Venturi - Playoff edition

[1965southpaw]

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