Likes and dislikes from the Miami game

[Myles]

Likes:

We won the game

Luck didn't get hurt

 

Dislikes:

Most everything.   The team didn't seem ready to play.   Penalties.   Luck holding onto the ball for longer than he has all season.  Reich was off his game too.   Obviously the Luck as receiver play was dumb.   While it worked, the risk is way too high. 

 

[jszfunk]

I totally agree with your assessment. Just did not seem ready. Maybe the win streak has gotten to their heads.  Yes they have won games,improving, Luck is  back better than ever it appears(Thank God)but they are not taking of the upper brass of the league either.

[NagelHausForge]

I think it was a combination of a few things:

 

1. No Ryan Kelly.  I think we saw just how good he is and important he is to the line.  The protections weren't quite as good today as they have been.  

 

2. Only 2 TE's active.  The Colts Offense has been so good this year because of match-ups.  With 3 active pass catching TEs, TY, and Mack/Hines out of the backfield it created match-up nightmares for the D.  Yesterday I noticed they were using an extra Lineman a lot and obviously he isnt going to go out on a route to catch a pass... as awesome as that would be.

 

3. Dolphins' season was on the line.  The Dolphins needed the win just as badly as we did and they played that way.  Can't take anything away from them, they played well (other than the 10000 false start penalties).

 

4. The Colts are still a young team and I think we knew this season was going to be ups and downs, hots and colds.  Glad they ground out a win.  

[braveheartcolt]

They finished the game very well, on both sides of the ball. The running game was nearing 5 ypc. Only one QB ever, has thrown more 3+ TD passes in consecutive games than Luck. We won.

 

Quite a lot to dislike in the game as well, but thought I would let others dwell on those.

[DaveA1102]

Likes:

Andrew Luck outside of two plays

Eric Ebron 

Boehm looked OK, obviously not at Kelly's level but seemed in sync with Luck

Hines looked good in 4th quarter with Mack out

 

Dislikes:

Penalties

Simple mistakes on defensive side of the ball

 

I can see why people are frustrated but my main "like" is that we won ugly.  You are never going to dominate every week in the NFL but, when you are not at your best, you need to find a way to get the win, and that is something this team did today. 

 

No doubt in my mind the Colts team in weeks 1-6 would have lost this game, and that shows real progression.

[TheMarine]

Dislikes: 95% of this game. wth play calling, INTs, fumbles, shanked kicks, blocked punts, penalties

 

Likes: Despite that 95%, we found the 5% to get the win.

[#12.]

It went off the rails with the turnovers and the blocked punt.  If any team turns it over that much, it will be a struggle, and obviously, the O-line is not going to dominate every game for eternity.  When they don't, the offense and the game will look different.  The O-line - they're our identity now.  

 

 

[Smonroe]

Dislikes - I'll leave it to everyone else.

 

Likes - in spite of all the turnovers, we were always in the game and eventually won.  Not too many teams win games in the NFL with that many turnovers.

 

And on the Luck catch.  If Brissett puts the ball on the money, Luck kneels down and gets the first down.  I'm not for doing it often, but if you're going to do it, do it right and no one gets hurt.

[lollygagger8]

What's up with Desir's weak *** 8" vertical jump? He was in perfect spot to make the INT, and failed to jump a foot off the ground. 

 

Colts kept running 4 WR sets instead of 2 TE sets and they weren't nearly as effective. It's a different offense when they use TE heavy sets. 

 

That CB Howard on Miami is a beast. Can the Colts get him? 

 

The throw was high, but leaving Luck out there catching just to get blasted was pretty dumb.

 

Gotta blitz more. Just dropping into zone w/o blitzing, this D gets ate up...bad. 

 

Many garbage calls by the refs on the Colts that Miami got away with all game. 

 

Not much to like. The Colts played sloppy as I've ever seen. I still can't believe they won. 

[#12.]

6 minutes ago, lollygagger8 said:

What's up with Desir's weak *** 8" vertical jump?

 

Yeah, that was big.  If the D holds them in the 2 minute and we get the ball to start the 2nd half, everything looks different.  

[aaron11]

lots of things went wrong, luckily the dolphins made some really dumb penalties at bad times for them.  i thought their play calling was horrible too

[1959Colts]

Some awful tackling really hurt the team.

but in the end the defense stopped Miami when it counted most.

 

[SilentHill]

1 hour ago, jszfunk said:

I totally agree with your assessment. Just did not seem ready. Maybe the win streak has gotten to their heads.  Yes they have won games,improving, Luck is  back better than ever it appears(Thank God)but they are not taking of the upper brass of the league either.

 

I think it's a little too early to make that assessment. I just watched Denver beat Pittsburgh, who are unanimously in the "upper brass".

 

Even good teams have bad games, and we were bad yesterday, but we also won. If we can win games when we are off our game, then that should put the rest of the league on notice.

[Myles]

I forgot to mention the refs.   They called 17 penalties in the game.   That is far too many.   Some were good calls and some were bad calls.  

[smittywerb]

A lot of dislike to go around, but bh, these are the games you look at and say "this game got us into the playoffs".  We just have to beat the texans at this point.

[Hoose]

I continue to like Inman. He has become the reliable #2 the Colts lacked at the beginning of the season.

The Colts 2 TEs remain rock solid week after week. 

TY is shedding some of the double teams with the other weapons on the O. He's suddenly free and it shows.

Luck makes such a difference. Just one heckuva football player. 

Boehm did a good job filling in for Kelly. You can pencil him in as one of the key backups next season. 

This offense is very, very good. Even with all the turnovers. Really fun to watch.

 

On the other hand, the D will continue to hold this team back until they acquire more talent. A lot of poor secondary play; pass rush suspect; stopping the run often a problem. The Colts'  2019 draft absolutely must be D heavy. 

[krunk]

Frank Gore had some nice runs on us.  I got a new appreciation for that brother after watching him as an opponent at this point in his career.  The old fella is strong as an Ox and he still has that great balance.  Shout out to Frank!

[krunk]

I believe Marlon Mack got knocked out of the game with a concussion.  I'm concerned if he'll make it through the protocol in time enough to play Jax.  That's a harder game without Mack.

[dw49]

2 hours ago, Myles said:

Likes:

We won the game

Luck didn't get hurt

 

Dislikes:

Most everything.   The team didn't seem ready to play.   Penalties.   Luck holding onto the ball for longer than he has all season.  Reich was off his game too.   Obviously the Luck as receiver play was dumb.   While it worked, the risk is way too high. 

 

 

 

Luck did hold the ball too long on several occasions . Some is due to Miami having a great coverage secondary . 

[strt182]

5 minutes ago, krunk said:

I believe Marlon Mack got knocked out of the game with a concussion.  I'm concerned if he'll make it through the protocol in time enough to play Jax.  That's a harder game without Mack.

I think Ebron would like to have some more rushing td's if thats the case.  Gotta get creative. 

I won't complain for a win. At the end of the first half I kinda thought I was watching a Madden game as it was kinda funny, our turnovers look alot worse on paper then they did in the game. I thought for sure Desir was going to have the INT. That is the biggest play that i didn't like. 

The missed FG stunk but it happens occasionally, nobody is perfect not even " MONEY". 

[COLTBLUE42]

Came into this game worried with only having 2 tight ends. Our offense thrives off 3 tight end formations, helps the run game, pass block & miss matches in the air. Glad we pulled off this ugly game just wish when we are playing short handed to our strengths we would play a bit more conservative in certain situations like before the half with the back to back turnovers & the 2nd drive with wilkins fumbling. I believe we had 2-3 drives bound for points we gave away. Defense did their best to hold up with bad field position situations. Didn't like how we defended the run & scat backs. All in all happy we won. Hope mack, swoope & cox are back for Jax oh & Kelly.

[strt182]

2 hours ago, NagelHausForge said:

3. Dolphins' season was on the line.  The Dolphins needed the win just as badly as we did and they played that way.  Can't take anything away from them, they played well (other than the 10000 false start penalties).

I think alot of fans on this forum have a hard time admitting this. As hard as we analyse the Colts' performances we fail to give the other team the credit they deserve.  Some Sundays good teams play bad and some bad teams play good, it boils down to finding a way to win when you are not at your best. 

[Superman]

Dislikes:

1) This was maybe the sloppiest game of the season (in the mix with the Jets game and the Texans game). Too many penalties, turnovers, and blown assignments, in all phases. A blocked punt, a weird FG miss, a penalty on a punt return (partly because Rogers didn't call fair catch, putting the blocker in a tough situation), etc. We kind of did everything wrong.

2) Reich seemed out of rhythm. After a great stretch of playcalling, he seemed overly stubborn on first down, I thought he missed opportunities for play action, and we stalled out on third down for the first time in a while. Some of his play calls seemed a little reckless -- like the Brissett pass.

3) Pass defense is still a problem. I'm giving Desir the benefit of the doubt on the long TD, but Tannehill was still able to complete a high percentage for a strong average per attempt. Some troublesome missed tackles as well.

4) The OL didn't have a great game. I won't nitpick too much, this was still a more than decent performance, just not as dominant as we've seen over the last month.

5) Luck misfired a few times. Yawn, nothing to see here, but it was frustrating.

 

Likes:

1) "We will be the toughest team both mentally and physically. What I mean by that, is there will be a relentless pursuit to get better every day and an obsession with finishing strong." That's what Reich said in his introductory presser. I called the team out early this season for crumbling late in games and not finishing. We would not have won this game in September, but pulling it out now shows that this team has improved, and can finish. 

2) Along the same lines, finishing this game with 13 unanswered points after shooting ourselves in the foot all day is a positive. It might also serve as a splash of cold water and get the guys to dial in before next week's rematch with a desperate and frustrated Jags team (they got into a brawl with the Bills yesterday, just a sign of how mad they are).

3) Andrew Luck is a playmaker, bottom line.

[PeterBowman]

7 minutes ago, Superman said:

Dislikes:

1) This was maybe the sloppiest game of the season (in the mix with the Jets game and the Texans game). Too many penalties, turnovers, and blown assignments, in all phases. A blocked punt, a weird FG miss, a penalty on a punt return (partly because Rogers didn't call fair catch, putting the blocker in a tough situation), etc. We kind of did everything wrong.

2) Reich seemed out of rhythm. After a great stretch of playcalling, he seemed overly stubborn on first down, I thought he missed opportunities for play action, and we stalled out on third down for the first time in a while. Some of his play calls seemed a little reckless -- like the Brissett pass.

3) Pass defense is still a problem. I'm giving Desir the benefit of the doubt on the long TD, but Tannehill was still able to complete a high percentage for a strong average per attempt. Some troublesome missed tackles as well.

4) The OL didn't have a great game. I won't nitpick too much, this was still a more than decent performance, just not as dominant as we've seen over the last month.

5) Luck misfired a few times. Yawn, nothing to see here, but it was frustrating.

 

Likes:

1) "We will be the toughest team both mentally and physically. What I mean by that, is there will be a relentless pursuit to get better every day and an obsession with finishing strong." That's what Reich said in his introductory presser. I called the team out early this season for crumbling late in games and not finishing. We would not have won this game in September, but pulling it out now shows that this team has improved, and can finish. 

2) Along the same lines, finishing this game with 13 unanswered points after shooting ourselves in the foot all day is a positive. It might also serve as a splash of cold water and get the guys to dial in before next week's rematch with a desperate and frustrated Jags team (they got into a brawl with the Bills yesterday, just a sign of how mad they are).

3) Andrew Luck is a playmaker, bottom line.

and they just canned their OC today too.

[WoolMagnet]

EVERY team has games like this.  But FEW are able to come back and win.  Luck makes a HABIT of it.  NE had a game like this, and they pulled it out, Pitt did not.

  Also, the Defense stepped it up when we needed them.

 

  I can do without the pass s to Luck, but other than that, its football.  NO team, no matter how good, dominates every game, not even Alabama.

  I actually think you learn more about the character of a team from games like this than blowouts.  The fact that we could make that many mistakes and still pull out the win is far more positive than negative.

[Superman]

1 minute ago, WoolMagnet said:

EVERY team has games like this.  But FEW are able to come back and win.  Luck makes a HABIT of it.  NE had a game like this, and they pulled it out, Pitt did not.

  Also, the Defense stepped it up when we needed them.

 

The Steelers have won and lost games like this in just the last two weeks. And even yesterday, they lost because of a bad decision on the goal line, in a game that they easily could have won.

[Luck 4 president]

I disliked our OL play. Luck was pressured more than he should have been. Smith played poorly and I believe the sack came from his guy. Luck was also looking to go deep too much resulting in turnovers and panic throws. Defense played well but I wish we were able to get more consisten pressure from our front 4. Tyquan and Turay seemed quiet the whole night. I also disliked how fast we abandoned the run when it was working so well. 

 

 

[CoachLite]

Some of the offensive play calling left me scratching my head.

[richard pallo]

The Dolphins are not a bad team and they had two weeks to prepare for us.  On top of that we had plenty of miscues and poor play that should have caused us to lose this game but we did not. This is one of those team building character building games that should give us a lot of confidence going forward.   

[throwing BBZ]

Miami used their bye-week to prepare for us, they have coaches too. Kudos.

Missing the strength and versatility of Kelly, and the blocking and versatility of Mo Cox really limited our ground game attack, and made it easier to defend us. We had fewer options to keep them off balance.

X Howard looked as big as a LB chasing down TY from behind. He was much faster than TY. Wow!

 Our DT's and LB's lost gap control a lot. 

 And Desir runs at a high level but his tackling ability doesn't get it, and his 50/50 ball reminded me of TJ Green. 

Andrew looked a little ver-klempt out there, and wasn't placing the ball in tight windows as well this week. There will be days like this.

 Kudos to Cameron Wake and their front seven giving us a hard time. And i suspect we came across an officiating person or two that was looking forward to throwing some hankies.

  Definitely got a chance to ride all of my Emotions during this one. How human.
Hmmm! I remember now, it was that December playoff charge feeling.     

[MikeCurtis]

Finding a way to win, an UGLY game, a game you are supposed to win by larger margin....... is the start of the "right" mindset

 

I was thinking the other day about the 1985 Bears.......  One of the most dominant teams that the NFL has ever seen

 

In that year they beat the Colts ONLY 17-10 ......  (5-11 team) led by the AMAZING Mike Pagel

 

it was an UGLY win, but the Bears still did enough to get through

 

I was at my bosses house for that game..... (huge, VERY loud Bears fan)  

(I was trying to keep my mouth shut)

 

Though they arent the Bears, The Colts yesterday, found a way to win.

 

 

As stated, the "young" guys learn from games like this....... keep trying .... keep pushing

 

 

Its hard for me to put my finger on, but it almost looked like the team, sort of expected the Dolphins to fold.........

 

Its a Win..... so I will take it

 

 

 

[Myles]

12 minutes ago, throwing BBZ said:

X Howard looked as big as a LB chasing down TY from behind. He was much faster than TY. Wow!

 

 

I was surprised at how fast he looked compared to Hilton.  I did notice that Hilton didn't run at full speed to get to the endzone.   He kept turning his head to look behind him.   I wished he would have just ran.  

[WoolMagnet]

56 minutes ago, Superman said:

 

The Steelers have won and lost games like this in just the last two weeks. And even yesterday, they lost because of a bad decision on the goal line, in a game that they easily could have won.

Exactly.  It happens.

But Luck has a knack for come-backs and playing his best when we need it the most.

Remember all the big come-backs he had before his injuries?

More often than not i think.

[NorthernBlue]

Shout out to the Defense for stepping up in tough situations. Like right after Wilkins fumble, getting a stop and forcing a punt. Or after the blocked kick and the Dolphins in plus range, holding them to a field goal. And late in the game, forcing two 3 and outs to let the O finish it off.

 

They gave up big plays, they bent, but they didn’t break.

[CamMo]

10 hours ago, lollygagger8 said:

 

What's up with Desir's weak *** 8" vertical jump? He was in perfect spot to make the INT, and failed to jump a foot off the ground

 

 

I audibly laughed it was so ridiculous. Desir looked about 5’6 while jumping. Surprised when the commentators said both are listed as 6’1  

 

It was nice to see a young team claw back into it. That’s my biggest take away.

 

...that and I wouldn’t mind having Alonso and Howard as Colts.

[Hark]

My main like is that good teams find a way to win games on days when they don't have their best "stuff", to use a pitching term. This team has gone from finding ways to lose games when they played well, to winning games when they are not at their best. In my mind that is a huge sign of progress. Props to coach Reich and his staff for the growth of this team.

[gspdx]

4 hours ago, Hark said:

My main like is that good teams find a way to win games on days when they don't have their best "stuff", to use a pitching term. This team has gone from finding ways to lose games when they played well, to winning games when they are not at their best. In my mind that is a huge sign of progress. Props to coach Reich and his staff for the growth of this team.

 

The most important take away for me too.  Got to be able to win ugly.

[compuls1v3]

On 11/26/2018 at 10:00 AM, Myles said:

I was surprised at how fast he looked compared to Hilton.  I did notice that Hilton didn't run at full speed to get to the endzone.   He kept turning his head to look behind him.   I wished he would have just ran.  

The other thing to note.  Howard had a great angle.  TY. had nowhere to run except towards the goal line.  Had T.Y. been running to his left and Howard was chasing him, I don't think T.Y. would have got caught (by Howard).

[Smoke317]

Howard looked blazing fast on our field turf.    Might have to find a way to get him on the team...

[ojsglove]

Not a well played game by our team but that happens.  Hopefully Coach Reich can get these guys to stop reading all the hype being churned out by the talking heads and get back to playing football like they have been during this streak.