quick thoughts on this epic battle between afc super bowl contenders

[GoBigBlue88]

You hit most of 'em, Omaha. Saw largely the same game. Only a few quick thoughts from me.


1. This game soured me on Pagano way more than the LAR game. I'd like to think I'm being fair on Pagano -- I didn't have issues with him in the AZ game, for instance. But the entire second half of this game was a bullshit, terrible NFL gameplan. The world's most predictable Frank Gore runs every first down, zero creative adjustments, the world's lamest prevent defense. Get the fuck out of here with that second half gameplan. They deserved to lose coaching like that. Add in the penalties, and this was just a shitshow of a game begging to be thrown away.

2. But because the Colts played the Browns, who have garbage receivers, they didn't. That was literally the only reason the Colts didn't lose today.

3. I echo Omaha's praise for Brissett. Kid can just play. Pagano coached the second half like Scott Tolzien was his QB. I don't get it. The coaching staff did a discredit to Brissett in winning time today.

4. I really like what this team has at DB overall, especially going forward. But Malik Hooker can't get beat by Seth DeValve. C'mon now. Think he still has to be a more dynamic player for the Colts.

5. This team needs to get Antonio Morrison out of any base defense. He just can't play in space. It's not like Bostic or Jeremiah George are particularly good, but they're nowhere near as slow. Obviously this team needs major ILB upgrades next year, but in the interim, I'd like to see Morrison phased out of anything that's not a heavy front.

6. I have no doubt this team will move on from Pagano, but I'm afraid they'll be stuck with Chud for a while. He's just good enough to not be the dregs of OCs, but just bad enough to be an albatross for your franchise QB.

I know he's had a tall task with Brissett, and I acknowledge that context. But he is still incredibly predictable, runs the least creative receiver stacks/formations in the league, and insists on running into loaded fronts just to arbitrarily establish a run game. You've got to have some modicum of creativity to be a good OC for a team with Andrew Luck. That's not Chud.

That's why I'm hoping an offensive HC replaces Pagano. That's the only way I see Chud going.

[ChoppedWood]

Penalties, more penalties, and more penalties. Agree completely on the reflection on how poorly coached they are- been that way since the minute he hit the ground. I was never a giant Dungy guy but at least you didn't sit there and just know your team was going to do stupid shit to beat themselves like you do under Chuck. It's so frustrating!

[omahacolt]

21). Doyle sucked balls this game

[FatDT]

Originally Posted by GoBigBlue88

That's why I'm hoping an offensive HC replaces Pagano. That's the only way I see Chud going.

Said that last year and I still think so. An offensive specialist is best to pair with a franchise QB IMO. I think Pagano is hampering Chud but I will not be sorry to see him go.

Not only do we not have good ILBs, we play the worst ones. I knew the TC hype for Morrison couldn't be true. He's just not athletic enough.

I don't think man coverage is Hookers game, not yet anyway. He's an opportunistic deep safety. Let him play to his strengths this year and stretch his skills in year two.

With Davis and Wilson healthy, I like the CB group. Melvin and Hairston have both been surprising and impressive.

The DB group overall has the potential to grow into a real strength for this team. Need guys to get healthy, Geathers included. But I'm not confident he'll recover.

We have some good players, we need a coaching staff to make them a good team.

[Coltsalr]

Scattered thoughts...the first three games have highlighted our deficiencies at our two biggest weaknesses, OL and LB:

1) Mewhort and Castonzo taking a step back is quite concerning, not only for obvious reasons, but also for what it means in terms of needing to (eventually) rebuild the OL. Ballard not doing anything to rebuild the OL this past offseason was an understandable move (I guess), but honestly, who do you trust besides Ryan Kelly? (And let's see Ryan Kelly come back from injury first, but I'll be optimistic and assume he returns to form).

I'm assuming they keep Castonzo. He's under contract through the next two years and while he's probably not worth the $11M cap hit he'll cost the next two years, you could do worse.

Still, can you reasonably expect them to scrap the other three OL positions in one offseason and replace them with actual suitable replacements? Has anyone shown enough to keep their spot for next year (that isn't under a cost prohibitive contract)?

I say all that of that to say, the OL is still such an unfinished project that we'll likely still be seeing some holdovers from this year to next on our OL. Maybe best case scenario we get two new good starters, but then who else are we keeping? IMO, Ballard definitely should've brought in at least one established starter (maybe Zeitler) to play OL that could stick around for a few years.

2) All of that also applies to our LB's. I like John Simon as much as anyone, but he's only one guy, and because of our defensive alignment, we need three other quality LB's (at least).

Sheard has been a bit of a disappointment thus far, so I'd imagine he'll likely be someone that while we're not dying to cut him, I'm not sure Ballard is going to be inclined to keep his $7.5M cap hit next year.

Our ILB's are still a complete and total mess.

So the same thing applies here. Are we REALLY expecting three new LB starters to come in this next offseason?


SIX new starters being needed (at least) is disconcerting. Yes, we basically knew that going in, but I think we were all hoping that someone would step up and prove themselves definitively worthy of being a starter, which certainly hasn't happened. That's not even accounting for guys that will likely depart, such as Moncrief, Vontae Davis, and Frank Gore that will need to be replaced.

[mluntz01]

[QUOTE=GoBigBlue88;29299]You hit most of 'em, Omaha. Saw largely the same game. Only a few quick thoughts from me.


But the entire second half of this game was a bullshit, terrible NFL gameplan. The world's most predictable Frank Gore runs every first down, zero creative adjustments, the world's lamest prevent defense. Get the fuck out of here with that second half gameplan. They deserved to lose coaching like that. Add in the penalties, and this was just a shitshow of a game begging to be thrown away.

They have to keep the TV ratings up, otherwise you would turn the game off. It was bad enough we had to put up with that scrub play by play team. If it hadn't been for my Sunday Ticket, the only people watching this game would have been in Cleveland and Indy.