ILB's are bad

[akcolt]

We have the worst group of ILB''s in the league. Today PFF rated Bostic 37.4 and Morrison 39.6. These guys can not cover giving up 10 catches for 85 yards and the td between them. The D is always going to be held back by our inability to cover and lack of speed to play sidelineto sideline inside. Then our DC doesn't help much with some of his coverages.  We need changes at ILB. 

 

George got one start vs Arizona and rated at 86.7. That was the best rating of any Colt in that game and easily the best of any ILB this season. He should see the field.. TJ Green could be used in a hybrid backer type role. There's no way we could be any worse than what we have now.. If he cleans up his tackling he could give us something there.  We should sign Hodges right now. Gerald Hodges could not help this team? Ballard? I just realized he was available. I don't know why we don't bring him in. He had a good year last season in SF's 3-4, 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[CanuckColtsFan]

I agree it is a glaring weakness that is regularly exploited.

[lance_m8]

I would like to see Green used on passing downs in the box and maybe even George and mingo at ILB instead 

[richard pallo]

SF really attacked our ILB in the passing game.  Hopefully it was a wake up call for us to try to address it.  Didn't realize Hodges was still out there.  Maybe he is more of a run stopper?   Was George hurt?  If not they need to give him another shot on passing downs. 

[Track Guy]

I agree that the ILBs are the biggest problem for our defense. Our starters on the defensive line and OLB positions are actually pretty solid now. Granted they're definitely not elite, but like I say - pretty solid. In a 3-4 scheme, it puts a lot of pressure on your ILBs, and if they're not good players it's going to be hard to run an effective defense. In contrast, the 4-3 scheme puts more pressure on your DEs. 

I believe that we'll have to look to add a player at ILB at some point in the draft next year, and potentially one in free agency too. 

[JTrouble]

32 minutes ago, akcolt said:

We have the worst group of ILB''s in the league. Today PFF rated Bostic 37.4 and Morrison 39.6. These guys can not cover giving up 10 catches for 85 yards and the td between them. The D is always going to be held back by our inability to cover and lack of speed to play sidelineto sideline inside. Then our DC doesn't help much with some of his coverages.  We need changes at ILB. 

 

George got one start vs Arizona and rated at 86.7. That was the best rating of any Colt in that game and easily the best of any ILB this season. He should see the field.. TJ Green could be used in a hybrid backer type role. There's no way we could be any worse than what we have now.. If he cleans up his tackling he could give us something there.  We should sign Hodges right now. Gerald Hodges could not help this team? Ballard? I just realized he was available. I don't know why we don't bring him in. He had a good year last season in SF's 3-4, 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I also agree on George. After watching him make yet another play today (1/2 sack with Sheard) I went and looked up his snap count for last week vs Seattle. None on Defense but did play on special teams. I didn't hear anything about him being inured so I'm not sure why he's not getting any run. I also thought he played really well against Arizona and was afraid he would be back on the bench once Morrison came back. I'm not sure how he fares in pass coverage, maybe somebody can shed some light on that but I agree he needs to see the field more.

 

 

Definitely an area of need next offseason...

[Steamboat_Shaun]

30 minutes ago, richard pallo said:

SF really attacked our ILB in the passing game.  Hopefully it was a wake up call for us to try to address it.  Didn't realize Hodges was still out there.  Maybe he is more of a run stopper?   Was George hurt?  If not they need to give him another shot on passing downs. 

 

I’m not really sure how it can be addressed, unfortunately there aren’t a lot of other options.

[IinD]

Bostic was a risky move from the get go, 4th team in 5 years in the league. 

He gets lost in coverage way to much, Morrison is effort, but not an impact guy.

 

What's DQ Jackson up to nowadays?

 

We are sadly flat out bad in the ILB position department.

[bap1331]

59 minutes ago, IinD said:

Bostic was a risky move from the get go, 4th team in 5 years in the league. 

He gets lost in coverage way to much, Morrison is effort, but not an impact guy.

 

What's DQ Jackson up to nowadays?

 

We are sadly flat out bad in the ILB position department.

 

Um...weve got Cato June and Dwight Freeney available. Ray Lewis played til he was like 38 or 39. These guys still have some gas left in their tanks.

[Peterk2011]

Dwight Freeney is a 4-3 defensive end, not an off-ball linebacker. 

 

Still bugs me why the team - Grigson? - let Jerrell Freeman go. He'd make a huge difference there now.

[Mr. Irrelevant]

This is the Colts, folks. We are destined to have garbage ILB's, part of the DNA. 

[Defjamz26]

Don't oversell yourselves on George. The staff makes tons of bad coaching decisions all the time, but they aren't *s. There's a reason George is mostly playing STs. He may be better in coverage but he's not any better overall than Morrison or Bostic. He's just a guy. He's basically this years Edwin Jackson. A guy who really isn't starter material but has overrated "coverage" ability. 

[Dark Superman]

Still bummed we lost Edwin Jackson for the season.

He showed me a lot of promise last season.

[Dark Superman]

George looks like a bad man wearing that #59

Give him the start.. can't get any worse.

Bostic stinks.

[krunk]

They are what they are.  Both of them are fine against the run and that's mainly the purpose.  When it comes to the pass what we're missing from our package is Clayton Geathers.   Used to be able to drop Geathers down there to play linebacker on passing downs and pick up the tight end.   We don't have that right now, although you would think TJ Green would be an option.  There's issues with him too though.

[VaAllDay757]

1 hour ago, Defjamz26 said:

Don't oversell yourselves on George. The staff makes tons of bad coaching decisions all the time, but they aren't *s. There's a reason George is mostly playing STs. He may be better in coverage but he's not any better overall than Morrison or Bostic. He's just a guy. He's basically this years Edwin Jackson. A guy who really isn't starter material but has overrated "coverage" ability. 

What? Morrison can't cover period that was his knock during the draft he's good at stuffing the run but not good at pass coverage and edwin jackson is pretty good compared to morrison but bostic I don't know about him

[VaAllDay757]

I don't even remembering seeing tj green on the field the last 2 games

[Buddy Lee]

I had hopes for Edwin Jackson but, alas, the injury. I was done with Morrison after seeing him last year. I am fed up with these one trick ponies who are "thumpers" as run stoppers but couldn't cover my grandmother across the middle.

 

If I were an opposing offensive coordinator I would show the run but my game plan would be to follow the lead of the Chiefs last year with Kelce and the 49ers with Kittle: TEs and RBs across the middle for easy, uncontested gains all day long. Last year it was DQJ and Morrison hopeless defending against it. This year it's Morrison and Bostic. I'm tired of it.

[dgambill]

The inside LBs are definitely a huge weak spot on this team. That said Ballard upgraded the DL in a huge way this offseason...and got a ton younger in the secondary with some promising young guys. He couldn't fix all the problems in one offseason. He also didn't blow our salary cap just to say he fixed everything. I agree Bostic and Morrison are stop gap guys and I believe we will be looking at a lb or two in the draft or upgrade in free agency next off season. We have made it a priority to stop the run first and thus we decided on backers that could help more in that area. I'm sure we will continue to build the team and improve in every area we can. I've been pretty pleased with Ballards job so far. The backup qb thing maybe the only thing I would have liked him to recognize and do differently but at least we are treading water until Luck gets back.

[braveheartcolt]

I just can't understand why we don't have great players at every position. I blame Ballard. Rebuilding does take more than one year.....and just maybe we focus on our LB corps' next off season. 

[lollygagger8]

Everyone sees the ILB's are horrible in coverage except for the coaches. 

 

They also keep dropping Sheard into coverage too. 

 

Completely asinine. 

 

 

[Buddy Lee]

I seriously wonder if this organization, Ballard included, is so enamored with the "stop the run first" mantra that ILBs are drafted, FAs signed and game day players are chosen with that in mind. I say this because of all the glowing remarks by Pagano and others regarding Bostic this year and to some extent Morrison last year. I wonder if this organization had the same choice today between a LB like Freeman or one like DQJ, they wouldn't take DQJ.

[Smonroe]

In obvious passing downs, and when we’re paying prevent (which is always too soon) why do we even have 2 ILBs on the field?  Bring in Green to play the nickel LB position, he’s not great but he’s faster and better in coverage than Bostic.  

 

On an aside, I like what I saw from George.  

[dgambill]

2 hours ago, lollygagger8 said:

Everyone sees the ILB's are horrible in coverage except for the coaches. 

 

They also keep dropping Sheard into coverage too. 

 

Completely asinine. 

 

 

I haven't noticed a ton of that...some....seen Simon do that some too. I don't think that is done often on purpose. I think that is just the byproduct of running a 3-4 defense that occasionally if the other team lines up a formation that catches us in a specific defensive call that a 1 on 1 with an OLB occurs...or are you just strictly talking about dropping back in zone though? I'll be honest I haven't noticed a lot of that but with the fact that he is definitely the most ill-suited to do so I would understand the concern if its happening more and more. Hopefully we will get a little more athletic with our LBs as time goes on....we certainly don't have them yet. I look for more teams to expose the middle of the field more and more against us as the corners on the outside do a pretty darn good job...but these crossing routes and tes are killing us.

[throwing BBZ]

You can definitely build your game plan around Abusing Morrison. Bostic too.
At the end of season meeting i could see Chuck still touting Morrison.

And Ballard thinking  oh my...   Good meeting Chuck, and oh BTW ya Your ..... lol

[TheRustonRifle#7]

Heading in to the season it was obvious that this was a weakpoint.

 

[AustexColt]

Pass coverage is an area for improvement, but the front seven is stopping the run.

[will426]

4 minutes ago, AustexColt said:

Pass coverage is an area for improvement, but the front seven is stopping the run.

No thanks to Bostic and Morrison though 

[Finball]

Telvin Smith, come on down..

[Aces101]

I didn't get to see the game yesterday.  Morrison and Bostic are pretty solid against the run but have a tough time against the pass...we all know that.  My question is whether or not the coaching staff had Morrison and Bostic in the game late in the 4th quarter when the 49'ers were running the 2 minute drill to tie?  If so, that's in the coaching staff.

[Defjamz26]

10 hours ago, VaAllDay757 said:

What? Morrison can't cover period that was his knock during the draft he's good at stuffing the run but not good at pass coverage and edwin jackson is pretty good compared to morrison but bostic I don't know about him

They're all collectively bad. None of them would start on any other team.

[jvan1973]

They made Kittle look like Shannon Sharpe.    They cannot cover at ALL

[Defjamz26]

8 minutes ago, jvan1973 said:

They made Kittle look like Shannon Sharpe.    They cannot cover at ALL

Kind of hurts knowing Ballard passed over Kittle for Banner though.

[OLD FAN MAN]

16 minutes ago, Defjamz26 said:

They're all collectively bad. None of them would start on any other team.

i concur, but most of our starting defense and offense would not start on the top 5 teams

[jvan1973]

1 minute ago, Defjamz26 said:

Kind of hurts knowing Ballard passed over Kittle for Banner though.

You can second guess till the cows come home.    

[Defjamz26]

2 minutes ago, OLD FAN MAN said:

i concur, but most of our starting defense and offense would not start on the top 5 teams

True. Lots of work to do.

[akcolt]

2 hours ago, Aces101 said:

I didn't get to see the game yesterday.  Morrison and Bostic are pretty solid against the run but have a tough time against the pass...we all know that.  My question is whether or not the coaching staff had Morrison and Bostic in the game late in the 4th quarter when the 49'ers were running the 2 minute drill to tie?  If so, that's in the coaching staff.

Bostic plsyed 100% of the defensive snaps so he was out there for sure. Morrison not so sure 

http://m.colts.com/news/article-1/Snap-Counts-Colts-49ers-Week-5/7576d8dd-88c1-4412-a632-1c9766754fce

[krunk]

I really wish they would get Akeem Ayers back.  He was our best coverage linebacker outside of Geathers.

[tikyle]

As a Florida alumnus this is very predictable.  Most UF backers struggle in coverage.  UF plays a cover 3 scheme but on 3rd down when they go man it is always there weakness.  Of the UF backers the best in coverage over the last decade or so has been Jarrad Davis.  I called this in the original draft thread when we picked Morrison.  He's gonna be solid vs the run but exposed vs the pass.  He's a throwback guy, in a passing league.

[NewColtsFan]

On 10/8/2017 at 8:42 PM, IinD said:

Bostic was a risky move from the get go, 4th team in 5 years in the league. 

He gets lost in coverage way to much, Morrison is effort, but not an impact guy.

 

What's DQ Jackson up to nowadays?

 

We are sadly flat out bad in the ILB position department.

 

I'm not sure "risky" is the word you want....

 

There was literally NO RISK to the move.     He was a free agent signing late in the FA season.    It cost us a modest contract -- that's it.      

 

If he's starting and not doing a good enough job,  then the coaches still think he's better than whoever is not starting.

 

But let's address something...    while our backers are not good in pass coverage,  that's not their only responsibility.

 

They help greatly in the run game and our backers must be doing something right because our run defense is much improved.      If you only focus on pass defense then you're not telling the whole story.

 

ILB may well be a priority this off-season.