Colts tied for first in AFCS(Titans own tie breaker)

[CR91 7,246]

Titans losing today now places them at 5-2 along with the colts. Unfortunately, the titans have the better division record at 2-0

[Sumo63 632]

That Jacksonville game....smh

[chad72 7,894]

1 minute ago, Sumo63 said:

That Jacksonville game....smh

 

If Reich would learn to run against the Jags when their run D is the weaker link...

 

Goes back to the 0-6 game with Luck at the helm in 2018. 

[IinD 2,146]

Good thing is we have them twice. Just gotta handle our business and we're on a good track.

[EastStreet 10,341]

Not really a half game back, just a tie breaker. 

We can take things over the next two weeks.

I like the matchup vs the Ravens, and then TN on a Thursday night. 

 

2 wins and we're at worst tied for 3rd in the AFC.

[Restored 270]

1 hour ago, EastStreet said:

Not really a half game back, just a tie breaker. 

We can take things over the next two weeks.

I like the matchup vs the Ravens, and then TN on a Thursday night. 

 

2 wins and we're at worst tied for 3rd in the AFC.

 

I'm feeling the Colts win both of those games right now. 

 

Titans are reeling and have been fools gold majority of the season IMO. Honestly, the Colts are built to beat both of these teams. Neither of their defenses have been that impressive and they (especially the Ravens) really struggle when you shut their running games down.

[RollerColt 2,801]

The ball is in our court now. We need to take care of the Ravens first though. Our defense was stellar for the most part, but as with anything else there is plenty of room to improve. We can certainly take it to any team. 

[EastStreet 10,341]

Just now, Restored said:

 

I'm feeling the Colts win both of those games right now. 

 

Titans are reeling and have been fools gold majority of the season IMO. Honestly, the Colts are built to beat both of these teams. Neither of their defenses have been that impressive and they (especially the Ravens) really struggle when you shut their running games down.

Yep.

I like the matchup vs both teams. TN has been squeaking out Ws a lot. But, they just don't quit, so we'll have to put them away. I'm more worried about Tannehill lighting us up than I am Henry. 

 

Balt just isn't good passing, and I think we'll fair well vs their running game. Jackson if allowed to throw short though, can eat a D up. If we're Charmin soft, might be ugly. Balt's D is good, but not near the levels of the past. 

[jvan1973 5,616]

3 hours ago, Sumo63 said:

That Jacksonville game....smh

Most teams lose games to teams they shouldn't.    Titans vs Bengals  for example 

[Sumo63 632]

1 minute ago, jvan1973 said:

Most teams lose games to teams they shouldn't.    Titans vs Bengals  for example 

True.  After week 1 I said the colts (lately) lose the season opener and lose in Jacksonville, at least this year we combined them.  One loss instead of two. In hindsight its shame to drop that one though.  It was winnable.

[RollerColt 2,801]

21 minutes ago, Sumo63 said:

True.  After week 1 I said the colts (lately) lose the season opener and lose in Jacksonville, at least this year we combined them.  One loss instead of two. In hindsight its shame to drop that one though.  It was winnable.

The Browns game was winnable too if we're honest.

[Sumo63 632]

30 minutes ago, RollerColt said:

The Browns game was winnable too if we're honest.

Both games prominently featured rivers ints.  If the offense continues to gel, and the D continues its trend towards dominance, I think we have a real shot this year.  Overly optimistic? Maybe, but I'll run the risk of playing the fool. I like this team.

[GoColts8818 5,031]

1 minute ago, Sumo63 said:

Both games prominently featured rivers ints.  If the offense continues to gel, and the D continues its trend towards dominance, I think we have a real shot this year.  Overly optimistic? Maybe, but I'll run the risk of playing the fool. I like this team.

Both games also featured that soft shell defense that doesn’t work that put the Colts behind the 8 ball that’s when Rivers makes mistakes.  The key here is not to put the team in that situation on both sides of the ball.  

[Myles 4,373]

4 hours ago, Sumo63 said:

That Jacksonville game....smh

That was intentional.  Don't want Lawrence in the AFC South.  

The Texans and Titans have agreed to lose to them once as well.

[Sumo63 632]

Just now, GoColts8818 said:

Both games also featured that soft shell defense that doesn’t work that put the Colts behind the 8 ball that’s when Rivers makes mistakes.  The key here is not to put the team in that situation on both sides of the ball.  

Agreed there too.  I absolutely die a little inside watching that soft zone.  I've been highly critical of Flus since his hiring but I gotta give credit this year.  Our d has been suffocating at times.  I'd like to think showings like today will become more frequent as we continue.

[Sumo63 632]

2 minutes ago, Myles said:

That was intentional.  Don't want Lawrence in the AFC South.  

The Texans and Titans have agreed to lose to them once as well.

I'd like to believe that but we all know the jets exist.....(apologies to the ol' zeuser)

[GoColts8818 5,031]

6 minutes ago, Sumo63 said:

Agreed there too.  I absolutely die a little inside watching that soft zone.  I've been highly critical of Flus since his hiring but I gotta give credit this year.  Our d has been suffocating at times.  I'd like to think showings like today will become more frequent as we continue.

Yeah.  I don’t really have an issue with Flus when he doesn’t call the soft zone D.  He’s shown to be really good when he gets the defense out of that.

[Sumo63 632]

Just now, GoColts8818 said:

Yeah.  I don’t really have an issue with Flus when he doesn’t call the soft zone D.  He’s shown to be really good when he gets the defense out of that.

Yea maybe my perception of their stubbornness to abandon it is overstated.  I've settled into thinking that's their preferred scheme.  A "first world" soft form of ptsd maybe.  I just dread it.  Then I see them today and I'm like, *,  is this '86 and I'm living in chi town? Wheres my cassette of the shufflin' crew?

 

Exaggeration obviously, lol,  but today they were dominant.

[Fluke_33 2,770]

Just win out the rest of the games...Easy 

[Shepman 171]

I have seen much worse Giant teams win it all.  Get into the playoffs and anything can happen.

[a06cc 464]

5 hours ago, chad72 said:

 

If Reich would learn to run against the Jags when their run D is the weaker link...

 

Goes back to the 0-6 game with Luck at the helm in 2018. 

We were 1-5 in 2018. Never 0-6 

[chad72 7,894]

2 minutes ago, a06cc said:

We were 1-5 in 2018. Never 0-6 

I was talking about the 0-6 loss to the Jaguars with Frank trying to play macho passing against the strength of the Jags pass D. (Just like game 1 this year). Worst loss that I’ve seen as a Colts fan.

[a06cc 464]

10 minutes ago, chad72 said:

I was talking about the 0-6 loss to the Jaguars with Frank trying to play macho passing against the strength of the Jags pass D. (Just like game 1 this year). Worst loss that I’ve seen as a Colts fan.

Sorry about that! 

[funktacious2 478]

3 hours ago, Restored said:

 

I'm feeling the Colts win both of those games right now. 

 

Titans are reeling and have been fools gold majority of the season IMO. Honestly, the Colts are built to beat both of these teams. Neither of their defenses have been that impressive and they (especially the Ravens) really struggle when you shut their running games down.

I'm worried about Jackson scrambling for like 80 yards against us. Only kind of joking. Our run D is great, and I agree with your accessment that if we shut it down their pass attack is nothing amazing. But if we put pressure but can't actually contain Jackson, he's going to extend drives with his legs. Because of this I worry more about the Ravens than perhaps anyone else this season. Maybe GB just because depending on the week Rodgers could just light up anyone.

[Coltsman1788 1,691]

6 hours ago, Sumo63 said:

That Jacksonville game....smh

Nothing happened that hasn’t happened to the Colts before down in Jax. And Colts have still made the playoffs in the past even won the South while losing to that team earlier in the season. In fact, they even won the Super Bowl in 06 after being run all over by Jax for over 300 rushing yards. Remember that? Lol. The good news is...we will see them again...this time in Indy. 

[PrideOfAthens17 317]

An interesting, and concerning, trend has formed with this defense. The three quarterbacks they've faced who are good at scrambling out of the pocket to buy time and either find chunk completions downfield, or pick up yardage themselves - Minshew, Mayfield and Burrow - have mostly shredded this defense, with two of them getting wins over the Colts (and the other coming pretty close). The other four they've faced who are much less effective at making such plays - Cousins, Darnold, Foles and Stafford - have all been mostly smothered, even dominated, by this defense.

 

Most of the quarterbacks they have coming up are, unfortunately, either among the best at, or at least closer to, the scrambling to make plays category than not. And two of the ones who aren't as much like that now late in their careers - Rogers and Roethlisberger - can still make such plays when they need to. So it's going to be very interesting, and telling, to see what this defense looks like during the second half of the season.

 

And it's going to be that much more incumbent on the offense to much more consistently produce than they have a lot of the time during the first half of the season because of the above. Especially the running game. I really don't see this team competing for anything of meaning without that.

 

All that said, I repeat what I've said ever since I first started following this team back in March. It has a ton of talent, and because of that and the management and coaching leading it, they can do those things I described above. And just like I said in the week after their loss to the Clowns, when virtually everyone else was saying they'd be lucky to finish over .500, I still believe they can finish 12 - 4. It really is up to them.

[conklincolt 33]

17 hours ago, CR91 said:

Titans losing today now places them at 5-2 along with the colts. Unfortunately, the titans have the better division record at 2-0

So far 

[Myles 4,373]

13 hours ago, Myles said:

That was intentional.  Don't want Lawrence in the AFC South.  

The Texans and Titans have agreed to lose to them once as well.

Obviously this was said in jest.   

But thinking about it, I bet Houston, Tennessee and Jacksonville would have given up a win to stop Manning from being in the division.   The divisions were different back then and the Titans didn't exist yet, so kind of a moot point.   

[Korey 64]

Setting up for a crazy next few weeks to see if we are among the best in the AFC or barley a playoff team. 

[Coffeedrinker 3,537]

4 hours ago, Myles said:

Obviously this was said in jest.   

But thinking about it, I bet Houston, Tennessee and Jacksonville would have given up a win to stop Manning from being in the division.   The divisions were different back then and the Titans didn't exist yet, so kind of a moot point.   

I remember some of the talk back then and a big reason the Colts ended up in the division with 2 newer teams in the Jags and Texans and a recently relocated team in the Titans is because the owners in the AFC East and North wanted to have to play Manning twice a year.

[danlhart87 9,259]

 

[w87r 5,622]

4 minutes ago, danlhart87 said:

 

That's wild.

 

 

I think Clowney got hurt last week as well? Not sure how serious though.

[chad72 7,894]

22 hours ago, Restored said:

 

I'm feeling the Colts win both of those games right now. 

 

Titans are reeling and have been fools gold majority of the season IMO. Honestly, the Colts are built to beat both of these teams. Neither of their defenses have been that impressive and they (especially the Ravens) really struggle when you shut their running games down.

 

With the Titans, they are a well rounded offense and have a good OL. So, offensively they can hang with us. Defensively, we will see if their acquisition of Desmond King helps the middle of their secondary that continued to be exploited. Maybe the Tannehill charm will wear off eventually but that is a team that probably did not take the Bengals seriously, I feel.

 

Ravens, as long as they stay patient with the run, and we don't put pressure on the scoreboard against them, we are asking for trouble because 30-40 carries and clock control is made easier for them without a deficit. Not everyone can make a comeback like Big Ben did on the road vs the Ravens, down 7-17. Big Ben went no huddle for about 24 plays in a row, I read, in the second half during that comeback. 2 INTs of Lamar happened throwing to Mark Andrews and the Steelers scouted that well, and one of them was a pick six early on while the second one gave the Steelers a short field for a TD pass to Ebron at the beginning of the second half, where the Steelers exploited the Ravens down the middle.

 

Can we win both those games? Yes, we definitely can. Will we? Only time will tell. 

[Restored 270]

14 hours ago, chad72 said:

 

With the Titans, they are a well rounded offense and have a good OL. So, offensively they can hang with us. Defensively, we will see if their acquisition of Desmond King helps the middle of their secondary that continued to be exploited. Maybe the Tannehill charm will wear off eventually but that is a team that probably did not take the Bengals seriously, I feel.

 

Ravens, as long as they stay patient with the run, and we don't put pressure on the scoreboard against them, we are asking for trouble because 30-40 carries and clock control is made easier for them without a deficit. Not everyone can make a comeback like Big Ben did on the road vs the Ravens, down 7-17. Big Ben went no huddle for about 24 plays in a row, I read, in the second half during that comeback. 2 INTs of Lamar happened throwing to Mark Andrews and the Steelers scouted that well, and one of them was a pick six early on while the second one gave the Steelers a short field for a TD pass to Ebron at the beginning of the second half, where the Steelers exploited the Ravens down the middle.

 

Can we win both those games? Yes, we definitely can. Will we? Only time will tell. 

 

I partially agree on some of what you said concerning the Titans. Their offense is heavily predicated on being able to run the ball and do play action. If that gets going for them, they are able to move the ball. In addition, Tannehill has been playing good ball and has actually kept them in games. The problem is, much like the Colts last year to this point, all of their games have been extremely close for the most part. And while odds are that you will win some of those games, odds also say that you will lose some of those games too and thats what happening with the Titans. Their defense is below average and their offense is prone to stalling out if shut down or limit Henry (which the Colts have historically done well and are doing very fairly well this year)

 

I agree on the Ravens analysis. The Ravens are built to play with a lead and playing ball control offense. The Colts have to really shut down their rushing attack. The Ravens losing their LT and Ingram hurts without a doubt. Humphrey also getting COVID throws a wrinkle into the mix for them on defense.

 

I think part of my thinking is also just based on where all three of these teams are at. The Colts appear to be finding their stride on both sides of the ball while both the Ravens and Titans have regressed a bit. Any given Sunday but the Colts appear to be playing better than both of these teams right now.