Hooker on pace for over 10 ints.

[BullsColtsFan1]

30 minutes ago, tikyle said:

The Colts are also on pace to give up the most points in NFL history.  That would have us taking the record from..............*drum roll please*..................the (Baltimore) COLTS.

 

Silver lining: the Patriots are right behind us allowing only 2 points per game less than us.

Not completely the defense's fault.  The offense have given up a lot of points.  There have also been times where the offense couldn't stay on the field.  When Luck gets back as well as some of the other playmakers, I think the points given up will go down.  Geathers, Kelly, Luck, WIlson etc.   The defense still has to make improvements but they have improved from last year.  You can't look past the INT's and QB pressures as well as the running D.  The passing D needs to get better. 

[Defjamz26]

Hooker is special. I'd argue that he has just as good if not better hands than some of our receivers. I see why he was so coveted. He doesn't just deflect but he takes the ball away, and often. I couldn't imagine who'd be ahead of him for DROY right now. 3 INTs in 4 games is insane. That's coming off of missing OTA's and a chunk of training camp as well. Ballard made the TJ Green pick sting a lot less by picking him up.

[Stephen]

1 hour ago, Defjamz26 said:

Hooker is special. I'd argue that he has just as good if not better hands than some of our receivers. I see why he was so coveted. He doesn't just deflect but he takes the ball away, and often. I couldn't imagine who'd be ahead of him for DROY right now. 3 INTs in 4 games is insane. That's coming off of missing OTA's and a chunk of training camp as well. Ballard made the TJ Green pick sting a lot less by picking him up.

Honestly he can probably catch better than all our wrs.

[Stephen]

The last person to have atleast ten ints was champ bailey in 2006. A few people had 9 in 2009 but noone has gotten close to the record of 14 in years

[OLD FAN MAN]

he is going for 16, he has a knack for the ball coming to him, not that he takes it away from a receiver

[OLD FAN MAN]

30 minutes ago, Stephen said:

Honestly he can probably catch better than all our wrs.

i concur

[MB-ColtsFan]

On 10/2/2017 at 6:24 PM, J@son said:

 

Well, I mean, being in the right place at the right time is more than half the battle. Right?

 

On 10/2/2017 at 6:59 PM, IinD said:

Especially if you're name is Hooker. Timing is everything.

Actually, great timing AT THE RIGHT PRICE will make the...ummm...*GM* very happy.   

[Steamboat_Shaun]

On 10/2/2017 at 3:52 PM, Boiler_Colt said:

 

I think he only has two on the season. He and Wilson combined to knock down a deep pass against Arizona, that's all I remember. He's been more in the right place at the right time rather than making plays on the ball in the air. That will come though with more play recognition. He'll never be Bob Sanders but he does need to work on his angles and form tackling. 

 

“Only” 2 LOL. 2 in 4 games would actually be really good, but he has 3, which leads the league.

 

 

[Steamboat_Shaun]

On 10/2/2017 at 6:50 PM, ponyboy said:

IIRC, one of the pre-draft breakdowns mentioned that Hooker had 40 interceptions in practice at Ohio State in one year.  The analyst said something like 10 interceptions would have been a good number, but Hooker had 40.  It was a youtube video draft analysis, and I never saw those numbers mentioned anywhere else.

 

I saw that one too, & he wasn’t even a starter that season. And I think the stat I saw today said that he’s had 10 picks in his last 16 games that he’s started (NCAA/NFL combined).

[Luck 4 president]

I'd be happy if he got around 8. 1 was a gimme at the end of the browns game. If he does keep it up over the next few weeks, teams will eventually stop throwing at him.

[Stephen]

5 hours ago, Luck 4 president said:

I'd be happy if he got around 8. 1 was a gimme at the end of the browns game. If he does keep it up over the next few weeks, teams will eventually stop throwing at him.

Nah flacco and big ben are crazy enough to challenge him. Dalton is bound to toss him one. Bortles might throw him two in one game.

[Boiler_Colt]

8 hours ago, Steamboat_Shaun said:

 

“Only” 2 LOL. 2 in 4 games would actually be really good, but he has 3, which leads the league.

 

 

Again, the poster I was quoting asked about Pass Deflections, not Interceptions in which I replied I can only remember two pass deflections on the year.

[Lucky Colts Fan]

On 10/2/2017 at 5:41 PM, Stephen said:

If he continuesvto get 1 a game he may end up with 15

 

On 10/3/2017 at 6:25 AM, Stephen said:

Im hoping he does and breaks the int record

 

On 10/2/2017 at 5:48 PM, NewColtsFan said:

It's highly likely Hooker will NOT continue at this pace................

 

Just saying......

 

I would love to see Hooker break that record, but I don't see anyone ever breaking NightTrain Lanes' record.  I said in the off-season that the best we can hope for is what we're seeing:  Hooker getting picks early in the season like Peters did last year.  But just like Peters last year, people will stop throwing his way halfway through the season because he already has a bunch of picks.

 

That's just the league today.  Coaches are too smart to keep throwing raspberries at the moon when they can just throw the ball to any player NOT near Player Xs' area of the field.  Back in the day, coaches were too stubborn to just STOP throwing it at guys like Lane.  But nobody has come close since 1980 because opponents just stop giving that player opportunities to get a pick.

 

Having said all that, it does seem like Hooker has a nose for the ball, and he's been all over the field since he's a FS instead of a CB, so teams would have to really go out of their way to try to keep the ball as far away from him as possible every play.  After the way the ball just fell into his hands Sunday night... it's like there's some magnetism or something going on, man.

 

[Ne-Ca-Higher]

Hooker doesn't need to tip passes away, he snatches any that his hands can touch.  Twice last year (BGSU and Clemson) he stole the ball right out of the receivers' hands after running 30-40 yards to get there.  The ball doesn't just find him, he goes and gets it.

 

Malik was an outstanding receiver and kick returner in high school, but Urban Meyer failed to fully utilize his extraordinary skills, even sitting him behind recent Colt cut Tyvis Powell!  YouTube shows two spectacular one-handed TD catches Malik made in high school against top competition at prestigious 7 on 7 camps.  At no time all year at Ohio State did he juggle, drop, fumble or fail to secure any ball that he touched.  At no point in the Clemson game did Watson attempt a throw to the middle of the field.

[Lucky Colts Fan]

17 hours ago, Defjamz26 said:

I'd argue that he has just as good if not better hands than some of our receivers.

 

15 hours ago, Stephen said:

Honestly he can probably catch better than all our wrs.

 

Yeah.  Did you see that Pro Bowl challenge with TY a while back?  He can catch it with both hands and toe-tap that sideline with the best of them, but that boy couldn't catch a football with one hand if you paid him to...    

 

Moncrief and Doyle are great at catching with two hands like TY, and are at least capable of one-handed catches.

 

But Malik has HANDS.  You could tie one behind his back, and he'd still be able to catch the ball as well as some of our receivers.  If this were Madden, Hooker would have the highest "Spectacular Catch" rating on our team.  By a wide margin.  

[Ne-Ca-Higher]

Colts need to work on blocking on Hooker's INT returns.  He needed just a little help at the end of his Sunday night return to reach the endzone.  Ohio State defenders worked on this and made some great blocks on their numerous pick sixes.  Malik even pancaked Tulsa's big center on Lattimore's pick six!  A teammate correctly motioned Malik to get down after picking Kizer to ice the Browns game, but my look at where the players were showed me he likely would've scored on it.  A couple of open field blocks is a lot easier way to score a TD than asking the offense to plod away.  In Sunday's game we had to settle for 3 points when a little better effort on the return would've been 6.  If you don't plan for it and practice for it and take pride in it, like Ohio State did, it won't happen.

 

Whether Malik had 40 picks in one year of practice at Ohio State or some other insane total, his teammates say it happened.  A Vonn Bell tweet shown on camera at OSU's spring game, where Malik picked off two passes, said it came as no surprise to the players.  Malik's practice picks may explain some of J.T. Barrett's regression as a passer.

[Valpo2004]

On 10/2/2017 at 6:54 PM, jvan1973 said:

That isn't the best thing about him.   His play is the best thing about him.   Who cares who drafted him?

 

While I agree, I think what the poster means, at least what I take from it is that it's great to see already that Ballard's first round pick is panning out.  Which gives us some hope that he might do that in the future.

 

Grigson's biggest problem was a string of 3 straight first round picks (one was a trade) used on a players that didn't pan out.  Out of 5 first round picks the only ones to pan out where Luck and Kelly.  

 

 

[Steamboat_Shaun]

1 hour ago, Boiler_Colt said:

Again, the poster I was quoting asked about Pass Deflections, not Interceptions in which I replied I can only remember two pass deflections on the year.

 

Ok, that makes more sense, and I'm actually not sure of the number on that one. This is a relief BTW, I was thinking to myself "Does Boiler_Colts really not know how many INTs our 1st round pick has?"

[Boiler_Colt]

9 minutes ago, Steamboat_Shaun said:

 

Ok, that makes more sense, and I'm actually not sure of the number on that one. This is a relief BTW, I was thinking to myself "Does Boiler_Colts really not know how many INTs our 1st round pick has?"

No worries, I am selectively naive on many things but I don't count the Colts as one of them.

[Steamboat_Shaun]

Just now, Boiler_Colt said:

No worries, I am selectively naive on many things but I don't count the Colts as one of them.

 

You have no idea how close I was to banning you. 

[Ne-Ca-Higher]

During the Browns' pregame show ex-NFL players, safety Dustin Fox and QB Bernie Kosar, had this to say about the Colts defense:

"Bernie: Yeah and the Colts' defense, head coach Chuck Pagano, he's doing some different things with his defense than we've seen, in the first couple weeks.  Indianapolis will do some disguising but they don't do as much as Pittsburgh or Baltimore did.  Right here, you see this is his basic man coverage [The video of Hooker's pick of Palmer is queued.]. Look at safety, straight in the middle of the field.

Dustin: Remind folks who that safety is, by the way.  Everybody remembers him from Ohio State.

Bernie: Yeah, Malik Hooker has amazing athleticism and he's going to show it on this play here.  You have trips here to the bottom of your screen, three receivers for the Cardinals.  Typically if you want to throw that fade route, which I loved to throw it myself, to the top of the screen to the X receiver, all quarterbacks but especially veteran quarterbacks almost always look hard to your right to get the safety, just get his hips turned, but Carson looks immediately to his left.  Look at Malik Hooker immediately turn his hips and take off.  That's amazing athleticism.  Great speed, good ball technique, getting the ball at its highest point.

Dustin: And this is going to be important for Kizer... he's got to understand you're gonna have to look off that safety because he does it all right here, right?  I mean, you look, his [Palmer's] helmet is turned the entire time at that wide receiver; it doesn't allow Hooker at all, at anytime, to look to the other side.  He's immediately jumping towards that number 1 receiver.

Bernie: I'd like to disagree with you, but everything you said is exactly correct.  You can see the eye in the sky -- we talked about it last week -- the eye in the sky doesn't lie and you see his head go straight to the left.  That just brings trouble over.

Dustin: Alright, so we talk about range from a safety position, that's the ability to basically be that centerfielder, right?  You look at Malik Hooker, he's right here on the far hash, and he's gotta be able to play outside that number, and he gets all the way outside that to makes this interception.  This is what he did at Ohio State and makes him so special, and really, when you think about it from a Browns perspective, I think they would like to see Peppers do a lot of this, too, that's why he's playing so deep because he's got the great range, too."

 

[End]

 

So far, Peppers is showing a serious lack of range, and Browns fans are complaining that he should be playing strong safety.  I think they're so right.  Hooker is far better at reading the QB, anticipating, reacting, and flat out sprinting to balls than is Peppers.  The Browns have been quick to sour on players, and if Geather's future is uncertain, Peppers may be a possible replacement down the road.

Also, the "eye in the sky" view showed that Malik was actually moving across the face of the receiver much faster than it appeared in other views.  He timed his arrival perfectly.

[Dark Superman]

I love his play making skills. He's a true ball-hawk out there on the field. The dude has some incredible range. Too bad his tackling wasn't better.

If only we can get Geathers back healthy. This kid makes up for what Hooker lacks in the tackling department. These two pairing up together would be sick.