Dissecting the play calls

[Jdubu]

For the guys here who look over the video a few times, can you comment on how many

screens we attempted yesterday

3 step drops and fire the ball out

Passes in the flat

TE targets down the seam

Delayed draw

In my limited recollection, I don't recall 1 screen (again) 1 TE target down the seam, zero 3 step and fire targets. Remember when Hassleback was dropping back and there we no pass rush in his face because they were not blitzing with the kitchen sink? Then the first half of Lucks first game back he wasn't getting blitzed like he was before Hassleback but quickly that changed? I would love to have overhead snap shots of patterns played out with each snap of Lucks because it seems he has nothing to outlet to, he is asked to hit his receivers 15 or more yards down the field because it seems they are all running deeper routes.

Anyways, I'd just be interested to know if we have those shorter routes avail and open and Luck is looking for the big play or if the coaches are designing the deep patterns and the line can't hold for 5 seconds to open up that deep route. Are there short flat or slants that are just covered as well? It just seems of these teams are rushing so many to flood the oline, something has to be open and Luck either isn't finding that hot read or we aren't giving him hot routes.

[jameszeigler834]

For the guys here who look over the video a few times, can you comment on how many

screens we attempted yesterday

3 step drops and fire the ball out

Passes in the flat

TE targets down the seam

Delayed draw

In my limited recollection, I don't recall 1 screen (again) 1 TE target down the seam, zero 3 step and fire targets. Remember when Hassleback was dropping back and there we no pass rush in his face because they were not blitzing with the kitchen sink? Then the first half of Lucks first game back he wasn't getting blitzed like he was before Hassleback but quickly that changed? I would love to have overhead snap shots of patterns played out with each snap of Lucks because it seems he has nothing to outlet to, he is asked to hit his receivers 15 or more yards down the field because it seems they are all running deeper routes.

Anyways, I'd just be interested to know if we have those shorter routes avail and open and Luck is looking for the big play or if the coaches are designing the deep patterns and the line can't hold for 5 seconds to open up that deep route. Are there short flat or slants that are just covered as well? It just seems of these teams are rushing so many to flood the oline, something has to be open and Luck either isn't finding that hot read or we aren't giving him hot routes.

I think its both.

[Steamboat_Shaun]

They tried to run one screen to Dorsett, right before he got hurt, but a defensive guy went by Castonzo unblocked, and knocked the ball down in the backfield. It was pathetic.

[ColtStronger]

They did run several RB screens or flat routes, and one WR screen I can think of.  I'd like to see Moncreif getting some of those and Luck/Gore chemistry out of the backfield needs to improve.  Luck has horrible accuracy when throwing to Gore.  He has all season!  He also needs to throw on the run and get out of the pocket more often.  It may open up better opportunities to run and slide also.  I've seen some improvement in these areas but definitely not enough!

[DougDew]

They ran two screens that I remember and they both got batted down.  Actually another that Gore barely caught after it was almost intercepted.

[spartancolt]

I would like to see more screens but this team doesn't execute them well. Wr screens to our speed guys could help luck get into a rhythm

[throwing BBZ]

For the guys here who look over the video a few times, can you comment on how many

screens we attempted yesterday

3 step drops and fire the ball out

Passes in the flat

TE targets down the seam

Delayed draw

In my limited recollection, I don't recall 1 screen (again) 1 TE target down the seam, zero 3 step and fire targets. Remember when Hassleback was dropping back and there we no pass rush in his face because they were not blitzing with the kitchen sink? Then the first half of Lucks first game back he wasn't getting blitzed like he was before Hassleback but quickly that changed? I would love to have overhead snap shots of patterns played out with each snap of Lucks because it seems he has nothing to outlet to, he is asked to hit his receivers 15 or more yards down the field because it seems they are all running deeper routes.

Anyways, I'd just be interested to know if we have those shorter routes avail and open and Luck is looking for the big play or if the coaches are designing the deep patterns and the line can't hold for 5 seconds to open up that deep route. Are there short flat or slants that are just covered as well? It just seems of these teams are rushing so many to flood the oline, something has to be open and Luck either isn't finding that hot read or we aren't giving him hot routes.

 

 I mean have you ever watched Anquain Bolden run a slant. He has a guy on his back the whole way.

 You have to throw the guy the ball on the money and he will muscle it in. That is open to Andre Johnson all day, Our Boy Sucks on quick thinking on the $$ passes so he won`t throw them.

 How many hundred quick slants did Marvin and manning complete? It is the QB!!!!

  Andrew stinks at the screen game. It is like, you can keep calling them and i am gonna keep sucking at it, so you just as well call my Long Ball game. Pout pout!

[krunk]

This team just beats itself too much for me to maintain my optimism and that's bad because I'm always optimistic!  If we stopped beating ourselves I think we could beat Carolina because they just don't score all that much to me.  They are largely dependent on riding that defense and controlling the clock on the ground.  But alas I just don't trust Andrew Freakin Luck right now, nor these penalty committing linemen and others who are fumbling and dropping the football.  I'm really upset that I can't trust the team I love to play the type of ball they are more than capable of playing.  It hurts, it just hurts!

[krunk]

 I mean have you ever watched Anquain Bolden run a slant. He has a guy on his back the whole way.

 You have to throw the guy the ball on the money and he will muscle it in. That is open to Andre Johnson all day, Our Boy Sucks on quick thinking on the $$ passes so he won`t throw them.

 How many hundred quick slants did Marvin and manning complete? It is the QB!!!!

  Andrew stinks at the screen game. It is like, you can keep calling them and i am gonna keep sucking at it, so you just as well call my Long Ball game. Pout pout!

 

 

And the funny thing is he came in from Stanford almost exclusively throwing the short to mid range game.  Now he can't do it to save his life almost.  What in Hades has happened to our QB?

[Superman]

They ran two screens that I remember and they both got batted down.  Actually another that Gore barely caught after it was almost intercepted.

 

I haven't watched the whole game yet, I had a lot going on yesterday. But I did watch the Panthers/Eagles game, and on one 1st and 10 from deep in their own territory, the Panthers ran a simple bubble screen to Ginn for 15 yards. Like it was the easiest thing in the world. Watch any other team, and bubble screens have a high rate of success.

 

The Colts can't run a bubble screen to save their lives, and that goes back to last season. On one yesterday in the third quarter, they tried to run one to Hilton with Moncrief and AJ out front, which is exactly what they should do, but the ball was a little off target and he couldn't catch it. 

 

It's an all around embarrassment that we can't run one of the simplest plays in football.

[krunk]

We are a stinky screen team!  Just awful

[Flash7]

I haven't watched the whole game yet, I had a lot going on yesterday. But I did watch the Panthers/Eagles game, and on one 1st and 10 from deep in their own territory, the Panthers ran a simple bubble screen to Ginn for 15 yards. Like it was the easiest thing in the world. Watch any other team, and bubble screens have a high rate of success.

 

The Colts can't run a bubble screen to save their lives, and that goes back to last season. On one yesterday in the third quarter, they tried to run one to Hilton with Moncrief and AJ out front, which is exactly what they should do, but the ball was a little off target and he couldn't catch it. 

 

It's an all around embarrassment that we can't run one of the simplest plays in football.

Did you notice T.Y.'s reaction after that play? He didn't even look at Luck....just walked right past him and got back in the huddle. He was probably thinking that if Luck can't complete a simple, safe pass, then what's the point?

[Coltsfan1284]

I also saw two or three RB screens and I think two WR screens all of which were either broken by batted or poor pass and bad

 

blocking.  I think Luck's problem is he doesn't trust AJ or FG.  He is always looking for TY and doesn't check to the 4th and 5th

 

options.  That has to do with the intensity used at practice in preparation and film review which is a coaching problem.  Luck can 

 

succeed in a Patriots style system.  He did for the first half of the Pats game I believe his passer rating was like 110 or close to that 

 

then they went back to old scheme in the second half.  Also FG is average 4.6 YPC why are they not running it more.

[Superman]

Did you notice T.Y.'s reaction after that play? He didn't even look at Luck....just walked right past him and got back in the huddle. He was probably thinking that if Luck can't complete a simple, safe pass, then what's the point?

 

I didn't notice his reaction, but that's about how I felt. 

 

Even on Hilton's TDs, those weren't well thrown balls. The first would have been highly contested if Breaux doesn't fall down, and the second was a little too far (much better than the first). 

[will426]

See and this why I can't put all the blame on luck because when we saw hasselback in they were willing to MOVE THE POCKET just so he wouldn't get hit by watt..so now we get luck back and it's obviously he isn't safe or is he trusting this line to even want to be in the pocket..yett have we seen one rollout pass with luck yet?! Have we seen the pocket get moved for him ONCE?? Like come on we all know he's playing like trash but if you compare the playcalls to the ones MH got you're in denial this is PEPS PLAYCALLING at its finest and he doesn't alter it till when 8mins or so in the 4 qtr down 2-3 scores!

[Jdubu]

I haven't watched the whole game yet, I had a lot going on yesterday. But I did watch the Panthers/Eagles game, and on one 1st and 10 from deep in their own territory, the Panthers ran a simple bubble screen to Ginn for 15 yards. Like it was the easiest thing in the world. Watch any other team, and bubble screens have a high rate of success.

The Colts can't run a bubble screen to save their lives, and that goes back to last season. On one yesterday in the third quarter, they tried to run one to Hilton with Moncrief and AJ out front, which is exactly what they should do, but the ball was a little off target and he couldn't catch it.

It's an all around embarrassment that we can't run one of the simplest plays in football.

We can't do a lot of things that we see other teams run with ease on us. It just drives me nuts to see those screens work against us and we either can't or won't run them. How many receivers are 3-5 yards open on our guys and its pass and catch but all our guys are almost always blanketed with scrubs on them or the back up to the back up on us. We are either tipping what we are doing in the formations or our formations are so easily recognized by NFL defenses that it doesn't matter who is defending because they know what's coming. It's almost like there is a portal open to review our game plans and the other 31 teams have it on file. Something is severely flawed in this team because we have been outplayed by too many bad teams.

[GhostofJohnnyU]

This team lacks offensive patience.

[Jdubu]

This team lacks offensive patience.

They have no patience because they don't have a creative game plan mostly. It appears they telegraph what the play call is that is coming and the defense is there to defend it whether it be the pass or run. Peps thinks he is still in college and has superior players compared to the opponent.

[GhostofJohnnyU]

Agree they aren't creative. But what rankles me most is they can't handle success. Two runs and it's third and a yard...throw down field.....foe heavens sake get the 1st down and keep the drive alive.

Too much "quick strike" menrality.

[Jdubu]

Agree they aren't creative. But what rankles me most is they can't handle success. Two runs and it's third and a yard...throw down field.....foe heavens sake get the 1st down and keep the drive alive.

Too much "quick strike" menrality.

I agree, they are predictable in how they will do things like this. I keep thinking dink and dunk the opposition until you've got them a little tired and then start taking deeper shots but you have to have some methodical drives to force your will on them first. If you keep deep strike attempting it every time and miss, you will see your defense wear out much faster than theirs and that's a lot of what we see. Take the 5-7 yard throws and get your QB hitting these speedy kids in stride instead of little short comebacks unless it's 3rd down and you need 3-5 yards. What is wrong with taking that 6 yard curl and taking the higher % throw? We can't seem to figure that out whatsoever.

[NBColtsFanatic]

They need to ger CREATIVE with play calls, we almost never do any trick plays, end arounds, flea flickers etc. It's atrocious, just like the coaching staff and this season.

[coltsfeva]

You all hit the nail on the head: shorter passes, screens, draws, moving out of the pocket. I saw a piece by Brian Baldinger that showed three plays in the Saints game, the interception at the half was on Luck, because the underneath WR (Johnson) was open.

 

Another play (I forget which one), pointed to bad pass protection

 

The third showed the receivers not getting open.

 

Add to that, bad scheme (long downfield passes) and it's a perfect storm, plenty of stuff to fix, but it is fixable

[Jdubu]

You all hit the nail on the head: shorter passes, screens, draws, moving out of the pocket. I saw a piece by Brian Baldinger that showed three plays in the Saints game, the interception at the half was on Luck, because the underneath WR (Johnson) was open.

Another play (I forget which one), pointed to bad pass protection

The third showed the receivers not getting open.

Add to that, bad scheme (long downfield passes) and it's a perfect storm, plenty of stuff to fix, but it is fixable

It is and has been fixable all season and tbh, it was an issue at times during the prior season as well. The question is do we have smart enough coaching to get it corrected or not? I just can't follow their logic on the deep passes for Luck when it was shown you can win and save your defense with the shorter passing game. I just don't get the greedy stupidity of the coaching here.