Baldy (painfully) breaks down 2nd half

[Dogg63]

It's hard to watch...

but I still appreciate his insight.

 

[Flash7]

3 minutes ago, Dogg63 said:

It's hard to watch...

but I still appreciate his insight.

 

This breakdown clearly shows that in the second half, the Colts mixed up zone coverage and man coverage. The Steelers had an answer for whatever we did -- man or zone.

 

I just point this out to combat the lazy "we went into zone coverage the entire second half" argument. The Steelers made plays to win and their offense played better than our defense did.

[chad72]

Its AFC North, Baldy. 

[chad72]

4 minutes ago, Flash7 said:

This breakdown clearly shows that in the second half, the Colts mixed up zone coverage and man coverage. The Steelers had an answer for whatever we did -- man or zone.

 

I just point this out to combat the lazy "we went into zone coverage the entire second half" argument. The Steelers made plays to win and their offense played better than our defense did.

 

The key is clock control. Even when we got just 5 FGs vs the vaunted Ravens D in our playoff game on the road on our SB run, we controlled tempo and clock. That cannot be understated, to keep D's legs fresh for the 4th qtr.

 

By not getting enough first downs in the 3rd and 4th quarters vs Steelers, our O not only did not move the ball but gave the ball back to an offense that was finding its rhythm.

[RollerColt]

Total team effort diminished. After the huge 4th and goal stop by our defense, the offense needed to get at least a couple of first downs for field position. Instead they faltered and flipped the field in the Steelers favor. 
 

It made sense why Tomlin went for it on that 4th down now instead of kicking the field goal. 

[Flash7]

1 minute ago, chad72 said:

 

The key is clock control. Even when we got just 5 FGs vs the vaunted Ravens D in our playoff game on the road on our SB run, we controlled tempo and clock. That cannot be understated, to keep D's legs fresh for the 4th qtr.

 

By not getting enough first downs, our O not only did not move the ball but gave the ball back to an offense that was finding its rhythm.

The second half adjustment made by the Steelers was incredible. On offense, they completely abandoned their run game. Ben threw the ball 49 times yesterday because the Colts were very good against the run, but they could not get any pressure on Ben. And because of the lack of pressure, the Steelers played their strength vs. our weakness. Ben was comfortable in the pocket and picked the defense apart.

 

Defensively, they stacked the box and took away our run game. During the game, we had used the run on early downs to get us into favorable situations (3rd and 2 instead of 3rd and 10). They recognized that and stacked the box, forcing us to make a decision: run against a stacked box or throw.

 

Rivers is a smart QB. When he saw the stacked box, he changed the play to passing plays. However, the Steelers knew that if we passed more often than we ran a) the clock would be in their favor; b) their pass rush would get to Rivers.

 

I agree with you that in the second half, the Steelers dictated the game because we were unable to make plays when the counted (Burton drop on last drive, Rivers missing Pascal on 4th down, etc.).

 

[Flash7]

In hindsight, the Colts should have run more just to wear out the clock.

[chad72]

2 minutes ago, Flash7 said:

Rivers is a smart QB. When he saw the stacked box, he changed the play to passing plays. However, the Steelers knew that if we passed more often than we ran a) the clock would be in their favor; b) their pass rush would get to Rivers.

 

I agree with you that in the second half, the Steelers dictated the game because we were unable to make plays when the counted (Burton drop on last drive, Rivers missing Pascal on 4th down, etc.).

 

 

I think we should have dared Big Ben to go deep again. We got scared after the Diontae Johnson TD given up by RYS. We should have conceded the run and dropped 7 into coverage and see if their OL 5 can get it done vs our front four. Since we backed off, Big Ben could get in a rhythm with underneath throws. 

 

On offense, even against a stacked box, we should have sent guys in motion to keep LBs honest and gotten some freebies with reverses and laterals, IMO. Then their LBs won't crash inside easily. They played the chess game and we backed off by giving them the underneath stuff, we were not up to par to play the chess game with them when it mattered. That is on coaching clearly.

[Colt.45]

21 minutes ago, chad72 said:

 

The key is clock control. Even when we got just 5 FGs vs the vaunted Ravens D in our playoff game on the road on our SB run, we controlled tempo and clock. That cannot be understated, to keep D's legs fresh for the 4th qtr.

 

By not getting enough first downs in the 3rd and 4th quarters vs Steelers, our O not only did not move the ball but gave the ball back to an offense that was finding its rhythm.

Yup.

The Offense was in and out in the 2nd half. Never sustained drives. I would have to look at the drive charts but it felt like we kept getting behind the chains and out of script and falling into those dreaded long situation. You know, the situations a defense like PIT feasts on and the exact situations that Rivers just cannot handle. Unlike our defense, they've got a pass rush to punish you and Rivers is plenty good enough when everything is fine and on script but the minute he's forced off script in those 2 and 14, 3rd and 10s, forget it. He's getting roasted V a good defense. We saw it VS Cleveland.

 

Now there're a few things we MUST be real about because we'll see them again in the playoffs. 

- Pass defense

- Pass defense

- Deep offense

 

Those are not getting fixed this year so we have to hide them. HOW do we do that?

[Flash7]

2 minutes ago, chad72 said:

 

I think we should have dared Big Ben to go deep again. We got scared after the Diontae Johnson TD given up by RYS. We should have conceded the run and dropped 7 into coverage and see if their OL 5 can get it done vs our front four. Since we backed off, Big Ben could get in a rhythm with underneath throws. 

 

On offense, even against a stacked box, we should have sent guys in motion to keep LBs honest and gotten some freebies with reverses and laterals, IMO. Then their LBs won't crash inside easily. They played the chess game and we backed off by giving them the underneath stuff, we were not up to par to play the chess game with them when it mattered. That is on coaching clearly.

I think we did dare Big ben to go deep and he completed deep to Claypool, a TD to Johnson and then another deep TD to JuJu Smith-Schuster.

 

We were clearly out coached and out played in the second half. A complete team collapse.

[Mr.Debonair]

No excuse for not running more. We ran into stacked boxes with success in the first half. We made it easy for Pitt

[LJpalmbeacher2]

Let's not get influenced and make heroes of Roethlisberger and the Steelers for the comeback.

The colts lost because of bad playcalling in 2nd half AND BIASED OFFICIATING. 

[ShuteAt168]

By yardage, the Colts are the sixth most penalized team in the league. Reich needs to insist on more discipline. 

[coltfaninnewyork]

[CS Coltsfan]

1 hour ago, LJpalmbeacher2 said:

Let's not get influenced and make heroes of Roethlisberger and the Steelers for the comeback.

The colts lost because of bad playcalling in 2nd half AND BIASED OFFICIATING. 

Colts Lost because of their Coaching ! Reich benched Taylor because his missed a block and cause a big sack... you can not blame the officiating for your loss IMO... Turnovers in games kill you and they killed us for 10 or 14 points... the bad call Glowinski hurt, but he is a veteran he should not have pushed him especially since the ball was already down the field... This Loss is 100% on the Colts !!!

[life long]

1 hour ago, ShuteAt168 said:

By yardage, the Colts are the sixth most penalized team in the league. Reich needs to insist on more discipline. 

Under Reich we have been amongst the best at minimal penalties. I think our numbers are slightly inflated from a handful of poorly called games this year.

[krunk]

And with all that happened the biggest key in that game is the turnover we made that allowed the Steelers to score their first 7 points. Take that event off the board and we win. Cant deliver gimmes against an opponent like that. I agree we should have went more ball control 2nd half to keep their offense off the field. Id like a rematch with both out Tackles on the field.

[csmopar]

38 minutes ago, life long said:

Under Reich we have been amongst the best at minimal penalties. I think our numbers are slightly inflated from a handful of poorly called games this year.

That and our penalties when we do have them are almost always on deep pass plays or PFs. That inflates penalty yardage more than say a handful of false starts

[SR711]

3 hours ago, Dogg63 said:

It's hard to watch...

but I still appreciate his insight.

 

 

 

Thanks for sharing/posting this. Always insightful to see the All 22 and catch details that really cant be appreciated during live action.  

 

The one thing that stood out to me watching those clips is that we rushed 4 men on six of the eight plays highlighted and ran a blitz once(and even then there were only 5 guys rushing the passer).  Not once in any of those was there anything resembling pressure or forcing Big Ben off his launch point on dropback.  That makes it way too easy for a QB to toss it all over the field  

 

It just reaffirms in my mind that one of the top priorities this offseason is revamping the pass rush so that it can generated more frequently with rushing 4.  Really, that is the key to defending the top level QBs in the league. 

[DougDew]

4 minutes ago, SR711 said:

 

 

Thanks for sharing/posting this. Always insightful to see the All 22 and catch details that really cant be appreciated during live action.  

 

The one thing that stood out to me watching those clips is that we rushed 4 men on six of the eight plays highlighted and ran a blitz once(and even then there were only 5 guys rushing the passer).  Not once in any of those was there anything resembling pressure or forcing Big Ben off his launch point on dropback.  That makes it way too easy for a QB to toss it all over the field  

 

It just reaffirms in my mind that one of the top priorities this offseason is revamping the pass rush so that it can generated more frequently with rushing 4.  Really, that is the key to defending the top level QBs in the league. 

But PITT has always understood the trenches better than we have.  They protect better and rush better.  As did NE.  They just get better overall players there than we do.  We try to improve the trench play but we still look like an indoor dome team when we play against those teams.  BALT too.

 

That's why this game was always an L on the schedule.

 

Edit:  And I'm saying this as we had our 2nd and 3rd string OTs in the game.  They had better trench talent, and better WR talent than our corners.  Ball game.

[DougDew]

3 hours ago, Flash7 said:

This breakdown clearly shows that in the second half, the Colts mixed up zone coverage and man coverage. The Steelers had an answer for whatever we did -- man or zone.

 

I just point this out to combat the lazy "we went into zone coverage the entire second half" argument. The Steelers made plays to win and their offense played better than our defense did.

Because they have better talent?

[Flash7]

6 minutes ago, DougDew said:

Because they have better talent?

Yup

[DougDew]

5 minutes ago, Flash7 said:

Yup

Not to disparage our team (too much).   PITT was 11-2 at one point.  Geez, for some reason, many here (Homers) thought that we were the better team going in.

[LJpalmbeacher2]

1 hour ago, DougDew said:

But PITT has always understood the trenches better than we have.  They protect better and rush better.  As did NE.  They just get better overall players there than we do.  We try to improve the trench play but we still look like an indoor dome team when we play against those teams.  BALT too.

 

That's why this game was always an L on the schedule.

 

Edit:  And I'm saying this as we had our 2nd and 3rd string OTs in the game.  They had better trench talent, and better WR talent than our corners.  Ball game.

 

Better trench talent?

How many rushing yards did they have in the first half? Like 4?

Colts ran on them in first half and abandoned the rush in 2nd half.

 

Bad playcalling/game planning and flags handed the game to them. 

Steelers were totally outplayed for about first 35 minutes and then the game did a 180°.

But games are 60 minutes, not 35 minutes/2 qtrs and Colts didn't play 4 qtrs of winning football.

[chad72]

18 hours ago, DougDew said:

Because they have better talent?

 

At some key positions, yes. But not everywhere.

 

Our O-line, when fully healthy, is better than theirs, I have no doubt. However, they have us on the front 7. Secondary is a push, IMO. However, superior WR talent makes our secondary look worse than it is.

 

Bottom line - passing offense and defense is where they have the edge. In the current NFL, running the ball only gets you so far. Stopping the run on early downs does keep the down and distances in your favor but beyond that, you win against the better teams by passing well and defending the pass well for 4 quarters.

 

It is not a co-incidence the Patriots always continued to bolster their secondary to help out their front 7 by having excellent players there more than the DL, IMO. The Rams are probably the only team that has excellent DL and secondary, you have to pay a premium to maintain talent at both places and have to draft well continuously to replenish like the Ravens and Steelers do.

[Dogg63]

Baldy added some clips/commentary on BigQ's never quit attitude and JT's power running skills.

 

What a great battle between Q and Heyward. Wow!

 

JT has the moves. Need to see a lot more of him!

 

[DougDew]

On 12/28/2020 at 8:39 PM, LJpalmbeacher2 said:

 

Better trench talent?

How many rushing yards did they have in the first half? Like 4?

Colts ran on them in first half and abandoned the rush in 2nd half.

 

Bad playcalling/game planning and flags handed the game to them. 

Steelers were totally outplayed for about first 35 minutes and then the game did a 180°.

But games are 60 minutes, not 35 minutes/2 qtrs and Colts didn't play 4 qtrs of winning football.

Where did I say anything about talent? 

 

I said they understood the trenches better than we do, always have.  We approach the trenches the wrong way, with talent.  They approach it as a unit.  

 

They stacked the box.  We gave up.  They understood it better.

 

Ben understood our defense better than we did, and their bad talent on the oline protected Ben awfully well.

[King Colt]

Here's a recap: "Pass Interference, Pass Interference, Pass Interference"  Pathetic. 

[DougDew]

22 hours ago, chad72 said:

 

At some key positions, yes. But not everywhere.

 

Our O-line, when fully healthy, is better than theirs, I have no doubt. However, they have us on the front 7. Secondary is a push, IMO. However, superior WR talent makes our secondary look worse than it is.

 

Bottom line - passing offense and defense is where they have the edge. In the current NFL, running the ball only gets you so far. Stopping the run on early downs does keep the down and distances in your favor but beyond that, you win against the better teams by passing well and defending the pass well for 4 quarters.

 

It is not a co-incidence the Patriots always continued to bolster their secondary to help out their front 7 by having excellent players there more than the DL, IMO. The Rams are probably the only team that has excellent DL and secondary, you have to pay a premium to maintain talent at both places and have to draft well continuously to replenish like the Ravens and Steelers do.

Agree.  I think our D is positioned well to build upon.  We have our best player at the most important position, 3T.  I'm not as big on getting a high priced EDGE as some here are.  I think the Freeney Mathis thing worked great, but they did get gassed late in games.  The edge-by-situation approach that Ballard seems to want works better I think, but his players need to step up and actually do the job they were drafted to do.

 

NE and PITT have always had a more attacking defense.  Whether its pure talent or not, I think they find players who are good at exploiting situations, where we seem to always have players that seem to be back on their heels...more reactive to the offense..... no matter what scheme we play.

[cbear]

At least on this tape, it shows that our coverage was pretty good. Except for the Conner dump off, we were right there. Noone was running free. The lack of pass rush and just some great throws and catches on Pittsburgh part. 

[coming on strong]

Lack of blitzing bothered me if you can’t get pressure in today’s game you can’t play defense.    Corners can’t even touch a player past 5 yards without pressure it’s like playing monkey in the middle.   Ben had so much time to throw . Make him uncomfortable and think twice . 

[Moosejawcolt]

On 12/28/2020 at 5:56 PM, DougDew said:

But PITT has always understood the trenches better than we have.  They protect better and rush better.  As did NE.  They just get better overall players there than we do.  We try to improve the trench play but we still look like an indoor dome team when we play against those teams.  BALT too.

 

That's why this game was always an L on the schedule.

 

Edit:  And I'm saying this as we had our 2nd and 3rd string OTs in the game.  They had better trench talent, and better WR talent than our corners.  Ball game.

Have always said we will not go very far with this style of D. When they come up against a good Oline, they get little pressure. Balard has built the offence to go on the road. The defence is still built to succeed in the dome

[DougDew]

1 hour ago, Moosejawcolt said:

Have always said we will not go very far with this style of D. When they come up against a good Oline, they get little pressure. Balard has built the offence to go on the road. The defence is still built to succeed in the dome

I think the style of D lends to being soft between the 20s, but needs to make the O score FGs in the red zone.  With a zone D, the middle is open for most of the field because the Ss have to cover too much real estate.  But things tighten up in the red zone and the goal is to maybe allow the completed pass but the DB needs to be right there to stop them.  Essentially, man coverage but for a short time.

 

Flus keeps putting RYS on an island at mid field.  He's not suited to cover man for a long distance.  

 

IMO, we need better middle field defenders....upgrades from Walker and, Okerke.  We simply need better talent at a few more spots.  The scheme is fine, IMO.  And I think Flus needs to play more zone, not less.