…And We’re on to Green Bay!

[Archer]

It’s getting pretty unbearable around here, with people calling for Ballard and Bradley’s heads over a two-point loss to a top SB contender.  In reality, I thought AR played a fantastic game.  Not perfect, but an excellent game.  And that’s the most important thing for our short-term and long-term success - we seem to have a QB.

 

I had this game as a probable win for us, and the GB game as a probable loss.  It seems that we caught a major break in the injury front in GB.  Looks like Malik Willis at QB.  The opening line looks like it’ll be Colts by 2.5.  Pull off the win and we’ll get the 1-1 start I expected.  What do y’all think?  Would you be happy with a 1-1 start against these two teams if AR stays healthy and looks like a franchise QB?  Or is it too little, too late for Ballard/Bradley/Steichen?

[compuls1v3]

10 minutes ago, Archer said:

It’s getting pretty unbearable around here, with people calling for Ballard and Bradley’s heads over a two-point loss to a top SB contender.  In reality, I thought AR played a fantastic game.  Not perfect, but an excellent game.  And that’s the most important thing for our short-term and long-term success - we seem to have a QB.

 

I had this game as a probable win for us, and the GB game as a probable loss.  It seems that we caught a major break in the injury front in GB.  Looks like Malik Willis at QB.  The opening line looks like it’ll be Colts by 2.5.  Pull off the win and we’ll get the 1-1 start I expected.  What do y’all think?  Would you be happy with a 1-1 start against these two teams if AR stays healthy and looks like a franchise QB?  Or is it too little, too late for Ballard/Bradley/Steichen?

Nah, not even close to too late.  I don't want to have to rely on AR to be Superman though.  Need to get our run game going.  I think we have an opportunity to get a W next week.

[JediXMan]

The defense needs to tighten up especially the run D. Josh Jacobs is a talented back and I can see Packers copying the Texans game plan. We need the TEs to contribute more and JT needs to have a better game. This is a very winnable game.

[RollerColt]

I'm feeling a trap game here. Getting some massive 2023 vs. Cincinnati vibes. 

[boo2202]

Packers have a great group of skilled Wr’s. I wouldn’t overlook any team the way our defense played yesterday. Malik can do some damage with his legs and those Wr’s can take a hitch the distance.  At this point only time our Te’s need to be on the field is on goal line packages. One of the reason’s I wanted Bowers so bad. Like what I saw from AR tho. If he stays healthy and the D comes around we’ll be ok. 

[Restinpeacesweetchloe]

19 minutes ago, JediXMan said:

The defense needs to tighten up especially the run D. Josh Jacobs is a talented back and I can see Packers copying the Texans game plan. We need the TEs to contribute more and JT needs to have a better game. This is a very winnable game.

The good thing is they don’t have a QB like stroud with Love bring out. 

[cdgacoltsfan]

45 minutes ago, Archer said:

It’s getting pretty unbearable around here, with people calling for Ballard and Bradley’s heads over a two-point loss to a top SB contender.  In reality, I thought AR played a fantastic game.  Not perfect, but an excellent game.  And that’s the most important thing for our short-term and long-term success - we seem to have a QB.

 

I had this game as a probable win for us, and the GB game as a probable loss.  It seems that we caught a major break in the injury front in GB.  Looks like Malik Willis at QB.  The opening line looks like it’ll be Colts by 2.5.  Pull off the win and we’ll get the 1-1 start I expected.  What do y’all think?  Would you be happy with a 1-1 start against these two teams if AR stays healthy and looks like a franchise QB?  Or is it too little, too late for Ballard/Bradley/Steichen?

GB can run the ball. The run D better show up. Hopefully Defo's back injury doesn't keep him out.

[Smonroe]

Load up the box and for dogs sake don’t let Willis run.  
 

Our DBs were not bad, let them man up.  
 

Oh yeah, let’s see if the Oline shows up this time.  

[throwing BBZ]

1 hour ago, Archer said:

It’s getting pretty unbearable around here, with people calling for Ballard and Bradley’s heads over a two-point loss to a top SB contender.  In reality, I thought AR played a fantastic game.  Not perfect, but an excellent game.  And that’s the most important thing for our short-term and long-term success - we seem to have a QB.

 

I had this game as a probable win for us, and the GB game as a probable loss.  It seems that we caught a major break in the injury front in GB.  Looks like Malik Willis at QB.  The opening line looks like it’ll be Colts by 2.5.  Pull off the win and we’ll get the 1-1 start I expected.  What do y’all think?  Would you be happy with a 1-1 start against these two teams if AR stays healthy and looks like a franchise QB?  Or is it too little, too late for Ballard/Bradley/Steichen?

 

 AR had a game resembling 1st year Josh Allen. 

 Given just enough time, anytime he sees Pierce in single coverage on a go route he is going to want to sling it. Few corners will be able to stay with him AND compete with him at the high point. Yippee! Very Exciting!

 We saw on the downfield throw to Dullin that AR's rifle gets to the WR so fast that defenders have so little time to recover our to get there hands into the passing lane.  Long term, so hard to defend. Yippee!

  AR needs a 500 throw season to bring him along. Mitchell needs a season. 

Winning is more fun but .500 may be a good year all considered. 

[RollerColt]

Just now, throwing BBZ said:

 

 AR had a game resembling 1st year Josh Allen. 

 Given just enough time, anytime he sees Pierce in single coverage on a go route he is going to want to sling it. Few corners will be able to stay with him AND compete with him at the high point. Yippee! Very Exciting!

 We saw on the downfield throw to Dullin that AR's rifle gets to the WR so fast that defenders have so little time to recover our to get there hands into the passing lane.  Long term, so hard to defend. Yippee!

  AR needs a 500 throw season to bring him along. Mitchell needs a season. 

Winning is more fun but .500 may be a good year all considered. 

You're definitely not wrong. 

 

The 2018 Bills went 6-10 and dealt with the growing pains of Allen. It paid off, but it required patience. 

 

I don't think this fan base has enough patience to wait long enough... 

[Old Colt]

1 hour ago, Archer said:

It’s getting pretty unbearable around here, with people calling for Ballard and Bradley’s heads over a two-point loss to a top SB contender.  In reality, I thought AR played a fantastic game.  Not perfect, but an excellent game.  And that’s the most important thing for our short-term and long-term success - we seem to have a QB.

 

I 

it would be different if this was a one off but truth be told, Bradley has had terrible defensive schemes and ability to understand his weaknesses.  Other teams exploit those weaknesses.  He doesn't adjust to the real world and the game play in front of him each week.  We have a suspect defense backfield and he doesn't put pressure on the opposing QB is big moments when they can get off the field, and leaves the DB's hanging out.  And they can't even stop the run at the same time.  Ballard doesn't help obviously glaring holes in the defense.

 

Likely going to be a 8-9, 9-8 at best, even with our offense starting to come into their own....

 

we will have to average 35 points at least per game.... 

 

 

[Flash7]

1 hour ago, Archer said:

It’s getting pretty unbearable around here, with people calling for Ballard and Bradley’s heads over a two-point loss to a top SB contender. 

Your first sentence explains it all. We’ve been rebuilding since Ballard got here. Meanwhile, the Texans in a shorter span are now a top SB contender, according to your own words.

[Smonroe]

11 minutes ago, Flash7 said:

Your first sentence explains it all. We’ve been rebuilding since Ballard got here. Meanwhile, the Texans in a shorter span are now a top SB contender, according to your own words.

 

And the difference?  The Texans got their franchise QB last year, who was awesome and hasn't lost a step.

 

The Colts FINALLY got their franchise QB last year, who only played 4 games.  But he's trending in the right direction.

 

We can do nothing but have some patience and watch AR develop.  (And hope our O line returns to form, and our D can stop the run).

[Solid84]

14 minutes ago, Smonroe said:

 

And the difference?  The Texans got their franchise QB last year, who was awesome and hasn't lost a step.

 

The Colts FINALLY got their franchise QB last year, who only played 4 games.  But he's trending in the right direction.

 

We can do nothing but have some patience and watch AR develop.  (And hope our O line returns to form, and our D can stop the run).

AR being ready or not has nothing to do with our run defense being *.

[boo2202]

7 minutes ago, PackersNation said:

Love it! Colts -3

More bulletin board material and extra motivation. 

 

Out for blood because of Brazil. Now this.

 

Let's f'n Go! Is it Sunday yet?

I think the o/u tells the story of this game. Basically whichever team can limit the big plays and runs the ball better. 

[richard pallo]

The hate for Gus is over the top.  His defense is on the field for 40 minutes against one of the best teams in the league and holds them to 29 points and Stroud to 240 yards.  That’s a solid effort in my book.  The offense let us down.  You can practically credit one TD to special teams on the locked punt.  

[richard pallo]

2 minutes ago, PackersNation said:

Cool, Colts by 30 hey?

 

Malik won't need to be Patrick Mahomes against that Colts D. Josh Jacobs on ground. Watson, Doubs, Reed, Wicks, and Heath through the air.

 

Musgrave and Kraft will be Malik's best friends out there as well.

 

LaFleur will have his offense somewhat adjusted for Malik, but the Pack will do what they do. 

 

The Colts will be a formidable opponent 

 

We will see what happens. I never guarantee games, but I like the Packers chances.

 

The only name I recognize is Jacobs and Malik.

[Happy2BeHere]

1 hour ago, richard pallo said:

The hate for Gus is over the top.  His defense is on the field for 40 minutes against one of the best teams in the league and holds them to 29 points and Stroud to 240 yards.  That’s a solid effort in my book.  The offense let us down.  You can practically credit one TD to special teams on the locked punt.  

The offense didn’t let us down. We scored 3 TD’s on 3 drives that only took roughly 5 1/2 minutes off the clock. We scored TOO fast which put our defense on the field substantially more…and the defense is supposed to do their job…they didn’t do a great job. One of our other TD drives started within the 5 yard line and we scored in 3 seconds. The offense mutilated the Texans so quickly it was really a shock. 

[Smonroe]

6 minutes ago, Happy2BeHere said:

The offense didn’t let us down. We scored 3 TD’s on 3 drives that only took roughly 5 1/2 minutes off the clock. We scored TOO fast which put our defense on the field substantially more…and the defense is supposed to do their job…they didn’t do a great job. One of our other TD drives started within the 5 yard line and we scored in 3 seconds. The offense mutilated the Texans so quickly it was really a shock. 

 

The O line couldn't get a push in the run game.  They held their own when passing.

 

The Texans game plan - run the ball, control the clock - was what we (and every team in the league) wants to do.  Those fast scores are great, but our D was on the field way too much.

 

I put the loss on the O line as much as the run defense.

[RollerColt]

Friendly reminder: no gambling discussion on this forum. 

[Smonroe]

2 hours ago, Solid84 said:

AR being ready or not has nothing to do with our run defense being *.

 

Agreed.  I don't know how many first and second rounders we have on the D line, so it's either coaching or most of them are not living up to expectations.  

 

That's one game, the run defense was never bad when they had Grove last season.

 

And to add to your point - the one FA they brought in (that they hope will play) didn't seem to add anything to that run defense.

 

Both O and D line were beyond disappointing yesterday.

[Restinpeacesweetchloe]

There is a chance Sean Clifford starts for GB instead of Willis. He has been there longer.

[ADnum1]

Trap game !

[Superman]

2 hours ago, richard pallo said:

The hate for Gus is over the top.  His defense is on the field for 40 minutes against one of the best teams in the league and holds them to 29 points and Stroud to 240 yards.  That’s a solid effort in my book.  The offense let us down.  You can practically credit one TD to special teams on the locked punt.  

 

A big part of the reason the defense was on the field for 40 minutes is because they couldn't get off the field on 3rd or 4th down, and they couldn't stop the run. 

 

I'm not that worried about the run defense. That's probably an outlier. This defense has traditionally held up well against the run, so I expect them to tighten that up. It's worth keeping an eye on, though, with a new DL coach coming from the college game. 

 

But the 3rd down efficiency is a big problem, especially against good QBs. 

[RollerColt]

5 minutes ago, Superman said:

 

A big part of the reason the defense was on the field for 40 minutes is because they couldn't get off the field on 3rd or 4th down, and they couldn't stop the run. 

 

I'm not that worried about the run defense. That's probably an outlier. This defense has traditionally held up well against the run, so I expect them to tighten that up. It's worth keeping an eye on, though, with a new DL coach coming from the college game. 

 

But the 3rd down efficiency is a big problem, especially against good QBs. 

It's almost as if opposing offenses know we're going to get sacks, so they're expecting 2nd and 3rd and longs knowing they'll be able to convert. 

 

We got home plenty of times in terms of pressures and sacks, but they were on downs that turned out to not be so crucial to change the game... 

 

The Bradley defense is so weird... 

[Defjamz26]

4 hours ago, Archer said:

It seems that we caught a major break in the injury front in GB.  Looks like Malik Willis at QB.

The Colts have a terrible history of either losing to teams with back-up QBs or barely being able to win. That pre-dates Bradley but he’s no exception to that. This game terrifies me. The Panthers game last year was the 1st time in awhile the Colts actually terrorized a QB that shouldn’t go off.

[Restinpeacesweetchloe]

4 minutes ago, RollerColt said:

It's almost as if opposing offenses know we're going to get sacks, so they're expecting 2nd and 3rd and longs knowing they'll be able to convert. 

 

We got home plenty of times in terms of pressures and sacks, but they were on downs that turned out to not be so crucial to change the game... 

 

The Bradley defense is so weird... 

he struggles calling the right play at the right time. If it’s 3rd and 17 you can give them the five yard pass. There is no need to send pressure or blitz.

[teganslaw]

The run defense in that game is a bit concerning, but it could get better in the coming weeks. 

 

The fact that Jordan Love isn't playing in week 2 helps, but I won't sleep on Green Bay. It could be a mistake to take the Packers too lightly, and I figure that the Colts know this. 

[Restinpeacesweetchloe]

5 minutes ago, teganslaw said:

The run defense in that game is a bit concerning, but it could get better in the coming weeks. 

 

The fact that Jordan Love isn't playing in week 2 helps, but I won't sleep on Green Bay. It could be a mistake to take the Packers too lightly, and I figure that the Colts know this. 

I think we rotated the dline too much. Thst will change 

[Archer]

7 minutes ago, teganslaw said:

The run defense in that game is a bit concerning, but it could get better in the coming weeks. 

 

I won’t really go back and rewatch this game, but I wonder how much of our struggles against the run yesterday came from committing extra defenders into coverage.  We held Stroud to 230 yards or something, which was way better than we were told to expect.. 

[Superman]

12 minutes ago, RollerColt said:

It's almost as if opposing offenses know we're going to get sacks, so they're expecting 2nd and 3rd and longs knowing they'll be able to convert. 

 

We got home plenty of times in terms of pressures and sacks, but they were on downs that turned out to not be so crucial to change the game... 

 

The Bradley defense is so weird... 

 

I agree with the last line. I don't have high hopes for the defense while Bradley is the DC. But I think the pass rush was promising. Stroud had 38 dropbacks, and was pressured on 12 of them, pressure rate of 31.6% (Colts pressure rate in 2023 was 19.6%). Many of those pressures included multiple defenders. Four sacks, and I think only two scrambles. He was pretty effective against the blitz, but we did get two sacks, although one of them was on first down, and to your point they wound up with a 4th and 1 at the end of that set of downs. Still, three sacks on third down...

 

But late in the game, the defense couldn't make a play. Stroud was good, their OL and Mixon were really good, and our defense was spent. 

[Restinpeacesweetchloe]

8 minutes ago, Archer said:

I won’t really go back and rewatch this game, but I wonder how much of our struggles against the run yesterday came from committing extra defenders into coverage.  We held Stroud to 230 yards or something, which was way better than we were told to expect.. 

if that is the case then it says they don’t trust the secondary and that’s a problem. It should of been fixed.

[Restinpeacesweetchloe]

Hopefully colts offense will get more methodical so the defense isn’t on the field so much. 

[Stephen]

5 hours ago, Archer said:

It’s getting pretty unbearable around here, with people calling for Ballard and Bradley’s heads over a two-point loss to a top SB contender.  In reality, I thought AR played a fantastic game.  Not perfect, but an excellent game.  And that’s the most important thing for our short-term and long-term success - we seem to have a QB.

 

I had this game as a probable win for us, and the GB game as a probable loss.  It seems that we caught a major break in the injury front in GB.  Looks like Malik Willis at QB.  The opening line looks like it’ll be Colts by 2.5.  Pull off the win and we’ll get the 1-1 start I expected.  What do y’all think?  Would you be happy with a 1-1 start against these two teams if AR stays healthy and looks like a franchise QB?  Or is it too little, too late for Ballard/Bradley/Steichen?

Actually  had opposite. I expected  a loss to texans and believe we can take greenbay do to history. We won't  win a week 1 game until we come out the gate in mid season form

[Stephen]

13 minutes ago, Superman said:

 

I agree with the last line. I don't have high hopes for the defense while Bradley is the DC. But I think the pass rush was promising. Stroud had 38 dropbacks, and was pressured on 12 of them, pressure rate of 31.6% (Colts pressure rate in 2023 was 19.6%). Many of those pressures included multiple defenders. Four sacks, and I think only two scrambles. He was pretty effective against the blitz, but we did get two sacks, although one of them was on first down, and to your point they wound up with a 4th and 1 at the end of that set of downs. Still, three sacks on third down...

 

But late in the game, the defense couldn't make a play. Stroud was good, their OL and Mixon were really good, and our defense was spent. 

We need a closer on defense.  I Dwight freeney,  Robert Mathis, or Darius leonard.

[RollerColt]

3 minutes ago, Stephen said:

We need a closer on defense.  I Dwight freeney,  Robert Mathis, or Darius leonard.

Yep. That’s what we’re missing. Someone who can just take over a game and silence the other team. Leonard in his prime was the last type of player we had like that. 
 

Maybe Latu will become that guy in the future. 

[1959Colts]

2 hours ago, richard pallo said:

The only name I recognize is Jacobs and Malik.

I didn't recognize  a lot of their players when watched the entire GB / Philadelphia game. Although the Packers had their share of struggles, they also looked very good in some areas. Even with the backup QB, I would say it's probably pretty even matchup.

[1959Colts]

1 hour ago, Restinpeacesweetchloe said:

There is a chance Sean Clifford starts for GB instead of Willis. He has been there longer.

Reporting is that Willis will start

https://packerswire.usatoday.com/2024/09/08/glazer-malik-willis-expected-to-start-for-packers-in-home-opener-vs-colts/

 

Also, keep an eye on Tropical Storm Francine.

[RollerColt]

11 minutes ago, 1959Colts said:

Reporting is that Willis will start

https://packerswire.usatoday.com/2024/09/08/glazer-malik-willis-expected-to-start-for-packers-in-home-opener-vs-colts/

 

Also, keep an eye on Tropical Storm Francine.

Ballard constructed teams are much better in “bad weather” conditions. 
 

Feed JT if it’s a monsoon. 

[jvan1973]

22 minutes ago, 1959Colts said:

I didn't recognize  a lot of their players when watched the entire GB / Philadelphia game. Although the Packers had their share of struggles, they also looked very good in some areas. Even with the backup QB, I would say it's probably pretty even matchup.

I'm not sure how you come up with "pretty even" with Willis starting.    He hasn't been good and has only been with the Packers a couple of weeks.    He is no CJ Stroud