Venturi - Playoff edition
 

I have enjoyed Rick Venturi's weekly breakdown of our opponents through the season as he's appeared on The Fan. Here's a summary of our opportunity heading into the playoffs and on facing Houston. This is a very high level summary...those of you that listen to him regularly know he goes into great/technical detail in breaking down an opponent.

• Colts are team in playoffs with fewest liabilities. If we play our A game (limit mistakes) we will be hard to be beat.
• Biggest improvement through the season…. tightening up our underneath coverage on D
• This team’s resilience is a key competitive advantage. Ex: Andrew’s ability to do something ridiculous one minute and forget it instantly and do something brilliant the next is not something most people can do.
• Effort (playing through the whistle), toughness, and scheme have been difference makers when facing teams with superior talent.

VS Houston
• Our best option offensively is to scorch them on first and second down when they are in their vanilla defense. They don’t get sophisticated on D until third down.
• Defensively Deshawn is very effective in evading the rush if we let him outside…..less effective if he’s scrambling in the middle. We have to contain him in the middle
• Three keys to winning the game
o Ball security – be careful but not cautious….win the turnover battle
o Scorch their pass defense but if they rise to the occasion….Ebron/run game needs to step up and execute.
o Control the 4 “Ambien” players: Watson, Hopkins, Clowney, Watt

WTF is an "ambien" player?

Thank you for posting this.

I would like to add that they need to keep the penalties down to a dull roar. All season it has been a problem, but in that Tennessee game it came close to costing them the game.

Ambien puts you to sleep. It's probably an analogy for players that can send you home in the win or go home scenario of the postseason, though admittedly it's dumb.

Huh? The Colts allowed the Titans to make a game of it for far too long, but I never really felt like the outcome of the game was in doubt.

In doubt? Maybe not. But I was clenching pretty hard early in the fourth, after the Tits made it 24-17, and Indy had to punt. Tennessee seemed to have figured things out a bit, and had it 1st and 10 at their 42. The interception on that drive, followed by a FG helped, but that Wilkins TD that got called back didn't help.

Perhaps it's a result of growing up in Buffalo Bills country and having followed the team through the pre-Peyton lean years. I start to see negative patterns begin to repeat themselves.

So, in doubt? I was sure doubting.

Sorry, I've listened to him for so long I forget that his corny catch phrases aren't well known.....he labels huge playmakers (lluck, ty, Leonard for colts) as ambien players cause they are that rare talent that give coaches sleepless nights trying to figure out how to contain/limit them.

It’s his term for guys that are difference makers, matchup problems for other teams.

https://www.clanram.com/forum/the-20...c-west-in-2011

It's in the first part of the post by Venturi.

It's kinda like a Morse Reservoir All-Star.

I don't dislike Venturi. I listen to his segments. He has some good points for sure. But I hate how he toots his own horn (on obvious shit mostly) and pretends like he didn't say the opposite like a few weeks ago or the previous season.

I remember all too well when he said the Colts should ride the hot hand in Matt Hasselbeck over start Andrew Luck off injury, or when he said Anthony Castonzo was awful. It's OK to be wrong -- I am a lot! But he pretends like he never was.