A few from me.
1. Brissett did better than I thought he would. I was mostly impressed. He has some real arm talent and can put the ball anywhere on the field. Every throw is open to him, unlike Tolzien. He had impressive placement on some. Mobile, but more importantly, strong ... you need to shed some tackles behind Colts OL. But the reason he's a QB2 is that he just doesn't see the field very well. Don't see him going through reads like Luck would. He's still new, so that will improve, but I doubt it improves much. Think he'll prove limited by his tendency to lock on, but still a high-end QB2 ... which is the point.
2. I'm not going to criticize Chud too much for the gameplan today; he had one hand tied behind his back. But it would be nice to design something unique for Marlon Mack.
3. The WRs on this team are just so damn soft. I'm tired of it. I think it stems from lack of leadership. No coincidence, this group has been soft as butter ever since Reggie Wayne left.
4. I'm really encouraged by Quincy Wilson and Malik Hooker. Every time Wilson gets beat, he was at least in position to make a play but either didn't locate the ball or just missed. He's always in the right place. You don't see him trailing 10 yards like Greg Toler, or just playing off the ball 10 yards because he's afraid he'll give up a big play.
Hooker looked good today and the two actually combined on a few PBUs, which I liked. But I think Hooker is actually playing TOO deep. Colts need more help in the intermediate depth than 20+ yards downfield, IMO.
I think this is where having any one of Butler or Geathers back would really help, though.
5. Only real issue with the front seven today is that ILBs are still the glaring weakness we know them to be. They just suck, if we're being honest. And problem is, Colts need to address LT and pass-rusher too much in draft to really draft a super dynamic ILB, so we may be looking at another year of this.
6. Kenny Moore shouldn't be on this team tomorrow. If accountability really matters, he was at fault for 2 of the 3 biggest Colts mistakes of the game -- his terrible zone drop depth on 3rd & 20, and his fair catch interference. Also he just sucks, so there's that.
7. I really like Al Woods. I'm afraid he's at his peak and it only goes downhill from here, but it's nice to have a fat guy you just don't fuck with in the middle for once.
8. That was the most consistent pressure the Colts have generated since before Robert Mathis' Achilles injury. I expect pressure to be inconsistent, but they finally have some nasty players who can rock OL and make things interesting. Still don't have a lot of speed or athleticism, though, unless Basham comes on later.
9. Just me, or does Quan Bray look slower/worse than last year? Granted, I think any returner is set up to fail for this team because they can't execute basic blocking assignments ever, but I don't see why Bray won out over Natson based on today's game.
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