Every Year In The Playoffs

[mightisright]

I was bored last night (at home after the kids went to bed) and watched the old Pats/Colts championship game and bits of the past playoff games and a few things stood out to me.

*We always give up big plays on special teams that REALLY hurt us.

*Our WRs always get manhandled

*Our corners aren't big enough or talented enough to make a huge difference at that level of play

*We always struggle to stop the run (sometimes more than others)

Have we made any upgrades thus far that would help us on these issues? Are there any changes you would recommend to help us on these issues? Other than that we seem to be building as good a team as we ever can. What do you all think?

[skadura]

i say this every year.

we need bigger wrs who can get off the bump

and we need corners who we aren't afraid to play them closer to the line of scrimmage and get a shot on opposing wrs.

we dont really need to worry bout kickoffs anymore (kickoffs are now 5 yards closer than last year) ...lets just hope pat can manhandle field position game.

[Blue Horseshoe]

Your analysis is completely correct in every point.

The only thing I'd add is that the Colts haven't been able to run in years.

None of these problems have been addressed in at least 5 years.

But whenever I say things like that I get called a Polian hater.

[mightisright]

i say this every year.

we need bigger wrs who can get off the bump

and we need corners who we aren't afraid to play them closer to the line of scrimmage and get a shot on opposing wrs.

we dont really need to worry bout kickoffs anymore (kickoffs are now 5 yards closer than last year) ...lets just hope pat can manhandle field position game.

Are bigger wr's that hard to come by? I'm worried we have NO depth at corner right now, let alone how aggressive they are!

[mightisright]

Your analysis is completely correct in every point.

The only thing I'd add is that the Colts haven't been able to run in years.

None of these problems have been addressed in at least 5 years.

But whenever I say things like that I get called a Polian hater.

I'm not so worried about our ability to stop the run as I used to be b/c it always seems to be a problem! But some years we can cover that shortcoming and some years we can't. And it seems the years we cant overcome the problem coincide with problems at corner and safety! We have to be able to stop one or the other - run or pass!

[Hal]

If we stay healthy, and that's a big IF, the only thing our offense needs to worry about is the offensive line. I don't think Castonzo and Ijalana are immediate fixes, Diem is on the decline so I'm worried about him as well but a bad offensive line doesn't just mean no deep throws and no run game. I believe poor offensive line play had a major effect on the concussions Austin Collie suffered. Better protection would have meant Manning could wait for Collie to get past the linebackers or safeties before throwing him the ball.

Defensively, I'm worried about the corners but we seem to have upgraded overall. Ernie Sims is better than Clint Session, Pat Angerer will be better, Mathis, Freeney and Brackett have proven that age hasn't negatively impacted their play much, Bethea and Bullitt will be better, the young back ups will be better, and as much as people, me included, have not liked Jacob Lacey, all our corners are going to be improved; they're all young guys who are still learning.

[mightisright]

If we stay healthy, and that's a big IF, the only thing our offense needs to worry about is the offensive line. I don't think Castonzo and Ijalana are immediate fixes, Diem is on the decline so I'm worried about him as well but a bad offensive line doesn't just mean no deep throws and no run game. I believe poor offensive line play had a major effect on the concussions Austin Collie suffered. Better protection would have meant Manning could wait for Collie to get past the linebackers or safeties before throwing him the ball.

Good point about the O-line. I guess the jury is still out on whether we've upgraded that yet!

Is Dom Rhodes still out there? I don't care how old or injured he is, he always adds a little "sump-in sump-in" to our team during the playoffs!

[Malakai432]

I kind of agree with others in terms of bein worried about our OL due to A.C and Ben not being immediate improvements. I've heard from players via the radio and on shows saying the OL is a time consuming position to learn. It should be a solid unit eventually and I could potentially see the OL being fairly solid maybe later on in the year.

Running game I have no idea about, Addai was on pace for almost 1000 yards if he didnt get injured (even with a bad OL), Carter, Spann, Evans all have great potential. I'm hyped to see how we do in this area if the OL can pave the way.

DL I think should see some immediate solid improvements with Nevis, Anderson, Harris, also Jerry is looking solid in camp (supposedly). If AJ and Moala improve and everyone is healthy I fully expect to see them play very solid this year with minimal 200 yard games lol!!!!!

LB core should be improved with Simms & if Angerer and Conner improve I see no reason why they can't be solid..

Backfield is what I'm kind of worried about, if Melvin gets I injured we might be in . Also I'm kind of concerned about our CB's. Tryon should be solid and ofc Powere should be pending on how he feels. Lacey needs to play solid, I'm kind of worried about him getting pummeled by any decent receiver (especially taller ones). Just my worthless two cents on the issue.

[wercolts]

I think what I'm hearing is the Colts need to change their style of defense and start looking for players to fit whatever new style the fans would like. It also sounds like a top 5, maybe top 3 or better, passing game is not good enough. Try to remember folks that the Colts have been in 2 of the last 5 Super Bowls, losing one on basically 2 plays and winning the other. Also try to remember that Dallas Clark, Austin Collie, Anthony Gonzales, Tom Santi, Bob Sanders, Jerrod Powers, Kelvin Hayden and Melvin Bullitt were IR'd last year, and if you total games missed by starters you get 92. Think about what that does to continuity. The Colts are 9 - 10 post season under Manning in the playoffs, losing 6 of those games by less than a touchdown.

[natelombardi]

T.O would be nice because he plays better the bigger the moment(playoffs) garcon seems to disappear on the big stage.

as far as stopping the run yes we sign a bunch of new small dt's were are still gonna get pounded by bigger more physical teams unless peyton gets us a 10 point lead

our db's are trash they only look decent if we get a pass rush i think we need a corner who can just flat out cover and we dont have one

i like our safety we are solid at that position but smh peyton could have 6 rings just sign a big free agent every once in awhile if peyton were to retire today he would say the front office failed him

[Coffeedrinker]

T.O would be nice because he plays better the bigger the moment(playoffs) garcon seems to disappear on the big stage.

I'm not a huge Garcon fan but this statement is just false. In the 2009 AFCC game he set a Colts record for most yards receiving in a playoff game. Also, I need to look this up to be sure, I think 3 of his top 4 games happened in the playoffs.

blah, blah, blah, Colts don't know what they are doing.

Name one FA that would have guaranteed a Colts a SB.

[Coffeedrinker]

I think what I'm hearing is the Colts need to change their style of defense and start looking for players to fit whatever new style the fans would like. It also sounds like a top 5, maybe top 3 or better, passing game is not good enough. Try to remember folks that the Colts have been in 2 of the last 5 Super Bowls, losing one on basically 2 plays and winning the other. Also try to remember that Dallas Clark, Austin Collie, Anthony Gonzales, Tom Santi, Bob Sanders, Jerrod Powers, Kelvin Hayden and Melvin Bullitt were IR'd last year, and if you total games missed by starters you get 92. Think about what that does to continuity. The Colts are 9 - 10 post season under Manning in the playoffs, losing 6 of those games by less than a touchdown.

None of that matters. Don't you know if the Colts don't have a probowler at every position and most back-up positions it's because the front office doesn't know how to run an organization?

[mightisright]

I think what I'm hearing is the Colts need to change their style of defense and start looking for players to fit whatever new style the fans would like. It also sounds like a top 5, maybe top 3 or better, passing game is not good enough. Try to remember folks that the Colts have been in 2 of the last 5 Super Bowls, losing one on basically 2 plays and winning the other. Also try to remember that Dallas Clark, Austin Collie, Anthony Gonzales, Tom Santi, Bob Sanders, Jerrod Powers, Kelvin Hayden and Melvin Bullitt were IR'd last year, and if you total games missed by starters you get 92. Think about what that does to continuity. The Colts are 9 - 10 post season under Manning in the playoffs, losing 6 of those games by less than a touchdown.

I'm NOT saying that we need to changer our style of defense. I'm just saying that we always have the same problems in the playoffs -EVEN in the "healthy years"! And even in the games we've won. I'm proud of how our team did last year, despite the injury bug! I'm just asking people: how they can get better, and are there any key pieces to the puzzle that we can add.

[mightisright]

T.O would be nice because he plays better the bigger the moment(playoffs) garcon seems to disappear on the big stage.

as far as stopping the run yes we sign a bunch of new small dt's were are still gonna get pounded by bigger more physical teams unless peyton gets us a 10 point lead

our db's are trash they only look decent if we get a pass rush i think we need a corner who can just flat out cover and we dont have one

i like our safety we are solid at that position but smh peyton could have 6 rings just sign a big free agent every once in awhile if peyton were to retire today he would say the front office failed him

Yeah but the reason we can't sign a big free agent once in a while is b/c we pay HIM so much! I think he's worth it but there's a consequence to signing him and Wayne and Freeney to such huge contracts! The front office could say he failed them!