quick thoughts after rams game
 

I dont have as keen an eye as many here, but since no one else started one, here it goes...

1. Overall we did better against the rams than I expected. We were gifted a TD from their punt fuck up but we did put them in that position with a good defensive stop deep in their end.

2. The D gives me headaches. They make some nice stops like mentioned above. At one point that forced three consecutive 3-and-outs. But then they give up a 4 play scoring drive right after we scored on the botched punt. Its like they weren't even on the field.

3. Kupp killed us.

4. Overall wentz played well and I am encouraged by his first two performances. It doesnt look like he is broken mentally like many thought. But he does need to just eat some plays sometimes.

5. Two series with goal to go and zero points!? Fucking terrible. The first one was three straight runs into the strength of their D followed by a pass that seemed doomed from the start. Reich needs to be better with his play calling.

6. Lots of injuries once again derailing this team.

I am very concerned about the QB position...we all know Wentz has a history of injuries, we should have gotten a proven backup just in case, if any team in the league needs a strong number 2 QB it is the Colts! There were several available so I am really not sure what they were thinking. If Wentz misses more than a couple of weeks, the Colts have little chance of a post season!

BTW, I think your assessment was pretty spot on!

1) looked to me like our offensive line is one of the worst in the league. Just embarrassing

2) all those 1st and 2nd round de's are doing nothing in regards to pass rush

3) don't stop the run well either

4) okereke hasn't been good

5) wentz needs to play smarter football. get rid of the ball sooner when plays break down.

maybe they should have asked peyton to go in instead of eason.

also forgot to mention it was good to see mack get some work in.

There aren't even that many good starting QB's much less good backups much less good backups that are not signed by a team. If Wentz can't go lets see if Eason can do anything. Unless the offensive line gets fixed it won't matter who our quarterback is, so I am not for bringing in anyone new. If the line gets fixed Eason should be ok. He would have time to throw and would have a running game. Big if.

:D

In all fairness, that was a terrible position to put Eason in yesterday...I don't dislike the guy at all, and I hope he proves me wrong, but if you have hopes of a winning season why would you not be better prepared considering Carson's past injury history.

I agree about Mack, love JT but the Colts need to find more ways of getting Mack in the offense...explosive player!

Our strength is supposed to be on the lines. Our top guard in the league can’t get 1 yard at the goaline. Our oline looks absolutely awful. Castonzo threatened retirement for years and the best replacement was a guy coming off an Achilles. Our defensive line still can’t passrush from the end position despite spending a ton of high picks on ends. Now I know why our d line looked so good in camp.

We knew Eason is too wet behind the ears. Yet we still didn’t sign a vet.

Perhaps we should have kept Autry, Walker, and Houston? For a team that is apparently lacking depth, having those guys would help. Okereke and AQM should be depth. Banogu is depth (at best)

We should have kept Bethea back in the day as well. And Freeney.

Still pissed about 1st and goal from the 1 when we ran the exact play three times and then got sacked on 4th down.

Then he gets hammered here and press for bailing out. Who ever was playing Right Turnstile for the colts should get a bonus from the Rams. Wentz gets killed what ever he does. The O line was terrible and no QB can make it look or smell better

Yep, and what I have seen from Wentz is damn impressive. Fuck the media and the Philly fans. My only criticism of Wentz is to go down and not play hero ball. He's a fierce competitor and it's obviously hard for him to do that. When Wentz is healthy, he is a top tier QB for sure.

They were trying to say that the plays are different because different guys were in motion. They tried to run through the same gap each time.

One of the radio announcers said Brady looked like a deer in the headlights during the game.

So much talk about the woeful play from the o-line, and rightly so, but some of the secondary play has been inexcusable through two weeks. How the hell could Kupp be left so open so often? What a shambolic first couple of weeks.

-Reich needs to forfeit his play calling duties, but I don't think we have anyone nearly as capable on our team to replace him. Frank just needs to stop being so damn cute, so damn often.

-Wentz was good. Better than week 1. He isn't taking enough heat for that awful shuffle pass....Maybe the worst play of the year, and completely deflated any offensive momentum we had.

-Pittman may actually emerge as our guy, which is nice. He needs to show more TD upside.

-Where was Strachan? Not nearly enough looks consider Campbell was out.

-Was Granson perhaps the biggest waste of a pick from this years draft? Think Doyle will come back for another year? Has anyone ever seen a criminally and confusingly underused player in multiple regimes as Moe-Allie Cox? The guy must just be the worst route runner and practice player ever. I can never understand why he is never used a lot, lot more.

-Fisher looks solid and I think that's a huge bonus for us going forward. We really need this line to play a few healthy games together, if it ever happens. The line is crazy bad but way too talented to continue on this way. It will get better.

-JT looking a lot like he did early last season as well. Trying too hard to find the perfect hole instead of hitting the one that flashes early. He needs to get more screen passes and we need to find better ways to get him the ball in space.

-Can we just trade Paris Campbell (for a bag of peanuts) already so his career can flourish elsewhere? This guy is literally Phillip Dorsett 2.0

-Defensively, we are soft. We make plays at opportune times that always makes the game closer than it should be. Slow starts on D are killing us. Having Walker last season thump away on running downs made a huge difference. Splitting that LB with Walker last year has proven way more effective than trying to Pigeonhole Okereke into something he is not (a football player, apparently)

-Pass rush is still an issue. Edges have no creativity of plethora of moves to get to the QB. The punch from the D-line and speed is there initially, but the last punch to sack the QB is really lacking. Paye looks good, and obviously Buckner and Grove. Other then that, not much to talk about. Muhammad overplays his role on the team almost ever year.

Overall, same shit on a different day here. Reich ultimately lost this game for us, just like the first one.

Yeah hasn’t been great. But we kinda know the secondary isn’t great. Oline is supposed to be our strength. 4th highest paid oline in the league soon to be the highest after Nelson is signed.

o


Hire Peyton Manning to call the plays, although he would probably reject the offer.

o

At no time, since the beginning of camp have all five projected starters been on the field, for a practice, scrimmage, preseason or regular season game.

It does make a difference

If you are going to invest so heavily in your oline. You need to also get insurance. Your line can’t fall apart if a single guy is out. This team loses if Castonzo was out or Hilton was out. Also the other players looked soft. They ran behind Nelson four times and could not get one yard.

Ballard said he needed to improve the backups, he didn’t. They might be worse. He knew he wouldn’t have Fisher early on, only by a stoke of luck is he back so soon. We could have seen this for 4-5 more games.

We've dropped to 23rd in the power rankings. Between WFT and the Bears. Smh

Its called a salary cap. If you have 7 guys who get paid like starters you dont have money to spend on other positions. Nelson didnt play in the pre season, same with Fischer. Not practicing or getting pre season reps makes a difference

No one said pay them as starters. Find better backups. You have a draft also, cheap alternative and there was a ton of tackles in this one. Currently our 2nd round pick is doing nothing. Sam Cosmi went in the second.

Other teams don’t fall apart when they have an injury unless maybe it’s the QB. These aren’t rookies, you don’t forget how to block because you missed done preseason.

This offense is built around having a good offensive line. The run game, passing plays, timing supposedly available. If you lose a guy and it all falls apart how is that a good build? Therefore you need to invest in depth, either with money or draft capital.

Ballard admitted he fucked up last year by not having enough depth on the offensive line. I cannot believe he feels any better about this year so far. We need better depth, no doubt. It isn't easy, especially when you are building the first team, that is where your priority has to be. It is understood that it is difficult with the cap, but that isn't an excuse. The guys are not playing like they are getting paid. Hope it's just that they are nicked up.

He is probably sick at this point. Still it’s early in the season. We have what we have at this point. Just gotta hope for health. We are going to have an uphill climb to get to the playoffs.

I am tired of these obvious flaws in the roster every year though.

In my heart of hearts I truly believe we are bound for a late season spur where the team gels at the right time; staff and players.

god bless optimistic people.


can't say i have ever been one

The flaming thumbtacks are favored by 5.5 now. Smh

That’s going to be an uphill climb. Apparently this is the toughest starting schedule for any team in the last 30 years. This would have been tough if they were healthy.

I think they will have a better second half of the season, but these first few months will likely seal the season I fear. Will also suck if we split the season AND lose our first round pick.

Surprised it's that low

Every man on the O line (except Gowlinski) is getting paid top dollar. They just sign a new Qb to a big contract with the best Lb getting top shelf pay.

There is a finite amount of $$ for the entire team, and there is not a lot of room for last minute maneuvers. Its addition, not that hard.

https://overthecap.com/salary-cap/indianapolis-colts/

From this link, they have very little space. So they need to buckle up and play hard for the next 14 games

Made a bet on this game. and it was down to +4.5 Colts . I took the Colts!!!!

Stop making excuses. Castonzo has been teasing retirement for years. They had ample amounts of cap before this. The line also falls apart every time the LT is out. He’s had plenty of time to find a serviceable player. You think that money is gone? We have to sign Nelson next year. Will also sign other players as well. The cap will go up. If they want to do it they will find the money.

Some of you bend over backwards to defend Ballard. We have no shut down corner, no number one pass rusher, no number one receiver, a LT coming off a achilles, and a QB with a reputation for being injury prone. The guy isn’t perfect, it’s ok to criticize him.

Not making excuses, a GM wont be right 100% of the time. Guys get hurt. Not every draft pick will be an all pro. Ballard cant call Miss Cleo to find out who's next to get hurt.

And you are right about Nelsons next contract. So Ballard cant go on a spending binge like a drunken sailor. A big chunk of next years cap will go to one guy.

If they can get over the injury bug, they have a chance. The Tits are having their issues as well, the south conference isnt very good right now, and its a long season.

I agree. He's been good for the Colts, but not great. I still think his biggest mistake was Carson Wentz. He should have gone all out for Darnold. He's younger, more durable and in the end, (IMO) will have a much more productive career.

The cap constraints are largely a product of Ballard’s preferred contract structure. He uses a straight forward, conservative approach but there are alternatives. Many other teams use them and have won doing so. They admittedly have tradeoffs though. Regardless, it is Ballard’s choice so I’m not sure you can use salary cap as an excuse for all the issues. This is Ballard’s team at this point - both good and bad. I’ve always had a concern with his prioritization of the long term over the short term. I again see a roster that confirms those concerns. The collection of talent is good, but major holes in the roster continue to “wait their turn” before being addressed. To me it’s a similar method of team building that Polian and Ted Thompson used to limit Manning and Rodgers to one ring during their tenures.

Our local high school coach could draw up plays more dynamic the the Colts coaches.

I watch other games and see play action on first down the the guys are 10 yards wide open and walk in.

That play calling is just plain lazy.

Somethings never change.

I’m not asking him to be right 100% of the time, but you and others act like he is. A 50% success rate is highly successful when it comes to the draft. The average is probably closer to 35%. I’m tired of you and the apologists. He doesn’t get a feee pass. We are in year 5, three years removed from Luck. They can’t use it as an excuse anymore.

Simple question, have we gone into the previous four years with a surplus in the cap? Don’t exaggerate and distort or dismiss what I’m saying. Have we been under the cap by a lot or not?

However we’ve gone into each year with obvious flaws that are not properly addressed. If people on this board can see them, the Colts can as well. Understaffed at WR, understaffed at pass rusher, understaffed at oline. It’s maddening. It’s like he is holding back for some reason. If you build your offense around the oline then you better make sure you have some insurance. They want to mitigate the QB responsibilities with a good line, then it cannot be allowed to fall apart if they are missing a tackle.

And they thought originally Fisher was going to miss more time. So that means they were willing to move forward for even longer.

I will say the jury’s still out on this. We have played two playoff teams and Carolina hasn’t played anyone. But right now, no, it doesn’t look good. I put this in Reich’s camp though. He tells Ballard who he wants. Ballard might have an opinion but ultimately it’s who the coach wants at the position.

But I think about those options. Colt fans on Twitter have been griping that the Buckner trade pick could have been used to get Herbert. But a lot of teams passed on Herbert, there were some concerns over him.

I do know they liked Justin Fields and expected him to go higher. Could they have moved in front of the bears and gotten him? I know myself and others liked Mac Jones. Could they have gotten him? Guess we will never know.

Ultimately, it comes down to Reich and his relationship with Wentz and their Christian relationship. They believe Wentz is meant to play here. Maybe that’s enough to instill confidence.

I think making comparisons to Darnold and Wentz after two games with their new teams is ridiculous. I'm not on the Wentz bandwagon but shit it is early to throw him under the bus. The offensive line was developed by Ballard and has been one of the best in the league the last few years. Injuries have fucked us this year and it appears to me we have been on a slow downward spiral there since we fired Guge for not being nice enough. I get that we don't have a good backup offensive tackle-that is on Ballard. He knew it was a problem, tried to fix it on the cheap and it hasn't worked out. I really criticize him for our defensive ends-we have spent a fortune and still can't rush the friggin passer. Guy isn't perfect-he likes to grab great athletes and let the coaches develop them. Problem is most of them are not developing into anything worth a shit. That, to me, is on Ballard since this is his philosophy and he hired everyone to make it work.

Darnold has played well, there’s no denying that. How much of that is due to Rhule and whether he’d be doing so well anywhere else is a matter of opinion.

Agreed that if Darnold keeps this up over the rest of his career and Wentz continues on the path of being injured, we made a bad decision. If Wentz is able to help us pull out a win tomorrow this will start to right itself, if not could be a long year.