Quick thoughts on losing to the Steelers. Again
 

1). On top of all the other shit that has happened since week 1, my laptop took a shit awhile back. So excuse any obvious autocorrect bullshit you may see and I type this up on my phone.

2). Let Brissett sit a week or two. If it is a moderate mcl strain, he will be fine quickly. And honestly, Hoyer isn’t much of a drop off, if at all. Reich can scheme a game plan with Hoyer no problem. Hoyer can execute it. Let Brissett heal.

3). Our oline is overrated. The left side is good. The right side is weak. And we really aren’t a power running team. Overall I think they did ok today. They all had some bad moments. Especially late with Smith but that is who they are and the Steelers are good up front.

4). With our injuries at wr, I wouldn’t mind seeing more passes to the backs. Get these guys some balls in space. Mack was good today. Got owned in pass protection but ran well and his feet and patience has been a welcomed surprise.

5). Pascal looking like Reggie at times today. It is very unfortunate he isn’t just playing the 3 or 4 role. Dude is just great. Specials, good hands, field awareness, and he blocks his dick off. Love that dude

6). Fuck Cain and all his Twitter fanboys. He has 4 catches. Fuck off

7). Campbell can play football. I just don’t think he will ever be the guy we want him to be. That’s a prediction made with very little info. I could be wrong. He has talent

8). I hope Funchess can be a steroid injection into the offense. It needs it

9). Where the fuck did Ebron go?

10). We have almost no talent at dt. Pretty inexcusable if you as me. We have cash and picks. Ballard needs to open his eyes. He has let go of better players than we have.

11). Houston is picking it up. Banogu has some rush ability. Good to see him making something of the Turay injury. He was on Rudolph multiple times.

12). Kenny Moore made some plays. For a tiny dude I fucking love his open field tackling ability.

13). Ya Sin got toasted again but it was what? Once? That’s not so bad in the grand scheme of things. Still a bit worrisome

14). Hooker is a lot better this year than I thought. Why are they playing him at the line so much?

15). Ballard loves his picks and that is great but can we talk about 2 2nd round picks being healthy scratches? Especially Lewis? And Wilson has never played as poorly as ya sin, so I would love to hear that story.

16). What the dick happened to Darius Leonard? Dude needs to find his game.

17). They won’t cut Vinnie but they should. He is done.

No question. Nice to see him step it up with all of our WR injuries. Easy guy to root for.

I'm curious what he did that makes you question his ceiling after today's game. To my untrained eye, he looked really explosive and a potential difference maker (albeit with ball security issues), but your technical knowledge is far greater than mine so I'm wondering what you saw. Watching him jet through the Steelers defense was one of the high points in the game for me. I might be wrong, but I don't think he dropped any passes either.

Good question. I'll be interested to see the snap counts because I didn't see him out there very much (and I was looking for him).

Rudolph wasn't throwing down the field much, so not sure if that means the DBs were playing lights out, or that was just the Steelers gameplan because they don't trust their QB to make those kind of throws. On the play I think you're referring to, it seemed like Ya Sin was on the guy for most of the route, but the ball was underthown and Ya Sin either didn't recognize this or didn't know how to deal with it.

Not sure about Lewis, but I'm guessing the Wilson scratch isn't completely related to his on-field performance. The guy has a history of maturity/practice issues, so perhaps those have surfaced again.

Seems like its gotta be mental with him. It's not like his body is worn out and he no longer has the ability to perform. He's shown us he still has the leg, but he's just fallen apart for some reason. Agree he won't be cut though.

I don't think Suck Ya-Sin can deal with a thing called the forward pass, and that's a bad thing for a cornerback in the NFL. Cut him, he sucks.

Quick thoughts on losing to the Steelers. Again
 

Thanks for the write up omaha.

Hoyer played pretty well for a (technically) 3rd string qb. He made some throws and kept us in it.

I like pascal, i hope he continues to mature. I think campbell will be a weapon reich can play with in the future, but he looked like he was getting a head of himself a bit yesterday. Did he have fumble issues in college?

We continue to make stupid mistakes to let the opposition back in games. We had them stopped then get a dumb penalty giving them a free field goal try before the half. We get a safety then fuck up the free kick giving them great field position.

AV is the goat but time to retire, most likely after the year is over. You are right he won’t be cut and they will back him but this is several games the kicking has cost us.

I don’t usually bang on the refs but they had several bad calls against us last night that hurt. Leonard hit that dude in bounds, that was not PI on tell, and total bs call on that hit on the punt returner, totally clean. I think they knew they fucked up and refused to admit it on that one.



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I have some doubts about Lewis and Campbell as well. Why? The curse of Mike Doss.

Not one Ohio State Buckeye drafted by the Colts since Mike Doss has lived up to their potential (sometimes due to injuries). It was true with the Polian and Grigson front offices and now maybe with Ballard.

Let's go over the draft picks since Doss:

2004 - 3rd Round - Ben Hartsock - Ben eventually carved out a 10 year journeyman career as a reserve / spot starter. However, he was injured in his second year with the Colts and they moved on. He only played 1.5 seasons with the Colts

2007 - 1st Round - Anthony Gonzalez - He had an OK rookie year as a slot receiver and showed some improvements in year 2. Was injured in the season opener of year 3 and was injured for most of the rest of his playing career.

2007 - 3rd Round - Quinn Pitcock - Played 9 games for the Colts and decided he preferred video games instead.

2007 - 5th Round - Roy Hall - Roy played before Twitter became popular - if Roy played right now, I think he would have more Twitter fans than Deon Cain. He had so many fanboys back in the day. Roy ended his NFL career with 1 reception.

2014 - 2nd Round - Jack Mewhort - Jack had a promising first two seasons with the Colts before suffering knee injuries in Years 3 and 4. He started every game that he played in. Decided to retire due to the knee injuries.

2017 - 1st Round - Malik Hooker - Obviously a talented player. Has had his share of injuries - missed 9 games in year 1, 2 games in year 2, already missed 3 games this year. He will play through injury, however, as evidenced earlier this year.

2018 - 2nd Round - Tyquan Lewis

2019 - 2nd Round - Parris Campbell


I don't know if the Colts should be drafting any more Buckeyes. At least until the curse is lifted. Maybe the curse will be reversed if Mike Doss is inducted into the Colts Ring of Honor?


I wrote that partly as a joke / partly being serious. The Colts have drafted 8 players from Ohio State over the last 15 years including 5 selections in Rounds 1 & 2 and have thus far seen very little results on the field. Would have thought at least one player would have been a consistent difference maker.

We can't cut him, he was our first pick. But it does worry me that we have invested in two high 2nd round corners. One is a healthy sit, and the other has high school technique issues.

And where is Lewis? Did he and Wilson get caught banging the owners' daughter?

No one even touched him in college he was so fast. It actually is a fairly common problem with guys like this. They got away with carrying the ball away from the body in college because they were such better athletes than everyone else. Ball security can be taught though, and it is more just a discipline issue, usually they learn after they cost their team a game or some other huge mistake. Pretty common NFL rookie issues. At least he isn't a RB with ball security problems.

The plus side is he caught all 5 passes thrown his way. Hands is something we really need right now. Also he isn't a small guy, you see him take on Fitzpatrick and actually knock him back. Fitzpatrick is a big safety.

One other thing, Cambell had x-rays on his hand after the game. The results were inconclusive. So there might be an issue there.

I saw PC make some ball handling corrections throughout the game. By the 3rd quarter he was wrapping it up before anyone got close to him.

Fumbling will make you do that. I still think he carries it too loose in space still. He needs to tuck that under his peck and create that triangle of peck, ribs, and arm to keep it in all the time against the body. He is always going to be in space with guys coming at angles he can't see. And the way defense practice knocking it out in the pros, he has to assume that ball will get hit at any moment.

A few thoughts:

Definitely start Hoyer if Brissett doesn't have his usual escape ability.

Hargrave was a load out there. Big Q had problems with him on more than one occasion.

Mack is doing a great job. I see how the Steelers used (and then overused) Samuel and how the Packers use their RB's in the passing game, and ask why we can't do more of that? Hines can be a game changer with more touches.

Pascal was the best offensive player on the field yesterday.

Cain is a waste of a roster spot.

I've never seen Hooker be such a factor on run defense. I think the coaches must have told him that if he wants defensive snaps he can't just play center field anymore.

AV is done. After watching Justin Tucker boom XP's last night and comparing that to AV's wobbly duck's, it's obvious.

I thought that Marvell Tell held his own out there.

Neither of Leonard's PF's should have been called.

This team has got to stop with the close games, because the ref's or just dumb luck can steal those wins from you.

With Campbell, I just don’t think he will progress more than a gadget guy. He is obviously fast and has moves so we will see. I have just seen guys like this that never reach their potential.

Could be wrong. It is early.

Omaha...thanks for the analysis. In a crazy sort of way, reading your post is cathartic. After reading every post ever written since 1970 on this game, I come away with a disappointment in Reich and in Ballard.
Is there anyone on this board that had confidence in Vinatieri for that last FG...or for any extra point? Not so much. Pittsburgh is terrible. The only way they can throw down field is against Practice Squad worthy Ya-Sin. This team feels like there is more than meets the eye. Draft picks and players (yes Cain and Rogers I am looking at you) who have no business on this team. But at least we have draft picks and cap room. For only Ballard knows why.

Yes, Hoyer is a serviceable replacement, but the future of this team is Brisett, good or bad, were all in at this point.

When Q got blocked into Brissett, the game turned over. If I can pretend to know Q, he's really mother fsking angry about this.

Hines need more touches yes, but he needs different touches. If he's just out there when we are going to throw to him in space, it becomes a tell and an obvious one. Oh, hines if on the field? They throw to him 90% of the time when that is the case, lets guard Hines.... that's Pagano quality game planning. Yes, Mack is doing a great job.

I think that Hooker had such a role in the run game because Rudolph was their QB. If Roethlisberger was under center, Hooker would be deep.

I hate for AV to be done, but he's done. We are a 7-1 team and should be challenging the Pats for the #1 AFC seed. We're not. We are a middle of the pack 5-3 team that might make the playoffs if Houston drops a couple.

Agree 100% on Marvin Tell.

Agree on DL's personal fouls, also the kickoff coverage personal foul was utter bullshit.

Agree that the colts need to get Out of these close games, Ballard is very very unlikely to cut AV, so we better not enter the last two minutes of the game down two.

Our Defense forced a safety and stopped 3 1st and goal series. I cant imagine expecting this young unit to play better than that.

Dorsett 2.0

Donte Moncrief is a FA now

Moncrief was claimed by the Carolina Panthers who were higher on the waiver priority order.

Follow-up X-rays showed that Campbell fractured a bone in his hand. He had surgery today.

Campbell will be out for at least a few games.

I kept thinking cordarelle Patterson on 1st impression. I hope he progresses better

Why is Brissett our future? I wouldn’t say that right now

I was hoping for more. At the very least Percy Harvin.

I'm basing that on the language that is coming from both Ballard and Reich. That we are fine with brissett. While I doubt that, I dont see us getting a qb better that brissett at a price that Ballard will want to pay.
Is it really likely that next year's first or our two seconds will find someone better than jb?
In a way I guess you're correct. We did pay him, but only for two years. Next year we can decide. Interesting how this ties in with a great many other threads.

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Brissett is our QB of the immediate future. He's signed through 2020 at a starting QB salary, so until then he'll be given every opportunity to show he should be kept around. After that, it's anyone's guess.

Based upon his season so far, I'd estimate that it's unlikely the Colts would use their 1st on a QB next draft, but we still have a half season to go yet. Value can absolutely be found in the late first. Lamar Jackson, of course, was an end of the 1st round pick. Drew Brees was an early 2nd.

Maybe I'm wrong though. If the Colts want to hand off the QB duties to a new QB in 2021 - particularly one who is not a high 1st round pick - they might do well to draft a QB in 2020 and let him back up Brissett for a year to smooth the transition. Ballard does like competition.

There is a reason he hasn’t stuck anywhere since we let his ass go

He’s awful, and his attitude sucks as well.

So, Zak Keefer tweeted out today that he thinks the issue is practice related. Just a "gut feeling." However, that contradicts the answers that Reich and Eberflus gave last week. (I think Keefer was not working a portion of last week because his wife had a baby....so he might have missed that particular press conference) And maybe the practice issue is Lewis only and Keefer read a little too much into it??? Quotes below:

https://twitter.com/zkeefer/status/1191804364459069446


Quotes from Eberflus and Reich prior week:

https://twitter.com/mchappell51/stat...46247418433537

https://twitter.com/mchappell51/stat...09545998954496


Extended version of Reich quote here:

https://twitter.com/jimayello/status...20335674085381


I think Omaha had it right in the Denver game thread - that they were shopping Quincy. However, I bet the asking price was probably a little high (obviously since he wasn't traded). I think they preferred to keep him around the rest of this season in case of major injuries. The secondary was really injury depleted for the KC game - if that happens again, it will be much better to have Quincy available than just a guy you sign off the street. I expect that he will be traded in the off season. I just think that they know what type of player Quincy is and that they are ready to move on. Up until Quincy's healthy scratch, Marvell Tell only had 3 snaps on defense on the season. I think the main reason why Quincy is sitting right now is because they want to see Tell in game situations. Which in itself is a bit inconsistent because Eberflus mentioned that Tell's practice habits needed to improve.....

https://twitter.com/mchappell51/stat...45809826697216

That dude can't catch a damn cold. Watched the Steelers try to hit him a few times this season and just drop after drop. Always thought of himself as Randy Moss when he's really nothing more than a wannabe Jerome Pathon.

Really wish we would have went after Gordon.

Or drafted metcalf

Yeah a lot of people eating crow on talking that dude down during the draft. Good God if Gordon actually gets healthy how you gonna stop that duo?

I would be stoked with the that. Minus the migraines

I think Brissett is extremely overrated with colts fans. He is a poor mans Alex Smith

He's no Percy Harvin.

o


You were not alone in your assessment of Hoyer after the Steelers game ........ the board at-large is looking at him very differently after the Dolphins game.


o

I don’t think it was smart to give Brisset all the snaps in practice. Hoyer needed those snaps to help get up to speed. Remember he joined at the beginning of the season. I think they took the Dolphins too lightly and over valued their current crop of receivers.

o


Very good point ........ that could explain a major portion of why Hoyer looked like a more-than-adequate backup quarterback against the Steelers, and a guy who played like he barely belongs in the NFL against the Dolphins.

Resting a recently-injured Brissett against a team with a 1-7 record coming into the game is one thing ........ going so far as to not even have the quarterback that you plan on using in said game not playing with the first team in the practices leading up to that game is another.


o