Take away from Seattle game

[Rackeen305]

Here is my objective view of the Seattle game.

 

Coaching: I thought was on par  with great NFL coaching. To start, the team didn't have many penalties (there were a few like the illegal hit from Thomas) but collectively, The team didn't commit too many bonehead calls i.e. False starts, off sides. Theplay calling on offense was great and executed relatively well considering this was the first preseason game. And the Play calling wasn't that vanilla. 1st drive, Luck dump to Mack that resulted in 9+ yrds, Play action pass, Bootleg run (I think this is the name) from Luck to Mack. Im not sure if Rich is calling the plays but whoever the play caller was, they did pretty well.

 

Offense: The QB Walker can play and if I remember, He did the same last year. I believe Brissett will be the #2 QB however, which he should be. Brissett played well. Oline didnt commit to many false starts/holding calls. We need more consistent position play from LT the most, then Center. I believe those positions will play better when the starters return. I think the positions that stood out the most was probably WR. WR got open and provided YAC plays a few times. BTW La'Raven Clark played LT at times and appeared to be the best option at 2nd string LT imo.

 

Defense: We need help at CB, badly. The Seahawks doesn't even have great WR who played and we were getting beat quite often. I was pleasantly surprised to see DT/DE Ridgeway play well with at least 2 sacks. Basham? I didnt see too much pressure from him nor Sheard. LBs? Skai Moore played really well for a rookie. Leonard was around the ball often. I need to see Turray and the Ohio state DE Tyquan Lewis play soon to get a grasp of the ceiling/future of the defense. DT Stewart played ok but needs to be consistent.

 

Andrew Luck: Played well, didnt force anything. When he ran through the middle I was holding my breathe that he wouldnt put his shoulder down to attempt to convert the 3rd down. He caught the TEs a few times over the middle which was good. and got sacked once when Haeg played LT.

[chad72]

We got bullied down the middle at both the DL and LB level in run D. We did not set our edges very well. All our pass coverage strengths of our LBs doesn't mean much if we cannot get them into 3rd and longs.  Having rookie LBs with zone D would probably mean there will be lots of mistakes and our zones will be picked apart.  I have a feeling we will be in more shootouts than we want to be in because of our D. Our returning safeties hopefully can stablilize the communication between DBs and LBs.  Hopefully most of the above issues is due to rust and will look forward to them being corrected at least somewhat in game 2 with a game of physicality under the belt.

 

Offensively, I think the staring OL vs their starting DL held up very well in pass protection and run O between the tackles still needs work. Our RBs did well in space. We will miss Castanzo if he misses any time.

 

Admission: I did not watch the game after the first half. I was more interested in the first units primarily.

[John Waylon]

Not sure if it’s scheme or just because it’s pre-season, but seeing corners lined up nearly 10 yards off the LOS was not encouraging. 

[JMichael557]

I was not impressed by Walker. 

 

I agree that Clark played well. Would like to see him start at LT next week. Based on my limited knowledge the OT's to make the team would be AC. Good and Clark but the Clark situation is fluid. The two Tackles we brought in were played badly.

 

Smith did well at guard for a Rookie, not so well at Tackle.

 

Ridgeway needs some time on the first team D to see how he will look. 

 

I like the running backs.  When I look at what we have Hines is on the bubble and headed to the practice squad.

 

The CB situation is bad I hope this is addressed. 

 

The defense is young so patience is required althought I liked the effort. 

 

 

[PrincetonTiger]

IMO

There were a few guys who played theirselves off the roster

[CR91]

My biggest concern though was how the dline was getting pushed around which worries me when it comes to stopping the run. Overall we did a good job, but there were some big holes. Skai cant play the run imo. He was getting swallowed up by the oline. I even show him get obviously wrecked by a FB.  Then of course is the return of the 10 yard cushion that had me cringing. Not sure if that was by design or Wilson was covering space for green 

[#12.]

Not much of anything encouraging on defense.  I didn't see a first teamer on defense flash for even a play.  

[CR91]

4 minutes ago, #12. said:

Not much of anything encouraging on defense.  I didn't see a first teamer on defense flash for even a play.  

 

pass coverage and pursuit, Leonard and Moore did really good. Even Simon and Autry had a very nice stunt blitz 

[Steamboat_Shaun]

6 minutes ago, #12. said:

Not much of anything encouraging on defense.  I didn't see a first teamer on defense flash for even a play.  

 

I mean, they did only give up 17 points. I realize the majority of the game was against Seattle's backups, but our D has like 5 starters sidelined right now, so I'm not sure how much better I could've expected the D to play.

[CR91]

4 minutes ago, Steamboat_Shaun said:

 

I mean, they did only give up 17 points. I realize the majority of the game was against Seattle's backups, but our D has like 5 starters sidelined right now, so I'm not sure how much better I could've expected the D to play.

 

technically 10 points. That bad snap almost cost us the game ugh. Ive never seen three botched snaps in a row.  

[Boiler_Colt]

The defense is going to make your eyes bleed at times. The QB's in our division will be murdering us on bootlegs and cutbacks.

 

Sign Breeland, trade for Mack and bring back Hankins! Jk...kinda

[2006Coltsbestever]

My take away's were:

-Andrew Luck looks 100% healthy and can take hits. He looked Great last night throwing the ball as well.

 

-We looked like we were well Coached last night. We only had 1 dumb Penalty all night, that was Thomas'. The last 3 years we have had games where we have had multiple Holding calls on the O.Line and late hits on Defense. Last night just looked different.

 

-I liked the way Wilkins runs the ball.

 

-Ridgeway looked Good to me on Defense.

 

 

[OffensivelyPC]

Luck is missing a bit of precision on his throws, but he just started throwing a football a few weeks ago and this was his first taste of live ball in forever, so I expect it will improve.  

 

With him at the helm, offense will be fine.  It's not going to be a 2006 offensive juggernaut, but it should at least keep us in games.  It will be able to put them away if we do things through the air, but I'm not confident we'll be able to grind out tough yards.  We'll see.

 

Defense is going to be baaaaad.  It's the first preseason game and we were missing starters.  There's also a ton of changes with new faces on the field and in the coaching staff and perhaps the schematic change played into it.   Maybe I'm being harsh and I know it was never seen as a strength, but still, you want to see them do better than they did - at least the starters, anyway. 

[aaron11]

nelson, and leonard looked good in their first game

 

haeg is not a LT

 

simon can play DE

 

basham and green still dont look very good 

 

 

[PrincetonTiger]

52 minutes ago, 2006Coltsbestever said:

My take away's were:

-Andrew Luck looks 100% healthy and can take hits. He looked Great last night throwing the ball as well.

 

-We looked like we were well Coached last night. We only had 1 dumb Penalty all night, that was Thomas'. The last 3 years we have had games where we have had multiple Holding calls on the O.Line and late hits on Defense. Last night just looked different.

 

-I liked the way Wilkins runs the ball.

 

-Ridgeway looked Good to me on Defense.

 

 

Glowinski can’t play C

Just now, aaron11 said:

nelson, and leonard looked good in their first game

 

haeg is not a LT

 

simon can play DE

 

basham and green still dont look very good 

 

 

Played pretty good at C

[luv_pony_express]

4 hours ago, chad72 said:

We got bullied down the middle at both the DL and LB level in run D. We did not set our edges very well. All our pass coverage strengths of our LBs doesn't mean much if we cannot get them into 3rd and longs.  Having rookie LBs with zone D would probably mean there will be lots of mistakes and our zones will be picked apart.  I have a feeling we will be in more shootouts than we want to be in because of our D. Our returning safeties hopefully can stablilize the communication between DBs and LBs.  Hopefully most of the above issues is due to rust and will look forward to them being corrected at least somewhat in game 2 with a game of physicality under the belt.

 

Offensively, I think the staring OL vs their starting DL held up very well in pass protection and run O between the tackles still needs work. Our RBs did well in space. We will miss Castanzo if he misses any time.

 

Admission: I did not watch the game after the first half. I was more interested in the first units primarily.

 

I think this is about where I am.  There weren’t many bright spots on D — particularly against Seattle’s starters.  The D backfield will get a lot of help when Geathers and Hooker get back.  But Lord help us when/if they miss time during the season.  The ILBs looked like rookies..they should improve.  I think Skai looked pretty good.

 

Offensively, I was mostly pleased.  With a few exceptions, the line looked much improved.  As such, we were usually able to move the ball.  Hard to tell with just two series.  But I’d say Luck looked around 90% — and I gathered the deficiency was more rust than physical limitation.

 

I’m liking Wilkins.  Hope he sees more touches in upcoming games.

[2006Coltsbestever]

The good thing is out of the 7 Fumbles we had, 2 was by Walker, 2 by Kaaya, 1 by Glowinski. None of those players will even see the field in the Regular Season. Probably won't even be on the team. We had 2 legit Fumbles and both were by Hines on SP Teams but we recovered both.

[luv_pony_express]

1 hour ago, 2006Coltsbestever said:

 

-Andrew Luck looks 100% healthy and can take hits.

 

 

 

Let’s hope he doesn’t have to take too many. My heart skipped a beat on that scramble, I have to admit.

[Barry Sears]

I haven't watched the game yet, had to DVR it this morning.  But, I've read all the comments posted here and it appears our offense will do well this season with the new scheme and AL behind center and healthy.  OLine will be better, especially if AC gets healthy and plays to his usual level.

 

I see lots of negative comments about the defense, but I also know this was the side of the ball with the most ground to make up.  We have young, inexperienced defenders.  This will take longer to fix and may not get fixed until after the 2019 draft and free agency.

 

Chris Ballard had an almost complete overhaul to accomplish and is only part of the way toward getting this all fixed.

 

We need to be patient and understand that we're better today than we were a year ago, and we'll be better a year from now when more pieces are added and our entire scheme on offense and defense is fully utilized and we have the talent to make it work.

 

This is going to be an exciting season with a new coaching staff/philosophy, a healthy QB, a better OLine and some exciting, hungry players.

[Nesjan3]

my takeaways from the game, im not going to overthink it cause it is just preseason game 1. 

-Luck looked really good and so did the offense in general, i think we are going to score a lot of points if Luck stays on the field.

-Defense looked really bad, corners couldn't cover, linebackers couldn't cover, Dline was getting pushed around, 10 yard cushion really is cringe worthy, i think we are going to have a lot of points scored on us this season, but its a very young defense, patience is a virtue.

[CR91]

9 minutes ago, Nesjan3 said:

my takeaways from the game, im not going to overthink it cause it is just preseason game 1. 

-Luck looked really good and so did the offense in general, i think we are going to score a lot of points if Luck stays on the field.

-Defense looked really bad, corners couldn't cover, linebackers couldn't cover, Dline was getting pushed around, 10 yard cushion really is cringe worthy, i think we are going to have a lot of points scored on us this season, but its a very young defense, patience is a virtue.

 

Leonard and Moore actually did cover well. 

[PrincetonTiger]

1 minute ago, CR91 said:

 

Leonard and Moore actually did cover well. 

They could cover just struggledvto get to their spots(can be coached)

[MikeCurtis]

1) Luck looked good........  He needs to not force the ball to Hilton

 

2) Mark my words.....  Wilkins will be special........ he didnt get many touches, but the guy can play

He has a patient approach, then accellerates like few RBs can

 

3) Get Green out of there.... Cmon...... The dude isnt an NFL player

 

4) We need help at CB.  We need help at CB, We need help at CB..........

 

5) We need to tackle better (a few whiffs,  in the first half)

 

6) I know we have speedy players........ but I didnt SEE speed from our starters

It looked like people are still playing read and react........   Maybe this gets better as coaches get in these guys ears.

[Boiler_Colt]

Michael Lombardi reporting Cain's injury may be season ending so we may need to get both a veteran WR and RB in the fold.

[Moe]

Luck looked good, but in regular season we’d have to put up like 80 points to win the game!

[chrisfarley]

35 minutes ago, Moe said:

Luck looked good, but in regular season we’d have to put up like 80 points to win the game!

Ballard will watch the tape, things will get fixed.  We need to replace Cain somehow,,,isn't going to happen from within, that's a given.  Defensive juggernaut we are not,,,,but then again, have we ever been?

[Four2itus]

2 hours ago, chrisfarley said:

We need to replace Cain somehow,,,isn't going to happen from within, that's a given.  

How is that a given?

[chrisfarley]

27 minutes ago, Four2itus said:

How is that a given?

From accounts, he was impressive at his ability to go up and get balls, a knack, uncanny ability.  So that's where I'm coming from,,, If someone else is going to be 3 , there will be a drop-off.  I'd think we would at least be on the look-out for someone.

[IinD]

The good...Luck being back, RB's look like they'll have a diverse gameplan, middle oline will be much improved compared to recent years.

 

The bad..D as a whole will definitely struggle at times. Need a clear WR2 to step up.

Hopefully I won't get bashed for this, Basham..uggh I wanna love you bro, I'm not seeing a good pash rusher. Hopefully the two rookies can come back from injury and help.

[Tombstone]

3 hours ago, chrisfarley said:

From accounts, he was impressive at his ability to go up and get balls, a knack, uncanny ability.  So that's where I'm coming from,,, If someone else is going to be 3 , there will be a drop-off.  I'd think we would at least be on the look-out for someone.

I think that of all the position the WR core has the most depth and the drop off from the # 3 WR position will be ok

[krunk]

I liked what I saw from Kasen Williams at WR. Had some ability to me.

[TheRustonRifle#7]

My take.....it was good to see Luck back!  Not much else as this is the first pre-season game.

[theanarchist]

On 8/10/2018 at 8:33 AM, John Waylon said:

Not sure if it’s scheme or just because it’s pre-season, but seeing corners lined up nearly 10 yards off the LOS was not encouraging. 

That’s the cover 2 for you. Dungy’s defenses always played the corners that far off

[KelownaColtsFan]

Nelson looked like a beast in the run game. Wilkins has potential. TJ Green is still terrible. I know it was the 4th qtr of a preseason game, but Ridgeway looked like a man among boys out there.