Week 11 Colts-Ravens Friday Injury Report
OUT: Kelvin Hayden, Anthony Gonzaelz, Adam Vinatieri, Aaron Francisco, Dan Federkeil,
Questionable (days of pratice): Dwight Freeney (1), Antoine Bethea (0.5), Eric Foster (1), Pierre Garcon (2), Gijon Robinson (0), Jim Sorgi (0),
Probable: Hank Baskett, Justin Snow
OUT: DE/OLB Terrell Suggs, RB Matt Lawrence
Questionable: TE Todd Heap (no practice), DT Haloti Ngata (limited all week)
Probable: C Matt Birk, LB Tavares (T-Good) Gooden, QB Joe Flacco, LB Jarrett Johnson
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Colts v. Ravens- Friday injury report
Did not participate – OT Dan Federkeil (concussion, out), DB Aaron Francisco (ankle, out); WR Anthony Gonzalez (knee, out), CB Kelvin Hayden (knee, out), TE Gijon Robinson (concussion, questionable), QB Jim Sorgi (right shoulder, questionable), OT Tony Ugoh (not injury related-rested), K Adam Vinatieri (right knee, out).
Looks like Dwight Freeney and Antoine Bethea will play.
NFL Network's RedZone Colts stat of the week: Week Eleven
This post is sponsored by Comcast and their NFL RedZone channel, a new NFL Network channel. Want to see every touchdown from every NFL game as it happens as well as live look-ins to all of Sunday's games in key situations? Then you need Comcast's NFL RedZone.
From Football Outsider's Mike Tanier (via 18to88):
The Colts have the best goal-to-go defense in the NFL according to DVOA.
Even though Indy's pass defense dropped from 9th in yards to 16th in yards following the War of 1812, they've still only allowed 7 TDs. Factor in that the Colts have intercepted 10 balls and forced 10 fumbles, the old tried-and-true Tampa-2 method of forcing teams into mistakes and making them work for TDs continues to work.
Also, for the first time in I don't know how long, Indy's run defense (ranked 14th) is better than the pass defense (16th) in terms of yardage. This means teams have stopped trying to "control the clock" by running the ball, because they know the Colts are good at shutting that down. Also, factor in that New England's passing attack did much of their damage in the first half. After a strong halftime adjustment, the Colts did much better containing Brady and the passing game, forcing them into two turnovers (one an INT in the endzone, another a rather famous turnover-on-downs).
Considering they are doing all this without Kelvin Haden, and I'd say the pass defense is just fine, thank you.
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Update on Anthony Gonzalez offers hope he will return soon
The silver-lining for Anthony Gonzalez's injury in Week One was the rapid, forced development of wide receivers Pierre Garçon and Austin Collie. And while many have expressed frustration that both Garçon and Collie have been erratic throughout the year, the reality is that inconsistency is the hallmark for all young receivers, good and bad. Also, factor in that it usually takes a receiver three years before they finally start looking like they are worth something. Call it the Reggie Wayne Scale, if you must. I remember from 2001-2003, Colts fans (stupidly) applied the "bust" label to Reggie Wayne, maintaining that the Colts should have taken a defensive player (Kyle Vanden Bosch, maybe?), or not traded down to get Wayne and taken a defensive tackle like Ryan Pickett.
This is why fans are fans and Bill Polian is god.
Today, I'm one of the leading schmucks on the Internets who thinks Reggie Wayne is the best wide receiver in football. And if you compare Pierre Garçon's second year numbers (26 catches, 403 yards, 3 TDs) or Austin Collie's rookie numbers (38 catches, 408 yards, 3 TDs) with Reggie Wayne's second year numbers (49 catches for 716 yards and 4 TDs) you see that both young receivers are well on their way to developing into good players.
Again, this kind of development likely would not have happened had Anthony Gonzalez not gotten hurt.
In a recent Mike Chappell article for the Indy Star, we get an update on Gonzo, who is recovering from surgery earlier this month to help heal his injured knee. Gonzo aggravated the injury (which he initially sustained against the Jaguars) during his rehab process. Now, Gonzo is saying he feels "close" again:
"I felt like I was close the last time," Gonzalez said. "So in that sense, it's a little hard to say. I do feel the 'scope I had helped a lot. Now it's just a matter of getting a little flexibility back and all my strength back."But I think I'm close."
In yet another season where key components of the team have gone down with injury, such as the oft-injured Bob Sanders (done for the year), the addition of an important cog like Gonzo to an offense as impressive as the Colts could provide a serious jolt during the December push for playoff seeding.
However, we Colts fans have been through this injury roller-coaster before with another wide receiver, Marvin Harrison. The constant "Will he? Won't he?" for Harrison in 2007 drove me nuts from week to week after Harrison sustained a seemingly career-ending knee injury. With Gonzo, I have no wish to relive that torture. If he does come back, he offers another potent weapon to stretch the field for Peyton Manning.
But, it is important to point out the Garçon and Collie have played well enough (overall) to retain their roles. These two guys have grown up as players right before our eyes. It will be interesting to see how the Colts work with them once Gonzo gets back into the fold.
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Week Eleven Preview: Colts at Ravens
(Warning: This Colts v. Ravens preview is sans Mayflower trucks because, quite honestly, we've been there and done that. Most rational, civilized, well-adjusted people are over it already. Those that aren't need a life).
We made a big brew-ha-ha earlier this year about Baltimore native Barry Levinson's well produced but painfully flawed ESPN documentary titled The Band That Wouldn't Let It Go The Band That Wouldn't Die. The doc's story centered on the old Baltimore Colts marching band and their efforts to keep the spirit of football alive in the city of Baltimore after the Colts left town in favor of Indianapolis in March of 1984. ESPN probably should have waited until this week to air the doc, as it would have likely stirred up the fanbases in both Baltimore and Indy just in time for the now-seemingly annual Colts v. Ravens showdown.
Since 2004, the Colts have played the Ravens at least once a year. With this Sunday's game, the Colts will have played in Baltimore four times while the Ravens have traveled to Indy twice. In all the previous contests, the Colts have flat out owned the Ravens. Whether under the night lights of primetime TV, or in the pressure-packed moments of the playoffs, the Colts have consistently put their foot on the throats of the Ravens and strangled the life out of them each and every time.
Yet, despite the seemingly annual match-up, there does not seem to be any sort of animosity or hatred between the two teams. The reason for this: Peyton Manning. Baltimore fans and players seem to respect Peyton Manning more than any other QB in the league. I've heard more than a few fans from the "City of Firsts" say that Peyton Manning is as close to a clone of Johnny Unitas as they've ever seen. He even walks like unitas did, they say. There is also mutual respect from Colts players towards greats like Ray Lewis, Ed Reed, and Ravens coach John Harbaugh (brother of former-Colts quarterback Jim Harbaugh, a longtime fan favorite).
With this year's match-up, the rivalry now has the added dimension of a potent Ravens offense, led by a very impressive QB named Joe Flacco, and a Colts defense that, right now, is playing better football than the Ravens defense has this season.
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Thursday Night Football Open Thread
Well, this will probably be rolled into something on the front page (right you are -shake), but I'm bored now so I wanted to start the open thread now. Please feel free to talk about basically anything, even football if that's your fancy. Some people might ask that you limit pictures of cat's and other memory killers. I'm not one of them. We have one of the best open thread communities in all of SB Nation and therefore anywhere, so let's stick with what got us here.
It'll be up to Sticky Ricky and Pat White to run the Phins wildcat with Ronnie Brown IR'ed
Also on the docket are our game against the Baltimore Ravens this Sunday, and there seems to be plenty to talk about. Injuries, matchups, smack talk, Baltimore whining about losing a team they acted like they cared about but really didn't, Mayflower trucks, and more.
So guy's, let's get ready for some LOLCatsFootball!
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Thursday Colts Injury Report
Hank Baskett, Pierre Garcon and Justin Snow returned to practice after missing yesterday. 9 players (Bethea, Federkeil, Foster, Fransisco, Gonzalez, Gijon, Hayden, Sorgi and Vinny) remained sidelined with injuries.
Dwight Freeney who was given yesterday off, missed today with a hip injury and Austin Collie missed practice for non-injury reasons.
1 day ago
shake n bake
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Stampede Blue Prediction Contest Results Week 10, Link for Week 11
Week 10 was a real struggle this week, thanks to quite a few unexpected winners:
- Only 1 person picked the Redskins to win (shake n bake, that bastard).
- Twelve people (out of 53) picked the Packers to beat the Cowboys.
- Fourteen people picked the Panthers, and only 14 picked the Jaguars.
As a side note, our "experts" from USA Today and Yahoo! were almost unanimous in picking the Patriots (only Skip Wood being smart). I'm sure they also still think the Patriots are better, regardless of the final score. And they get paid to think these things...
This week in the Against the Spread contest, we had one winner, sandsaver01. He/She got 12/15 games correct, which is unbelievable (especially to me, who only got 4 right). Great week. Our leaderboard after 10 weeks looks like this:
| Against the Spread | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Name | Week 6 | Week 7 | Week 8 | Week 9 | Week 10 | Total |
| shoein | 8 | 7 | 6 | 6 | 7 | 82 |
| bluegirl | 6 | 8 | 7 | 9 | 8 | 81 |
| TouchdownMonkey | 6 | 10 | 9 | 6 | 9 | 80 |
| bobzilla3 | 9 | 9 | 6 | 5 | 7 | 80 |
| zkmavz | 7 | 10 | 7 | 6 | 6 | 80 |
| The Lawn Wrangler | 7 | 7 | 7 | 6 | 7 | 80 |
In the Straight Up contest, we had four people get 12/15 games correct! They are:
- bluegirl
- chano14
- EnSsRex
- enjyinlife
Congratulations! The leaderboard for the Straight Up contest looks like this:
| Straight Up | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Name | Week 6 | Week 7 | Week 8 | Week 9 | Week 10 | Total |
| shoein | 11 | 9 | 10 | 8 | 11 | 105 |
| Gmachine! | 9 | 9 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 105 |
| JustinPugh | 9 | 10 | 10 | 9 | 11 | 103 |
| bluegirl | 7 | 9 | 10 | 9 | 12 | 102 |
| emiller17 | 9 | 8 | 8 | 9 | 9 | 100 |
shoein still has a share of the lead in both contests, but he's falling farther behind Bill Simmons, who has bounced back from his horrible Week 8.
After the jump you'll see the full leaderboard. Remember there is a game tonight, and you can place your picks either in the comments here, or in the FanShot I posted yesterday. I'm not sure what my availability will be on Sunday, but I'll to get the link posted for everyone's picks before the games start.
Stampede Blue Prediction Contest Picks Week 10
Stampede Blue Prediction Contest Week 11, open until 1:00 ET Sunday
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