Quote:
Originally Posted by Chromeburn
Here is my take on it. You are obsolutely right that the league is curving towards a spread system with fast mobile QB's (fast mobile QB's are really nothing new). The speed we have gained is definitely necessary and will be an asset next year.
The problem is we have two power run teams in our division and several more in the conference. We will have to go through these teams to get to the superbowl. To defend the run in this system it is all about maintaining your lane and distance (gap integrity or whatever you want to call it) while moving up the field. Dungy preached it relentlessly, we rarely practiced it. Those defenses often got pushed around a lot. MJD is still running on them.
Maintaining your lane is easier in the 1st quarter than it is in the 4th, in the cold, on the road, in the playoffs. Colts fans have seen this before. The pats went run heavy at the end of last year to counter all these light fast defenses and to protect Brady's aging arm. They use a fullback. The question is will we be able to hold up against the pats, in NE, on their turf, in the playoffs when they will want to run all day long?
I don't know if they can, so I would like to strengthen the dline with some size. I hoped they would have addressed it in the draft, but it didn't happen. I don't think we need a Siragusa, and I don't think he would fit. But a big DT (in relation to our own guys) that fits our style of D did just become a FA, hence this thread.
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to paraphrase Bob Kravitz, "something finally stop the Jags running game, the endzone".
I understand all that. 8 games a year is on the turf at LOS. Jacksonville is usually nice weather and Tenn gets cold, but not sloppy and Texans play inside. So that'a 11 games out of 16 in decent weather. If you go to the schedule, the Colts will play LA in Sept, KC in Oct, Tampa Bay and New Orleans away late in the year, but I would not expect snow in the Super dome.
You design your team for what you usually see and do. The Colts are the most northern team in the AFC south. The weather is better when we are on the road.
KC in Oct is a crap shoot. So is the Pittsburg game. Remember when Pittsburg played a game on MNF after the state football playoffs in their stadium. They resodded the field and it had old testimate rain and on one punt the ball stuck in the ground. Anyone on the field had feet the size of manhole covers.
You build your team for home. You adjust your play calls for away. Not for nothing, if the Colts are away in shitty weather and they don't run behind Nelson and Costanzo all night the coaching staff should be fired.