Thoughts after 1st Live Action

[CR91]

Definitely some rust for AR, but I would have been surprised if that wasn't the case. Not sure why Shane didn't give him some layoffs just to get him going.

 

Mod edit: Relevant comments were merged from another thread, so it'll make it look like the poster that started this thread is someone else now. Just a heads up.

Edited August 11 by Shive

[Solid84]

• AR looked rusty and indecisive. Thought he pulled some throws instead of putting it in there. He needs reps.
• Oline looked solid.
• Difficult to say anything about the WRs with ARs play.
• Besides Moore and Blackmon, nothing about this secondary puts me at ease - that's starters to 3rd stringers. Nothing.
• Starting Dline looked really promising to me!
• I thing Latu is going to be amazing!
• Hull had some good runs.

[CR91]

I wanna remind people before the trolls come out, it's the preseason. Please don't overreact.

[Smonroe]

40 minutes ago, CR91 said:

I wanna remind people before the trolls come out, it's the preseason. Please don't overreact.

Every first teamer on O needs to be benched.  Bean is by far the best QB on the roster!  Cut AR and Flacco now.  Taylor is horrible and overpaid.  Rookies all belong in the USFL.  
 

I’m switching my fan hood as soon as I figure out if Taylor Swift is staying with Kelce.  

[ColtStrong2013]

AR looks rusty and limited with the playbook (by design, not because he is). He needs reps, but they aren’t going to push it this preseason, IMO.

Receiving room is in good shape even without Downs, IMO. I think AD Mitchell can fill that role while he’s out, and even then, hopefully he doesn’t miss a single game.

O-line created clean pockets, and looks deep, maybe deeper than ever. A lot of good reps for Bortolini and Goncalves.

We have good problem with tight end and runningback depth. There’s some sorting out going on, and guys are competing against one another. Mo looked good early. Granson appeared to stop short on an overthrow that might not have been, but he’s clearly the TE1 right now based on all news. Mallory and Woods battling. Hull and Goodson both looked good. Sermon out with hamstring issue. Will be interesting to watch develop.

Defensively, the 1st team looked pretty good to me. Latu lived in the backfield and was held often. Lewis with good pressure. Limited run game. Just few reps to really evaluate. Franklin looked good today with a few solid tackles and good coverage. Speed got stiff armed to death and ended up with a facemask penalty against him, but otherwise didn’t stick out in a bad way. Jones with a nice pass breakup and limited action. Kenny Moore with the big hit as well as interception.

 

Cross got a ton of reps. I think he played alright. Appeared to have a communication issue on the touchdown which might have been Flowers fault. I’m going to give him the benefit of the doubt and say it was Flowers fault, because he was brutal today. Looked slow in kick return, and even worse in pass coverage. Step behind all day. Headlocking guys and multiple PI penalties, let alone completed passes. He is a problem, and so is the secondary depth. I think secondary in some form has to be addressed with a move in the next week or two. Abraham with the play of the game with a big strip and return for a TD. I like him. He looks like a playmaker to me, and we want those on defense. We all know what Leonard did for this defense forcing turnovers. We want ballhawks. Moore and Blackmon are ballhawks, Franklin makes plays, we need more playmakers in the secondary. Front 7 got pushed back a lot today. Linebacker depth is a concern. Defensive line didn’t disrupt much past the first few drives.

 

Special teams- new kickoff was brutal until the last return. We gave up a lot of yards, and didn’t reciprocate on kick return. Gould had some opportunities in punt return, just didn’t do much, until the last kick return which he showed his speed and potential.

On punt, Rigo shanked the first but otherwise returned to decent form. Gay missed a 54 yarder, hopefully he gets into form and plays big for us.

Overall, we played this with a lot of 3rd string reps against 2nd string players. I don’t put much into the actual gameplay as I do individuals playing. Obviously want to see them play well as units, but it’s mostly evaluation to sort the roster out, and to continue developing as units. I look forward to seeing them next week in joint practices/game against Cardinals. Praying for a clean bill of health until week 1 and a Downs recovery.

[CR91]

3 minutes ago, Smonroe said:

Every first teamer on O needs to be benched.  Bean is by far the best QB on the roster!  Cut AR and Flacco now.  Taylor is horrible and overpaid.  Rookies all belong in the USFL.  
 

I’m switching my fan hood as soon as I figure out if Taylor Swift is staying with Kelce.  

 

🤣🤣🤣

[2006Coltsbestever]

4 minutes ago, Smonroe said:

Every first teamer on O needs to be benched.  Bean is by far the best QB on the roster!  Cut AR and Flacco now.  Taylor is horrible and overpaid.  Rookies all belong in the USFL.  
 

I’m switching my fan hood as soon as I figure out if Taylor Swift is staying with Kelce.  

Best sarcasm yet, beautiful 

[Smonroe]

Only thing I don’t like is that soft zone.  I realize why, but isn’t this the time to see if the guys can play press?

 

 

[GoColts8818]

Richardson looked rusty in limited action which is to be expected.

 

Latu is going to be the real deal in due time I believe.

 

Moore, Lewis, Franklin, and Speed flashed the most.  
 

Mo and Granson running with the ones will probably disappoint many when it comes to tight ends.

 

pass blocking was good from the line.  Run blocking needs work but they were also weren’t really doing anything out of the basic stuff when it comes to the run game.

 

Bradley is going to play that soft zone until the end.

 

i don’t like the new kickoff rules.

[ColtStrong2013]

2 minutes ago, Smonroe said:

Only thing I don’t like is that soft zone.  I realize why, but isn’t this the time to see if the guys can play press?

 

 

 

They pressed some with the first team- Hopefully we see more of that early on. I think Brents/Jones can be disruptive if given the opportunities, and mixing in more might allow the pass rush to get more consistent pressure. I'm very bullish on Latu. I think our front 4 will be able bring some serious heat. 

[Restinpeacesweetchloe]

The starting offense needs more preseason reps and Richardson looked rusty as expected.

 

Kenny, latu, Mitchell, cox all looked good.

 

The depth in the secondary is exactly what we thought bad. 

[CoachLite]

7 minutes ago, Smonroe said:

Only thing I don’t like is that soft zone.  I realize why, but isn’t this the time to see if the guys can play press?

 

 

I'm not impressed with how well the defense is prepared to play the current game. Keeping up is hard, today. The Colts don't seem to be keeping the pace with the rest of the league.

[GoColts8818]

5 minutes ago, CoachLite said:

I'm not impressed with how well the defense is prepared to play the current game. Keeping up is hard, today. The Colts don't seem to be keeping the pace with the rest of the league.

In fairness we don’t know how prepared this defense is or isn’t yet.  They don’t game plan for pre-season games except for the “dress rehearsal” and even that is a very toned down version of game planning.  It’s more about seeing what guys do in certain sets or situations regardless of what the other team is doing than it is a plan like the season.

 

Also not playing Brents and Buckner is taking away two extremely important parts to the defense, especially Buckner. The whole defense is built around him.

[Colt Overseas]

Thought some of the second stringers on offense did well, Bortolini, Concalves, Mallory, Flacco, Hull, which is encouraging.

 

Think Ballard will be active bring in defensive players at final roster cuts day. 

[Indianapolis-Colts-Fan]

Latu got held at least 3 times one of which he was tackled to the ground at the QBs feet. Says a lot to me that he’s getting held in a preseason game vs starters. 

[Restinpeacesweetchloe]

 

[GoColts8818]

8 minutes ago, Colt Overseas said:

Thought some of the second stringers on offense did well, Bortolini, Concalves, Mallory, Flacco, Hull, which is encouraging.

 

Think Ballard will be active bring in defensive players at final roster cuts day. 

I am not too worried about the defense yet.  The starters didn’t give up points or if they did it was three and forced a takeaway and that was without Buckner or Brents.

 

Also the Broncos kept their starters in longer to play with Nix so that put them a rotation behind the Colts the rest of the game so their second stringers played against the Colts third stringers and so on.  

[JediXMan]

Micah Abraham was a nice surprise hopefully he continues to perform well because we need it at CB. 

[ColtStrong2013]

1 minute ago, JediXMan said:

Micah Abraham was a nice surprise hopefully he continues to perform well because we need it at CB. 

Yes. Need playmakers in the secondary. I could live with inconsistency if we had guys making big plays. 

[Old Man and the COLTS]

3 minutes ago, GoColts8818 said:

I am not too worried about the defense yet.  The starters didn’t give up points or if they did it was three and forced a takeaway and that was without Buckner or Brents.

 

Also the Broncos kept their starters in longer to play with Nix so that put them a rotation behind the Colts the rest of the game so their second stringers played against the Colts backups and so on.  

After the way Nix played, maybe our first team played against their second string QB and our second string played against their first string QB ;)

[#12.]

It's a conundrum.  To win with Richardson, you have to utilize his legs, but if you utilize his legs, he may not make it through the season.  He’s just not accurate enough to sit in the pocket, thread the needle and move the chains on 3rd and longs.  With him, you have to win with his legs and big plays.  

 

 

[ColtStrong2013]

7 minutes ago, Old Man and the COLTS said:

After the way Nix played, maybe our first team played against their second string QB and our second string played against their first string QB 😉

Could be… and I think that’s a good thing for us for evaluation purposes. In that case, Cross (and a lot of our secondary depth) received a lot of looks against a starting qb. 

[GoColts8818]

4 minutes ago, #12. said:

It's a conundrum.  To win with Richardson, you have to utilize his legs, but if you utilize his legs, he may not make it through the season.  He’s just not accurate enough to sit in the pocket, thread the needle and move the chains on 3rd and longs.  With him, you have to win with his legs and big plays.  

 

 

Not much of one for Shane he’s already said they are going to let AR run.  I did like the blurb where they said they asked Flacco what they thought AR had learned and he said he’s starting to take the easy stuff and not always going for the deep hard play.

[ColtStrong2013]

5 minutes ago, #12. said:

It's a conundrum.  To win with Richardson, you have to utilize his legs, but if you utilize his legs, he may not make it through the season.  He’s just not accurate enough to sit in the pocket, thread the needle and move the chains on 3rd and longs.  With him, you have to win with his legs and big plays.  

 

 

it’s not a conundrum. He was drafted to be a threat in the air and ground. I will go ahead and say that his biggest plays through the air will be on extended plays out of the pocket where breakdowns in the secondary occur. That’s not a bad thing, because it’s what he brings to the table. 

[G8R]

I understand the need to keep starters out of harm’s way, but giving AR a handful of snaps is pointless in his situation. He still needs those valuable reps to learn and make mistakes since he had limited reps last year. What he was given today did a disservice. He wasn’t able to have any success, but at the same time wasn’t able to put on tape anything to learn from. IMO you hold him out until you’re willing to give him enough time to get in the flow of the game and be able to make adjustments.

[krunk]

Cross didn't look bad. Saw two nice tackles along with a nice pass break up. Gave up TD in the red zone, but I've seen plenty seasoned players have that happen on that play.

[krunk]

Honestly I was shocked to see JT playing in the preseason.

[GoColts8818]

Just now, krunk said:

Honestly I was shocked to see JT playing in the preseason.

I think that’s to get Richardson used to playing with him since they had all of two plays together to this point.  I noticed Taylor wore the guardian cap and it looked a lot better than I expected.

[ColtStrong2013]

2 minutes ago, G8R said:

I understand the need to keep starters out of harm’s way, but giving AR a handful of snaps is pointless in his situation. He still needs those valuable reps to learn and make mistakes since he had limited reps last year. What he was given today did a disservice. He wasn’t able to have any success, but at the same time wasn’t able to put on tape anything to learn from. IMO you hold him out until you’re willing to give him enough time to get in the flow of the game and be able to make adjustments.

I don’t see it that way. Forcing him into a bunch of reps when you are getting ready to do joint practices against the Cardinals and then 2 more preseason games in 11 days would be a disservice. They are easing him in. 

[krunk]

I think that backup QB #17 might send Ehlinger packing. Looked pretty decent.

[GoColts8818]

1 minute ago, krunk said:

I think that backup QB #17 might send Ehlinger packing. Looked pretty decent.

Ehlinger played better against better competition IMO.

 

Still if the only QB drama the Colts have this year is the third string QB spot I can live with that.

[krunk]

1 minute ago, GoColts8818 said:

I think that’s to get Richardson used to playing with him since they had all of two plays together to this point.  I noticed Taylor wore the guardian cap and it looked a lot better than I expected.

Yeah I was like man hurry up and get him out of there.

[krunk]

I thought Evan Hull looked good

[GoColts8818]

Just now, krunk said:

I thought Evan Hull looked good

Looked better than either of the other two backs in the running for the number two spot IMO.  I liked Pennix too but his action came mostly against guys who will be out of football in a couple of weeks.

[G8R]

3 minutes ago, ColtStrong2013 said:

I don’t see it that way. Forcing him into a bunch of reps when you are getting ready to do joint practices against the Cardinals and then 2 more preseason games in 11 days would be a disservice. They are easing him in. 

I didn’t say he should play the whole game but there wasn’t any chance a real game type scenario was played out there which he needs. He might as well not even played bc he needs reps so if limiting him to a couple attempts bc of injury risks then don’t even put him out there.

[TheNewGuy]

 I liked how the offensive line played, both starters and backups.

 

I thought Cross took what happened the other day and tried to capitalize on it and I have to agree that the TD wasn't all on him.

 

Paye was in the back field on the first play causing a step up and bad throw.

 

Lewis looked good! Real good!

 

Latu did as well, even drew at least one double team.

 

Jones needs work, Flowers even more.

 

Kenny showed up and Micah too.

 

I love the WR and TE depth.

 

Both Slovis and Bean intrigue me.

 

There is alot of work to do before the real season starts.

[TheNewGuy]

3 minutes ago, GoColts8818 said:

Looked better than either of the other two backs in the running for the number two spot IMO.  I liked Pennix too but his action came mostly against guys who will be out of football in a couple of weeks.

Thank you, Pennix looks like he could eventually develop into a solid Full Back/H-Back.

[TheNewGuy]

13 minutes ago, GoColts8818 said:

I think that’s to get Richardson used to playing with him since they had all of two plays together to this point.  I noticed Taylor wore the guardian cap and it looked a lot better than I expected.

For some reason that helmet made me think of Super Mario Bros...lol.

[GoColts8818]

1 minute ago, TheNewGuy said:

Thank you, Pennix looks like he could eventually develop into a solid Full Back/H-Back.

Yeah, I am not sure he makes the final roster but I could see him on the PS.

[TheNewGuy]

Just now, GoColts8818 said:

Yeah, I am not sure he makes the final roster but I could see him on the PS.

That is my thought as well.