry when pep came in.

[John Waylon]

To me, the coordinator at any point in the game should be able to tell the QB that the game is getting away from him and we're not going to audible out of every run play four series in a row.

Blame Luck for not being sharp, but blame Pep for not reeling Luck in at some during that 16-3 streak of paases vs runs.

 

There is so much truth in this post.