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AFC South Standings
| W | L | T | PF | PA | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Indianapolis
|
7 | 0 | 0 | 197 | 91 |
|
Houston
|
5 | 3 | 0 | 198 | 168 |
|
Jacksonville
|
3 | 4 | 0 | 133 | 177 |
|
Tennessee
|
1 | 6 | 0 | 114 | 211 |
(updated 11.3.2009 at 4:44 AM EST)
Colts Schedule
|
Jacksonville
|
Sun 09/13 | W 14 - 12 |
|
@
Miami
|
Mon 09/21 | W 27 - 23 |
|
@
Arizona
|
Sun 09/27 | W 31 - 10 |
|
Seattle
|
Sun 10/04 | W 34 - 17 |
|
@
Tennessee
|
Sun 10/11 | W 31 - 9 |
|
@
St. Louis
|
Sun 10/25 | W 42 - 6 |
|
San Francisco
|
Sun 11/01 | W 18 - 14 |
|
Houston
|
Sun 11/08 | 1:00 PM EST |
|
New England
|
Sun 11/15 | 8:20 PM EST |
|
@
Baltimore
|
Sun 11/22 | 1:00 PM EST |
|
@
Houston
|
Sun 11/29 | 1:00 PM EST |
|
Tennessee
|
Sun 12/06 | 1:00 PM EST |
|
Denver
|
Sun 12/13 | 1:00 PM EST |
|
@
Jacksonville
|
Thu 12/17 | 8:20 PM EST |
|
New York Jets
|
Sun 12/27 | 4:15 PM EST |
|
@
Buffalo
|
Sun 01/03 | 1:00 PM EST |
Stampede Blue Radio: Come Cry With Us- Open Thread
by BigBlueShoe on Nov 6, 2009 6:13 PM EST
in Colts News
623 comments
8PM Eastern
Tonight!
Joe (shake n bake) and I will cry on each others shoulders as we talk about how the injury-riddled Colts are the worst 7-0 team in the history of all creation. Join us in a little group therapy. Consider this your open thread for the podcast.
LISTEN TO PODCAST:
623 comments | 0 recs |
Friday Colts injury report
IR'ed: Hagler, Sanders, Jackson
Out Gonzalez, Vinatieri
Questionable Brown (missed Fri), SIiva (missed Thurs), Moala (missed Fri)
Report: Peyton Manning quits on season, tells team it is OK to "coast" until technology allows us to clone non-brittle Bob Sanders
by BigBlueShoe on Nov 6, 2009 4:31 PM EST
in Horse Bucket
118 comments
Hi. I'm BigBlueShoe, and this is your
Friday Night Open Thread!!!
My job this fun-filled Friday is to inject a little humor into the news cycle, especially in light of all the WONDERFUL injury news we've gotten today. In case you've been living under a rock, or are too lazy to scroll down the blog frontpage, here is a quick recap of the wounded:
- Tyjuan Hagler, done for the year; biceps
- Marlin Jackson, done for the year; knee
- Bob Sanders,
likelydone for the year; biceps - Anthony Gonzalez, out until December; knee
- Kelvin Hayden, out until December; knee
All these injuries were reported to us in less than 24 hours. As a result, Peyton Manning, Dwight Freeney, and Jim Caldwell have declared that it is OK to quit on the season. All players, fans, and bandwagoners can officially stop thinking about football and focus on Thanksgiving travel plans, Christmas shopping, and whether or not an animated Jim Carrey "playing" Ebenezer Scrooge on the big screen is worth a $10 investment.
Season over. Quit now. We'll see you next year for our pre-draft coverage. Pack it up. Bye-bye season. Bye-bye happiness. Hello off-season loneliness. I think the 2009 season's gonna die.
Or...............................
We can look at the team depth chart, take a breath, and look at this logically and intellectually.
- Bob Sanders and Marlin Jackson barely played a lick this season, and the Colts still had the #1 scoring defense without them.
- Anthony Gonzalez's injury is not season-ending, and like Brandon Stokley in 2004, Gonzo could come back and make a big late-season difference. His injury also hastened the development of Pierre Garçon and Austin Collie, which was a big positive.
- Tyjuan Hagler was playing well, but the Colts have Philip Wheeler waiting in the wings. If Wheeler isn't ready, then that's on him and the Colts will simply plug into another backer.
- Kelvin Hayden is expected back.
So, before you slice a razor blade across the throat of the Colts 2009 NFL season, know that the Colts have sustained injuries that are on par with injuries other teams have had to deal with.
The Bears lost Brian Urlacher in Week One. Half of the Packers offensive line is gone. Injuries to the Vikings secondary have made their defense swiss cheese. The Texans lost Owen Daniels. The Giants lost their safety as well. The Chargers lost Jamal Williams, the best player on their defense. The Steelers lost Aaron Smith.
Welcome to the NFL, fellow football fans! Injuries are as much a part of the game as the pigskin ball, the field goal bars, and stupid pontificating from idiot TV announcers. Before you give up, take a look around the NFL and look at the injury reports for other teams. Shockingly, I bet you'll see their situations are the same as ours.
Go Colts!
Click after the jump to see the text from Bullard47's open thread, which I have combined with this thread to make your disco-tastic Friday night as injury-free as possible.
118 comments | 0 recs |
Per Adam Shefter: Bob Sanders has torn biceps tendon; done for season
by BigBlueShoe on Nov 6, 2009 1:28 PM EST
in Colts News
103 comments
Adam Shefter keeps bringing the hits, via Twitter:
News gets worse for Colts. As reported on ESPN, Colts safety Bob Sanders has a torn biceps tendon. He now will be out for the year.
Believe it or not, I'm actually kind of glad. No, I am not happy to see one of my favorite players lost for the season, again. But, the merri-go-round of Bob Sanders on the injury list was a constant source of frustration for me. Will he? Won't he? Can he?
Now, the distraction is gone.
Bob has not proven he can stay healthy over any consistent period of time, and I think his days with the Colts are numbered. It's sad, but "great" players are not injury prone, and Bob pretty much defines the term. He's a super guy and I very much hope he heals up so he can continue his career. But his constant presence in the training room is a distraction this team does not need. They need to move forward.
For the Colts, it's next man up. Melvin Bullitt has played at a Pro Bowl level in 2009, and deserved to start even when Bob was "healthy." Again, as I wrote earlier today, the Colts are getting their "bump" for the year right now. Whether or not they are a great team will depend on how they respond.
[UPDATE]: The Indy Star has a little different spin on the Sanders injury. They say Sanders suffered and elbow injury and will miss "an undetermined amount of time." The article does not state whether Sanders was placed on IR, nor do they collaborate ESPN's report that Sanders suffered a torn tendon in his biceps.
[UPDATE]: It's official; Bob is done for 2009. Tom Santi has been signed to the active roster off the practice squad.
103 comments | 0 recs |
Overcoming the "bump": How great teams keep winning despite setbacks
by BigBlueShoe on Nov 6, 2009 11:09 AM EST
in Analysis
40 comments
Every NFL teams experiences a point in their season where something happens to disrupt their flow. Things are going well. The team is winning. Players are happy, flying around, looking to make plays, etc. Coaches are jovial in press conferences. Media are anointing the club, calling them "the best ever." Yippee-yippee-yay-yay!
Then, something happens.
Usually, it comes in the form of an injury. Or, sometimes, it's a team tragedy or some kind of disaster. Last season, we all saw the Houston Texans' "bump" come in the form of a hurricane that damaged their stadium, their facilities, and (for many players) their homes. The Texans never recovered from that "bump," and missed the playoffs because of a bad start.
In 2007, the our own, beloved Colts looked like they would repeat as world champions. They were 7-1 and flying high. Then, they lost Dwight Freeney for the season. They limped along for the rest of 2007, managed to finish the season 6-1 after the Freeney injury, but lost in the playoffs to the Chargers due in large part because of a lack of pass rush. In 2008, Peyton Manning's knee problems, coupled with the disasters at the defensive tackle spot, provided Indy with their "bump" very early in the NFL campaign. The team fumbled and bumbled their way through a 3-4 start. Though Indy managed to close the season on a 7-0 run, they lost in the playoffs again to the Chargers due in large part because of problems they had as a result of their "bump" early in the season (poor DT play).
Bumps for teams can sometimes be too much to handle. They can throw an entire season off track. However, it is the truly great teams that incur these bumps and, somehow, manage to win games in spite of them.
For my money, no championship team in recent memory was as injured as the 2006 Colts. They lost Brandon Stokley, Mike Doss, Corey Simon, James Mungro, and Montae Reagor for the season. Their secondary was a list of walking wounded. Bob Sanders missed virtually all the 2006 regular season (shocking, I know). Yet, despite the injuries, they persevered and won the Super Bowl.
Last season, we saw the Pittsburgh Steelers lose both their first and second round picks in the 2008 draft (Rashard Mendenhall and Limas Sweed, respectively). They also played games in 2008 without Willie Parker, using castoff Mewelde Moore as their feature back. They lost Casey Hampton and Heath Miller for long stretches of time. Starting offensive guard Kendall Simmons was lost for the season with an Achilles injury. Steelers starters missed over 31 games in 2008 due to injuries. In Week Sixteen, they were dominated by the Tennessee Titans, and many wondered if the Steelers were as good as others said they were.
Yet, I distinctly remember seeing the Steelers hoist the Lombardi trophy this past February.
Obviously, too many injuries, or one devastating injury, can kill your football team. But just because you loose a few starters, or because some other players are down for a while, does not mean that is an excuse to lose. The great teams win despite injuries, and even though the 2009 Colts have lost some players this week, this roster is still good enough to win it all.
More importantly, with this current roster, I expect them to win it all.
I love players like Marlin Jackson and Tyjuan Hagler. But this is the NFL. Injuries happen. For eight weeks, this team has been able to get by without having a serious injury smack them upside the head. Now, they have two. We'll see how tough they are overcoming this "bump" in the coming weeks. Personally, I think they will be fine.
40 comments | 1 recs |
From Adam Shefter, the God of Twitter: Anthony Gonzalez does indeed go under the knife, and more Colts news
by BigBlueShoe on Nov 6, 2009 10:27 AM EST
in Colts News
63 comments
Adam Shefter is indeed the god of NFL Twitter updates:
Shefter's report backs up the story from Yahoo! Sports yesterday. The positive out of all this is Gonzo's season is not over. They discovered loose particles in his knee, and they are getting them cleaned out. With Pierre Garçon and Austin Collie playing well, I have no problem with Gonzo chilling out until December.
The distressing thing is that Bob Sanders is (sigh) once again friggin hurt. This time, it's an elbow and it's serious. Players do not go to see Dr. James Andrews unless it is serious. Bob had already visited the good doctor about his knee during the year. Now, it's the elbow. You can scratch Bob from the lineup this week folks, because if Bob visited Andrews, that means a trip down to Alabama.
Again, it is because of things like this that I do not consider Bob the starting strong safety for the Colts. Melvin Bullitt started most of the 2008 season at strong safety, and it seems he will do the same in 2009. I'm perfectly OK with this because, in my opinion, Melvin is now better than Bob Sanders. Talent and "playmaking ability" are all great things, but they are all secondary to durability.
If you cannot stay on the field, you are not "good."
Also, Josh Thomas was signed to the active roster. Josh had been sitting out all season after playing for Indy during the pre-season.
63 comments | 0 recs |
Marlin Jackson done for the year, again
by BigBlueShoe on Nov 6, 2009 10:11 AM EST
in Colts News
8 comments
I'm waiting for my ride last night. So, I take out my handheld (Sprint Palm Pre, but I still hold love for the iPhone), go to Stampede Blue, and see ctnyc's FanPost that Marlin Jackson tore his ACL in practice on Thursday and that he is done for the year. For Marlin, this is the second year in a row he has done this, and it comes at an unfortunate time for him. After this season, Marlin will either become a free agent (if 2010 has a salary cap) or he will become a restricted free agent is there is no cap in 2010. What this also does is give Marlin two major ACL injuries in only one year's time. Surgeries and rehab today are much, much better than they were even five years ago, but it is very tough for a starting cornerback to recovery fully from two ACL injuries. Marlin had seemed to not fully recovered yet from last year's ACL injury, which might have been why he lost his starting job to Jerraud Powers. The Star's PhilB elaborates:
Jackson had told me after the bye week that his most recent injury was to his left knee, that favoring his right knee put more strain on his left. That evidently led to this tear. Media member or fan, it's an understatement to say you just hate to see this.
So, from Marlin's own lips, last year's right knee injury directly contributed to this year's left knee injury. Both kness. Both with ACL tears in only one calendar year. That's not good for Marlin.
The other disturbing thing about this is Marlin was listed on the Thursday injury report, which is the official report sent to the league office, as NOT practicing. Yet, we see Marlin was hurt while practicing.
Aside from losing another great guy who had worked so hard to come back and contribute to this team -- starting SLB Tyjuan Hagler was lost for the season to a torn biceps this week -- it will be interesting to see the Colts' explanation on Jackson's injury. He got hurt in practice, or so he says. Yet the injury report listed Jackson as "Did not participate."The Colts could say he was working out on the side, that his injury happened outside the framework of practice, I guess. But the way this was reported, first by ESPN and now confirmed by The Indy Star, certainly suggests the injury report was inaccurate.
The Colts have some explaining to do, and if they did try to fudge the injury report, or hide the fact that Marlin was hurt in practice, I hope Roger Goodell fines them. I just spent the first few days of this week blasting Mike Singletary for cheating, and falsifying an injury report (if indeed the Colts did that) would be in the same boat as players faking injuries during games.
So, if the Colts did fake that report, they cheated, and we fans should hold their feet to the fire on that. Bill Polian loves to lecture fans and press during his radio show about "the integrity of the game." Well, if they just got caught falsifying an injury report, Bill Polian and the Colts are hypocrites.
We will see in the next couple of days if anything comes out of it.
Moving forward, Marlin was in and out of the lineup all year, and yet the Colts have still managed to have a great pass defense. Jacob Lacey and Jerraud Powers have come on, and Tim Jennings (despite his haters) is still a quality player. Like with the Tyjuan Hagler injury, it hurts to lose such a great person and tough-minded player, but the depth on the team is good enough to move forward.
8 comments | 0 recs |
Week 8, Advanced Stat Roundup
by shake n bake on Nov 5, 2009 9:11 PM EST
in Analysis
8 comments
We interrupt this injury wave for a look at the stats.
Over at Advanced NFL Stats the Colts remain in the top spot. With the 3rd ranked O, the 8th ranked D and the 4th lowest penalty rate. The Colts still hold onto the top spot in passing efficiency on both O and D. The Colts are given an 86% chance of winning Sunday by their projection.
Our old friend Wolfpack Steelers Fan runs a comparison of the Colts and Saints. He gives a slight edge to the Saints largely on the basis of SOS adjustment and run-pass balance. My two objections are that a significant amount of yardage is hidden from the numbers he uses in the form of penalties, where the Colts are among the cleanest playing teams and the Saints merely average. The second point I'd raise is that pass O and pass D have been shown to have a stronger relationship with winning, than run O and D.
At FO the Colts are one of 5 very good, but not all time great teams in the league this year sitting in the 11th to 25th range in DVOA among the teams of the last 16 years. The Colts are ranked 4th overall, but are given the 2nd best odds of a Superbowl Title and best odds of an AFC Title by virtue of the two game lead they have on the current DVOA favorite, and evil empire New England Patriots.
More with FO after the jump
8 comments | 1 recs |
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