Here are my thoughts:

1. You can't beat Brady's refs. They won't let you.

2. TB has a great defense. Still, we scored 31 points. TThe lesser defenses should be easier.

3. Too many dropped passes early on. Pittman, Pascal, Taylor.

4. Dulin should play over Pascal moving forward. I wonder what Strachan did to get scratched so often. Patmon?

5. When we lost Buckner to end the one series, we got gashed quickly. He is THAT important.

6. Rodgers is coming along nicely. Rock is improved. He nearly had a pick that could have been returned.

7. This was two fairly healthy teams. If we can stay healthy, I like our chances. The Tacks are the least healthy, and vulnerable. We likely can't catch them, but we can beat them when it matters, if we can get there.

8. Turnovers usually go in our favor. Not today. That is why we took the L. Clean that up, and we can play with anyone. NE and AZ look to be tough games, but AZ is not the same AZ as they were early on. Win one of those two, and beat the dogs left, and we get in.

9. Can we forget about Pascal? and where was MAC today?

This is more reasonable a critique than most of what I've read.
And I do think more running could have been beneficial. But we do have hindsight. Yes, I suppose the DL will tee off when they expect a pass.

But I think it would be overly prudent to stop thrashing a defense with the pass because maybe this next play will possibly result in Shaq Barrett eating Eric Fisher's lunch.

And we were thrashing them. As you said, we drove down to their 20-yard-line and were on our way to a 31-14 lead. That was all passing. If we don't turn the ball over, Frank's gameplan is praised.

It's kind of like how you don't hear anybody bitching about him going for it on 4th down this game... Because we scored.

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Good thread ...... simple, and straight to the point.

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Losing teams always have tons of excuses. We have blown three big leads, each one with a bunch of 'if onlys'. We need to find the way to win. If it was only one game then sure, refs were bad. But it is who we are, a team that blows leads. It has to have a mental component to it. I'm glad that a bunch of Freaks are still pumped for this year. Not me. Don't like this team or the way it plays. Don't care for the 'leadership' that our player exhibit. Hope next year is better but don't hold out much hope. Bummed.

Yeah didn’t help he was flushed from the pocket on a 3 man rush. Rolled right and threw back left.

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I agree completely ...... in game threads, I often say that good teams find ways to overcome bad breaks, whether they be freak turnovers, injuries to key players, or bad calls by the referee.

On the other, the Colts are 6-3 over their last 9 games including a win over a good Buffalo Bills team ...... so the Colts still have a chance to win at least 4 out of their final 5 games to finish at either 11-6 and 10-7. If they do, they will have shown to be (at least) the equal of the 2018 team, a team which started the season at 1-5 before reeling off 9 wins over their 10 final regular season games and then stunning the favored Houston Texans on their home-field in the Wildcard playoff game.

They have already beaten the Bills ...... they still have 3 more chances left to beat good teams (the Cardinals and the Patriots) and/or an above-average team (the Raiders.)

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Thanks C&O. Your perspective is appreciated and true. I just find this depressing but am glad to have folks like you around to see the half full glass.

I’d love for someone with access to the All-22 go through and see how many RPOs were called, what the decision was and what the outcome was. I’ve seen someone on Twitter claim there were 6 RPOs called in the 3rd quarter, all ended up passes and all we’re completions. I don’t know if that is accurate, but I do remember there being several RPOs called that ended up passes because of the way TB played them.

The problem was they were becoming predictable. All the Bucs had to do was show an alignment and the Colts would pass. They dictated what the Colts were doing not the other way around. And even though Wentz was on fire the first half, he just can’t seem to maintain. The more Wentz throws it seems more likely he will make a mistake. Anyway, if they mixed in the run some, it would put that defense on edge, also their defense is best when they rush the passer. JT can still break big runs against 8-9 in the box.

Until we get another good receiver and we can show we can rip a team through the air all day, teams are going to stack the box against us.

My random thoughts with no particular order or sense:

1. One of the bigger issues with getting way too predictable with passing is that our OL is a much better run blocking group than pass protection at this point. With all the talk about loading the box, there was a period in the 3rd into the 4th where they were getting constant pressure with rushing just 3 linemen.

2. Do we ever run a draw?

3. I'm thinking (despite the stupid announcers talking about how 'healthy' the teams were) that we're really starting to miss our starting safeties... would like to have seen Blackmon going up against Gronk or keeping Fournette contained.

4. Back to Reich... piss poor game management... aside from the imbalance, how about using the timeouts so that we have more than 10 seconds at the end... that's kinda why you use them. Also, with a timeout left, and we force a sideline pass to a covered guy??? Also, on the final play, why the F is MAC, former basketball player, not on the field... and you throw it to a single receiver and not a group?

5. Was it me or did Darius seem to be consistently caught in 'no-man's land' in pass coverage yesterday? Is that an issue?

6. I'm comfortable that Wentz has got the goods and will be even better for us with a full year/offseason under his belt.

7. The PI against Rock was bullshit. As well as the one in the endzone.... even Olsen called that 'questionable'. Didn't see enough replay on the Pitman one.... probably by design.