Official 2011 Colts Regular Season Thread

[killxswitch]

Max the best thing I can say is we are still in good position to get Luck. This defense is destroyed. Like, ALL our good big guys got hurt tonight!! On offense too!

[RCAChainGang]

Well this sucks.

[MaxV]

Rant away, my friends. I'll save my thoughts for tomorrow.

[killxswitch]

I am mostly upset about the injuries we sustained.

I am pissed thinking about the DT depth that Polian cut. Tommie Harris and Rico Mathews would've been nice to have tonight.

Pollak went back to sucking. So did Linkenbach. Rietz looked stupid blocking the Bucs DTs. Ijalana was mediocre on the left side, but of course then he got hurt.

If Castonzo, Ijalana, Nevis, Foster all miss significant time then Suck for Luck will not even be a choice. It's just what will happen because we have nobody left to play the big boy spots. Jamal Anderson and Tyler Brayton were our DTs to end the game. Ugh.

The guys played hard. Again I am unimpressed with the coaching though. Bad offensive play calls. No defensive adjustments to cover the easy pass over the middle. Seriously, how many times did Freeman throw for 5-10 yards right in the middle with Angerer dropping back 30 yards in coverage? ADJUST!

[Philliez01]

I like how the team plays. They aren't trying to lose but to be aware of a cliche, they did play their hearts out. I like that.

However, the coaches seem to only know how to coach one way and are just not even capable of adjusting to the smallest things.

Borderline frustrating. I can deal with bad players because **** (Manning's injury) happens but bad coaching is ridiculous.

[falloutboy14]

Warning, I'm in a ranting mood:

Was nice to see the fire from Foster as he left the field. Guess that's the intensity one needs to play DT at his size. Hopefully he'll be ready to go next year.

I didn't even notice the Nevis injury, any premature estimates on that time-line? No clue how severe it was or even what happened. And wow, our DT rotation just got destroyed. Just googled it, and Mathews isn't on a roster, bet he'll get a call. Maybe we can release Brown to free up the roster spot. Feels like 2007 when we lost Simon, McFarland & Pitcock in like a week. Maybe we can put Keyunta Dawson into the NT rotation.

Our secondary looked like ... (is swearing allowed on this board)? On that TD that got called back (cause the guy stepped out of bounds) that was horrid tackling. I think every defender had a chance (Bethea included) and a fluke step saved us. Not sure who 23 & 30 are, but there's no need for them to be on the field. Just play with 9 on defense. Remember when we used to have Tryon on the roster? Also is Angerer a safety now?

The Bucs played like crap for the first 3 quarters, and if not for 2 lucky plays from Garcon we're getting blown out. BTW, if Garcon shows he can catch with some reliability, he might be in the $5-6m a year range in his next contract. Garcon giveth & Garcon taketh away.

Also, Diem inactive so practice squad guy can be active? C'mon Polian. You're putting me in a position to reflect on Diem favorably. That shouldn't happen.

It's a shame we didn't run the ball more. 18 carries for 62 yards is 3.5 yards a carry. After Ijalana got injured, no excuse not to bring Eldredge & Gronkowski in and pound the football. In the second half, we had 20 passing plays, 4 rushing. 3 of those 20 passing plays were sacks. So we took a sack on 15% of our dropbacks.

Also, I realize teams get injuries, and they're inevitable. That said, we seem t get more then our fair share. Is there an institutional process that the Colts don't do? Or are we just sullied with 3-4 injury ridden guys (Marlin, Bob, Bullitt) Last year Hayden & Powers ended on IR. Did the cover-2 wear on them?

Also, maybe we could blitz when Freeney/Mathis aren't in. And stop stunting them around the O-line when they are in. Remember when we played Wheeler at D-line during the preseason? What happened to that. Oh, and welcome to the world of being a productive football player Jerry Hughes. Sadly due to a penalty, you weren't awarded with a sack. Maybe next year.

With the year going as it is, I'm fully behind the suck for luck movement. It would be nice if we could either show progress to build upon for next year with the O-line/running game/defense. Or to fail so horribly as to cause a significant portion of our coaching staff and front office *cough* *cough* Bill to be re-evaluated. Maybe we'll be able to do both.

Aside from Chris Polian, who do people have any shred of confidence in? I think John Teerlinck is the only coach I have any respect for. Clyde Christenson & Ron Turner? I reminisce for the days where we complained about Ron Meeks & that ST coach I can't remember.

[MaxV]

I knew I shouldn't have waited to make this post. You guys pretty much covered what I wanted to say.

- Coaching ... you know it's a problem when EVERYONE, that is watching the game, knows exactly what will happen on the next play. Freeman will drop back, Angerer will drop 50 yards, wide open WR in the middle, First Down. At what point do you realize that what you are doing isn't working?

- After solid efforts last week, Linkenbach and Pollak are back to their usual selves.

- Reitz didn't have a good game, but he is still clearly the best interior OL on the team.

- I thought Ijalana actually played ok at LT until the injury. I hope he isn't out for long. Same with Castonzo.

- Speedy recovery to Foster. He gets treated unfairly by Colts' fans sometimes. No, he isn't the most talented DT, but you gotta admire his determination.

- Hopefully Nevis isn't out for long. He played well.

- I know he was under pressure often, but Painter missed wide open WRs several times yesterday. Face it guys, no matter who it is, we have the worst starting QB in NFL.

- First rounder or not, it's time for Polian to admit, Donald Brown is completely useless.

[MaxV]

Foster and Ijalana are out for the rest of the season. Also Triplett was released.

In their place Colts bring Rico Mathews, Michael Toudouze and a new name OG Quinn Ojinnaka.

http://www.indystar.com/article/2011...ut-rest-season

[MaxV]

Also Castonzo will probably miss next week's game.

http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/rapid-r.../post/15691363

Tamba Hali will have 3+ sacks.

[killxswitch]

Originally Posted by MaxV

Also Castonzo will probably miss next week's game.

http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/rapid-r.../post/15691363

Tamba Hali will have 3+ sacks.

I thought the same about Woodley. However the line appears significantly worse-off than it was just two weeks ago.

With all these injuries it kind of takes the sting out of Manning not being here. I'd hate to see the hits he'd take this week behind this line.

[vidae]

Good game guys. Good luck (or bad luck?) the rest of the way.

Look at the bright side.. Peyton will be replaced by the next Peyton. It's almost unfair. :)

[falloutboy14]

Hopefully we'll end up with Luck, not getting my hopes up till we get a lot closer. That said, perhaps this organization just needs a season where it gets a kick in the pants repeatedly. I hate to watch it and feel for the players, but continuing with Caldwell is unsustainable. Peyton has covered the weaknesses in this organization since Dungy left. Hopefully the axe will fall swiftly and often in our front office/coaching staff. I think it'd be a challenge to find a weaker coaching staff since the afl merger. I'm ok with Bill remaining as long as 1) the coaching staff is replaced with qualified coaches & 2) he continues/maintains a back-seat role in draft/personnel decisions

Looking at the team now, I'm amazed we went to the super bowl a few years back, with more or less the same guys.

[killxswitch]

I don't see how a real coach would ever come here. He won't want to answer to Bill Polian. Getting rid of Caldwell and Coyer and Christiansen is the right idea but if they're just replaced with more yes-men it's not going to help.

[MaxV]

Damn, another winnable game down the drain. I REALLY hope we won't go 0-16. The rest of the schedule looks very tough. Only home games vs. Jags and Panthers are realistic possibilities.

I didn't see the whole game, what did you guys think about individual players? I've read the new OT played well. But Reitz didn't play well for the 2nd week in a row.

Honestly, this team still has several needs. Secondary, OL, OLB and NT.

[killxswitch]

Ojinaka (sp?) did look solid. Not just for a new player, he looked like he knew how to block. Better than Link, better than Diem last two years. It was just one game so who knows. But the first try was a good one. No, Reitz didn't look great. But overall the OL looked better than I expected. I don't think Reitz really has a future as a starter.

I don't see the Carolina game as winnable. Cam Newton and Steve Smith will carve up our pathetic DBs. Williams and Stewart will pound our midget defense and keep the ball away from the offense in the 2nd half. There is no win there.

Yes, there are lots of needs. How about a TE that can catch the ****ing ball?

[RCAChainGang]

I wasn't able to see the game. Such a bummer cause I am actually interested to see how well Curtis Painter is going to do this season. He doesn't look completely useless, but then again it was KC. Maybe if he takes off some more we could trade him for a late late pick. Is that possible?

Also, Pierre Garcon. I started him on my fantasy team. What happened. Are the stats lying or can he be a legitimate #1? Was it the fact that Reggie was covered? This is why I hate missing games.

I'm touring around with this choir to different churches so I will most likely miss almost every game this year. I wish I could contribute to the conversation.

[killxswitch]

RCA, Garcon and Painter both had a great first half. Some really well-thrown passes deep that Garcon caught and ran with. The Chiefs made adjustments, especially on offense, and hogged the ball the entire 2nd half. The Colts offense couldn't get going and didn't get enough possessions. The defense is beat up and worn down and couldn't deal with 4 quarters of football.

[falloutboy14]

I was actually thinking to myself, maybe we don't take a QB in the first round (assuming Peyton has 2-3 years left) and see where Painter is in 3 years. As in maybe he can be our starter with a few more years of preparation. Then I remembered it was KC and a number of other things. As of now, I'm content to have him as our backup QB. We didn't lose because Painter played poorly. He put the rest of the team in a position to win, which is exactly what you ask a backup QB to do. If Clark catches the ball & we had our full compliment of DTs, we don't leave Bowe and Lacey alone together the entire game (things normal teams do) we win that game.

Everything we know about contract years is happening to Garcon. He'll have an interesting off-season. Garcon's stats are better then Wayne's due to the long TD play. That was actually a good pump-fake/looking at another receiver.

I think Garcon is playing well because at any point he can break a tackle and take it to the house. With Manning out, sustaining drives is more difficult, so we're swinging for the fences so to speak. Aside from the first TD against the Chiefs, the rest of our TDs the last two games have come from Garcon directly or Garcon making a long play to get us in scoring position.

[Bob Sanders Dreadlock]

Angerer and Connor are 1-2 in the league for tackles. I dont know how to feel about this.

[MaxV]

Angerer has played well. He definitely looks more comfortable in the middle.

Conner has made a lot of his tackles after 10+ yard gains.

[killxswitch]

Also take tackle stats with a grain of salt. They are turned in to the league by the team.

[RCAChainGang]

I'm really struggling to hope for a win. I almost just wanna see us tank. Anyone feel the same way? I'm divided amongst myself.

[killxswitch]

Against Cincy (which at one point looked like one of the few winnable games) I doubt they have to try to tank. They will just not be good enough.

I've said this before I think but Monday-Saturday I am fine with losing, and even might want them to lose so we can get Luck. But watching on Sunday I just want to win.

Have you guys heard that the Colts are trying to trade Hughes? ESPN seems to think so. http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/71...al-sources-say

[MaxV]

I want a first overall pick, but not at 0-16.

We GOTTA get one.

We've already blew several games.

[killxswitch]

I want Miami to win one first. It for sure wont be next week.