Colts-Chiefs quick thoughts
 

1. I genuinely have zero idea what Reich was doing today. He has been very good in his first year, but this was a stunningly unoriginal, stupid gameplan. He would rather ask a one-legged TY Hilton to run comeback routes that destroy his ankle rather than to, like, use Hines or Mack in any inventive way whatsoever.

I know the Colts lack weapons. I know the Colts need to add weapons. And I was the first to say Hilton's injury would ultimately limit them. But everything Reich did was predictable and conservative tonight. It was honestly hard to watch.

2. None of that is to absolve Andrew Luck of anything. He took his sweet ass time to do everything, looked genuinely confused by coverage, struggled to identify blitzes and short-armed a half-dozen passes. It wasn't his worst game, and he's not THE reason they lost. But come on. He's gotta be better than this. He played like a game manager. Where was the competitor today?

3. I thought the Colts really missed Jack Doyle today. You roll the dice on any Eric Ebron play between the 20s. Mo Alie-Cox ain't it when it comes to the passing game. And for the WRs, well...

4. All credit in the world to TY Hilton for gutting it out and Dontrelle Inman for stepping in and at least giving the Colts SOMETHING. Everyone else can fuck right off this roster to make room for a completely new corps in 2019-20.

5. I know Braden Smith got beat too, but Mark Glowinski got exposed for the 2nd or 3rd week in a row. I think it's probably fine to resign him and he plays OK in the context of the line. But if Ballard wanted to upgrade RG, he probably could. Really just depends on what he does with the rest of his capital.

6. I don't even know where to begin with how undisciplined this defense was tonight. Margus Hunt almost certainly played the worst game of his career. This team was just dumb today. There's really no other way to say it. Dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb.

7. But Kenny Moore is a genuine baller, as I said last week. That kid is good. At least he and Darius Leonard tried to make plays to turn the game around. Leonard struggled today for sure (he needs A LOT of work in zone coverage), but I mean, at least he played with some heart and made a play. I'll take that over what the vast majority of the rest of the roster did.

8. How fucking disappointing has Kemoko Turay turned out to be? That guy started strong, but he put his one trick on tape and did NOTHING in the second half of the season.

9. I feel the same about Anthony Walker as I do Mark Glowinski. He's OK. Solid. You could upgrade if you want. Depends what else you want to upgrade. Not a need by any stretch, but if you want to be a truly great defense that drops your MLB into zone coverage, I don't know that Walker is necessarily your best bet to do that.

10. The Malik Hooker injury was killer. You need 3 decent safeties to play the Chiefs. They were out 2 of their top 3 safeties today. JJ Wilcox is ass and will certainly not be back. George Odum was better when he replaced him today, but still, Hooker on the back end would have allowed Geathers to be closer to the LOS on the front end.

11. And I genuinely don't know what Geathers' future is. I guess you re-sign him unless you know there's a guy in FA you like, but he's hardly been an impact player and I have to guess that neck gives you long-term pause.

12. Refs had no impact on the final result, but can they please stop calling the Colts for holding when guys are on the freaking ground already?! This seems to happen every fucking week.

13. Never forget how much TY Hilton toughed out this playoff run. Call people on that bullshit when they say Hilton is soft.

14. A healthy Hilton + Doyle return, the wildcard of Deon Cain's return, a bigger investment in WR (more than 1 ideally), and you've got my attention on offense.

15. On defense: pass rush, pass rush, pass rush, and then insurance policies on the back end.


It's been a fun season to watch this team again. They gave more than I thought they would. Future is bright, but it's OK to criticize the present because they need to learn and evolve.

Hope everyone gets home safe in the weather tonight. Should be a fun offseason to stick around here.

You were typing during the game. I don't blame you

Well said. If TY and Doyle are healthy, we hang with KC. We did not have them today and looked bad, but the team culture seems repaired and the future is bright. Three good pieces added would make this team feared by everyone. KC and the Rams are probably the only other teams with a future that is getting better instead of worse of those in the playoffs this year. The rest are seeing their windows closing.

Do you think maybe he just did a lot of overthinking? First year as a HC in a big playoff game against a #1 seed.

Hot take: today sucked, but we didn’t learn anything about the Colts. We already knew:

-receivers other than Hilton aren’t any good
-pass rush is inconsistent
-LBs bite too often and expose middle of field
-Reich has some questionable play calls from time to time

Overall, I think this result will help the team next year. It confirmed the above, all of which can be addressed this offseason. I’m very very excited about next year and eager to see what upgrades Ballard makes this offseason.

He does that ever week I think. Takes notes during the game.

Luck is the distributor and needed to do a better job. He could have dumped off to the RB several times but just ignored his out lets. He had enough time to throw considering it is the KC strength. Getting batted at the line that much is ridiculous. Also Johnson had his hands and elbows all up in Nelson’s face and neck. It was ridiculous he didn’t get called once.

Chiefs were run blitzing. Some screens would have helped there. That is something they need to work on in the off season.

Drops came back to haunt them. They just need more offensive weaponry. Also a full offseason with this playbook will help Luck and his young players.

Defensive adjustments at half actually helped a lot. But we need some more speed on the D. A speed rusher would help. We need need pass rush in general and a guy that can chase down the passer from behind.

The refs were not kind today to the Colts. I think there was a shitload of PI by the Chiefs. This team just isn’t talented enough to beat the top seed and take on bad calls.

I think this game would have gone better if they straight up ran at the Chiefs in the second.

Kelce and Hill are at the top of their game and they played like it. Kelce is the top TE in the league, no doubt in my mind. Some of his catches were ridiculous. Hopefully Ballard noticed and sees how important good hands are.

We will see the Chiefs a lot more in the future. Hopefully improvement by this team puts us over the hump.

Where was Hines
Why did we not just play nickel
Everybody that we play at SAM is a liability
The need for speed at WR2 has been exposed
TY is an absolute fucking gamer
Give Kenny Moore a contract
But Kenny Moore should never be isolated on Kelce
Not Nelson's best game
He should've attacked instead of giving ground to Jones
The defensive discipline killed anything we could possibly do on that side of the ball
Make Mahomes play hero ball and you've got a chance
We rarely did that
We missed Malik Booker
The right side of the OK got exposed

Great post GBB, I agree with every point. I honestly expected to lose, but this game was a bit embarrassing.

Too easy on Luck, GBB. He played like he was wet and cold and didn’t wanna be there. No fire, no spirit.

And the OLine got flat out punched in the balls.

Credit to the Chiefs, yada yada, but if you wanna know the difference in the game, it was 100 percent those two areas.

The defense buckled down after halftime and the game was there for the taking, at least for a close game, but Luck and the line screwed them over.

To me, that was the most disappointing way to possibly lose. I mean, if the defense gets ran over and allows 50+ points, that’s at least understandable, in that environment, against that offense.

But that performance from Luck and the line was tough to swallow.

Great season. Disappointing ending for sure, but I think this is a team that will grow and become stronger, and not fall off the precipice from this loss.

GO COLTS!

Point 5: Find a RT and move smith back to guard or is he our RT going forward?

A team this young was bound to have a game like this. I totally agree we need more weapons for Luck but he and Reich are not the issue. Neither is the right side of our line. Playing must win game after must win game finally caught up with us. An emotional letdown was going to happen. Let’s see what they do with it. I’m betting they learn This was a great year and we have a team that will be exciting in the off-season. We are set up to be perennial contenders If you feel really shitty just take a minute, remember where we were a year ago. Every damn one of us would take this in a heartbeat

I agree. We need two more WRs, a pass rush and a safety. Maybe a LB and a CB, too

Not a surprise that the Colts lost

I thought they would play better though

Just a beat down. the exact thing the Colts did to the Texans last week

In a way I am glad it happened though Points out the weaknesses of the team and helps show ballard what is needed this offseason.

Really have a sign a veteran, proven #2/1a WR. You can't keep bring in guys year after year and having them fail. You need that in this league anymore. Cain MIGHT work out, but will basically be a rookie next year. Can't rely on that as the answer.

As has been mentioned, pass rush, pass rush and more pass rush. Eberflus did the best he could with that he had, but you can only scheme so much. The front four they tried to use most of today got no pass rush. ANd that is what you need against a good offense. You can't be bringing extra guys to blitz when you need them in coverage for multiple receiving threats. The Colts just don't have that right now.

Better corners and safeties. You need more guys that can cover one on one.

As good as Leonard has been this year, still need other linebackers.

Most of this is on the D still. I know the offense sucked today and should have played better, everywhere. But the offense is much closer to being championship caliber right now than the D.

The D is average and can stop bad to average offenses. As we saw today, a LONG way to go to stop elite offenses consistently.

Second half I think the Chiefs were just toying with them. I think they could have put up 40 easily if they wanted to.

And I have to say, Mahomes is really f****** good.

That sidearm throw he made AROUND the lineman and to Kelce in tight coverage coming over the middle, there are probably only a handful of QBs ever in this league that could make that throw.

I hope the Chiefs win next week.

yeah first full game of theirs I have seen. He is quite awesome!

I'll preface my post by saying that 1)yes this was house money, 2)there will
be incredible excitement this offseason with all those draft picks and cap room
and 3) the officiating in this game completely blowed, as it has most season
for this team.
Having said that, it was an unacceptable performance by a team with
future Title aspirations. The offense was completely moribund. The playcalling
was timid and nonreactive. Luck was inaccurate and seemed almost disengaged. Outside of Hilton our receivers shit the bed and our fabled O
line got owned. And against a second tier(at best) defense.
Our own defense was terrible in the first half, but did regain some footing in the
second half. It was clear that they were not yet ready to handle an elite offense.
The needs are clear. They need at least one more difference maker on
offense, at least. The defense needs a pass rusher and just a general infusion
of about 4-6 players-solid players. And with the draft and the cap room they
can do that, should do that. But it will take a while to remove the stink of this
game. Every championship team usually has to face an "Ice bowl" moment
at some time. At that point they can dig into their resivor of past accomplishments to fortify them and tide them through. This will not be such a game/moment for us.

One other thing to think about is that players often make a big jump in production their second year. At least a couple of guys should do that

12. Refs had no impact on the final result, but can they please stop calling the Colts for holding when guys are on the freaking ground already?! This seems to happen every fucking week.

You're right on this point but that running into the kicker penalty was just BS.

This team has spent years upon years trying to find a RT. Don't look that gift horse in the mouth, IMO.

inman was alright. If we had him as #3 next year I would be good with that.

I go back and forth on this, but the end of the day unless we draft a Tackle to eventually move left to replace AC I can't see moving Smith to guard. He is pretty damn good RT and finding a serviceable Guard seems much easier than an RT. I do think a middle of the OL being Nelson, Kelley, and Smith could be epic.

AGreed Inman was solid, the rest are just so damn meh. I really thought Rogers might be something, he ends up being little more than deep depth.

Bottom line is that out no-name defense did enough to help us win the game.

Our offense was....offensive. Lack of weapons, poor gameplan, bad play calling.

Every position group on the defense could use an upgrade body or two but this no-name collection of over acheivers held the NFLs best offense to few enough points for us to have a shot.

Our offense declined to accept the challenge to score.

Great season. Fun again to watch Colts football. Look forward to the off-season.

Walk Worthy,



Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

Tough to watch last night. I miss the good ol' days where they'd make halftime adjustments that changed the tone completely.

Looking forward to see what the offseason brings.

# 6 seed loses to #1 seed. KC was/is the better team. Going in, we all seemed to agree, you can't stop this team, you can only slow them down. Going 3 and out again and again put too much pressure on this D. colts needed to run and run effectively in order to make a game of this. This much lauded OL got owned and couldn't mount a running game. I'm not surprised by the loss, I just expected a better showing by the colts.

I do have to say that the team showed terrific growth throughout the year and we can all see good things ahead for the Colts. The playoffs are a funny thing. One day you're gobbling up all the football news on your team that you can, and just like that, it's over and you're counting the days until the pitchers and catchers report.

I wonder how much of Luck's problems were due to the weather affecting his surgically repaired shoulder. If so, would it go away in time? Is it likely to persist in future January cold weather games? Looks like we need to get HFA in the future, if that is an issue.

It appeared to me as if Luck was trying to place or guide the ball instead of just throwing it. Like he was trying to avoid making a big mistake. I think the issue was mental not physical. Late in the game it looked like he had more zip on the ball. Frank’s play calling had a similar feel, although that is even more subjective I guess. I’d bet that offensively they had a major focus on not turning the ball over and feeding the crowd early. So low and away throws. Too much “touch” to try to make balls catchable in the somewhat cold, wet conditions. And no aggressive play calls. If they wanted to be conservative they should have at least attempted to pound the ball on the ground and let the Oline be aggressive. Instead they tried to have it both ways by calling a mediocre game plan and coupling it with scared execution.

Possible. He looked like a giant pussy out there. Cold and wet and just wanted to go home. Never seen him play with such little passion the entire time he's been here.

Shut up, fag.

Yawn

I dunno, but it looked to me like the D was having equipment issues in the first half. It seemed as if the condition of the field, mucky and slippery, had an outsized impact. No one seemed to be doing anything except running in a straight line, no one was making adjustments, making cuts. It was almost as if they were wearing the wrong kind of cleats.

Genuinely curious, to one of my points: where do you guys stand on Anthony Walker? Think the position needs upgraded, or no need, or "sure if the right guy is there"?

You're a fucking idiot troll. Dumb fucking posts all over the place.

Well done. Everyone here agrees on something, it was bound to happen

I think he is above average. Could we get someone better? Probably. But I don’t want to spend a high pick on a position when there are other areas that need bolstering. If a guy is there for the taking, sure. But I am ok with him right now. He seems to be getting better with playing time.

The last one. If a guy like Devon White falls to 25/26 and he’s clear BPA, take him.

If the right guy is there. I like walker but he could be upgraded

I’m iffy on White. He missed a lot of tackles this year because of over-aggressiveness and bad angles. He is a good zone LB, decent instincts, great athleticism. I wonder about his smarts though. I like mike’s that have brains.

He's a guy you don't replace unless the perfect fit comes along. You find a guy who tackles as well and covers better, sure, but you don't replace him just to replace him.