All 22 Review Thoughts

[NorthernColt]

Finally took the time to review the all 22 tape from this season, had a handful of observations (some surprising, some already well known) I've made that can largely point to why our performance has been so poor.

 

Offense

1. Pryor is not a bad player, he's just not a tackle. He does well in the run game and creates a lot of movement on the DL, but his pass sets are very poor as he just doesn't have the footwork to hold up at tackle and its only going to get worse the more film teams get on him. Just beat him with speed on the edge every time. I think he'd actually have great success at RG, which leads to my next point.

 

2. Pinter doesn't have the strength to play G. I think he's ideally a C or back up swing tackle. He's very athletic and does well when he gets to the second level, but whenever he has to take on anyone from the DL, whether its an edge player or tackle, he gets absolutely stonewalled and pushed back in both the passing and running game. 

 

3. Before I watched the film, I figured I was going to be the most * with Smith and Kelly of our 3 vets, but wasn't. They could both be absolutely be better for sure, but they haven't been bad. Nelson on the other hand has not been Nelson like at all, and its a bit concerning after his surgery last year and we just paid him 20m. Didn't recognize and hand off a number of stunts, ended up on the ground on more than a few reps, and never got all that much push. Hopefully just a slow start, but definitely concerning considering his new deal.

 

4. The sky is blue, and our WRs do indeed get next to no separation. I've largely been a big Stachan fan and always wondered why he doesn't get more targets. Watching the tape, there's a corner in his pocket every single route, he can't shake anyone. Largely the same story for all of our pass catchers, you can actually look it up on the next gen stats page, great tool btw. NFL Next Gen Stats

 

Defense

1. Ngakoue so far has been very Turay like, and not in a good way. After he dropped weight, he's purely a speed rusher and often over pursues leaving a lot of space for the qb to step up. Absolute non factor in the run game too, which I'm assuming is why his pff grade is always so low.

 

2. Buckner & Paye are both solid against the run, but again, aren't providing much of anything against the pass. Paye makes more sense, as he's another pure traits guy from Ballard and never had more than 5 sacks in college, but Buckner is surprising. I'm hoping he's still hurt.

 

3. Grover might be the best kept secret in the NFL. He's improved every year in the league and he's seemingly still getting better. He's getting some of the double teams more than Buckner too. Absolute stud against the run and even getting pressure in the pass too.

 

4. DL rotation needs to change. After week one, they mentioned they wanted more rotation on the DL and that makes sense, but they have to have a better plan of how to stagger the players. The lone long TD Run we gave up to Robinson, I kid you not, we had Dayo, Lewis (inside), Cowart, and Ngakoue.... what did we expect to happen? All backups or poor run defender in Ngakoues case. Lewis is good against the run on the edge, but when he's inside he's undersized. Have to find away to stagger the subs so we don't have an entire 2nd unit on the field.

 

5. Another reason we see a lot of high percentage QBs against us and no pass rush, is they're sometimes getting the ball out in literally 1 second. Almost always over the middle too. For whatever reason, the middle of our zone, largely our line backers play almost at the sticks when they are in passing situations, so they just nickel and dime us for 5 easy yards over the middle and our DL doesn't even have a chance. I know this is by design to an extent, but I mean almost every QB we play has a career best in completion % against us.

 

Just my two cents. Also I could totally see us covering against KC just because it makes absolutely no sense. This team has always had a problem in the sense we play to the level of our competition.

[FRW]

Totally agree with your comments on Pinter and Pryor. Not sure why we let both Glow and Reed go keeping one of them would have been prudent. I think Kelly and Smith are struggling because of Pinter's weaknesses. I'd move Pryor to RG and turn the rookie loose. He can't be worse than Pryor. I might even try Pinter at LT. He's built more like a LT and played some RT in college.

[Douzer]

Here's what I saw:

The D had 1 primary weakness and that was playing off coverage. They dared the QB to make quick reads & decisions and it backfired. He read quickly and delivered the ball on time. That was their chain mover & why the rush had so little impact. Their big plays came from misdirection bootlegs and QB designed RPO's. Those two combined allow them to possess the ball and stress the D. Except for 1 run, the general play by the D line against the run was solid. The D also had a couple of legit INT opportunities but did not complete the play.

 

Observation: The lack of blitzing by the Colts D in camp leaves the Colts O with little or no reps where they learn to identify and practice blitz pickups. When the season starts, they are immediately seeing blitzes and are a step behind in defending them. Those two are related in my eyes.

 

The Offense was stifled by the O-Line play early because of blitz pickups and the strength of the Jax D Line. On the early runs, they were out powered. On the pass plays they were sunk by not handling basic twists and delays. When they were blitzed they were step behind in recognition and footwork. And yes, Pinter was trucked back into the pocket too often.

 

Pryor, LT, wide sets & 9 step drops.

Wide sets.

It's much harder to corner a tackle that takes a wide set. It forces the edge rush to go the long way around or inside where there is more help options. It also allows the QB to see the rush progress much better and react to what's unfolding. Lastly, it virtually eliminates the blindside hit and strip sack. 

 

9-step drops.

It takes more time to get to the QB. Guards backed into the pocket have less impact on stepping into throws. Escape lanes are larger and downfield visibility is better. It buys time and opens the flat. Many QB's drop 9.

 

Both of these are adjustments that can be made to better tune offensive personnel and their playing ability to schemes. There are others, these are just examples of things I was barking at my TV screen Sunday.

 

But then again, what do I know?

Armchair rant concluded...

[EastStreet]

Didn't watch this week (A22), but watched a good amount from last week with a buddy. 

I don't plan to watch this week. My eyes told it was bad (this week). 

 

And last week was different (what you describe this week). Did you watch last week?

 

You can see (the link you pasted) the difference in separation W1 vs W2. And still, Indy is still ranked at #8 overall in separation even after W2... And comment on routes/plays?

 

On Strachan, he's 6-5 lol.. you don't expect much separation. Especially given the plays he's given. Need to use size...

 

Another note... Ryan's ANY/A and AY/A is wayyyyyyy below his norms... Never this low, ever... Even with comeback vs Houston (late passes that were deeper) very little.... This short scheme is not working with Ryan....