Recap Week One: Bears 29-Colts 13

by BigBlueShoe on Sep 8, 2008 8:10 AM EDT in Game Recaps Comment 21 comments

As I wrote in my quick recap, this was as bad a job Dungy has ever done as a coach in Indy. Of course, I agree with shake n bake. The sky isn't falling. The season isn't "over." It is only Week One. But from July to now, the Colts management has done a piss poor job of getting this team ready to play real NFL football. It started with the botched decision for late-July knee surgery on Manning to the bad job coaching in pre-season and culminated in a disastrous opening to Lucas Oil Stadium last night.

First thing Dungy should do in his Monday meeting with the press is apologize to the fans.

I've calmed down and re-played his game management in my head, and I still cannot account for some of the idiotic decisions he made in game. Forget the cotton candy game plan for a moment. Just focus on the one, key job the head coach is primarily responsible for. Was the team ready to play? Answer: No.

That is totally and utterly inexcusable, especially after 5 pre-season games.

I don't want to turn this into a laundry list of who screwed up. This post would be 50,000 words if I did that. Instead, I'll just go back to my keys for the game. Did the Colts run the ball? No. Did they even try to run the ball? Tom Moore did a pathetic, Martz-like job trying to establish a ground game, which is so crucial to beating a team like the Bears. The Colts ran Joseph Addai only 15 times. In 3 trips to the red zone, the Colts reverted to their pass happy days rather than running the ball down Chicago's throat. Penalties, poor game management, and bad execution did the rest. Peyton Manning, who is not 100%, attempted 49 passes.

49!

You are not going to win many games in this league when your run-to-pass ratio is 20-80.

The one bright spot for the Colts is the one area that has consistently played poorly for many seasons: Special teams. They played outstanding. Devin Hester acted like a cocky punk, and his antics at the beginning of the second half got Indianapolis back in the game. Coverage units controlled Hester all night, and if not for some silly penalties, Courtney Roby was returning his kicks quite well. All that momentum shifted again when Marvin Harrison fumbled in Indy's side of the field, and Lance Briggs scooped it up and returned it for a TD. That was the ball game.

You really have to credit Chicago for having a solid game plan and showing up ready. You'd think the Colts would have done the same, especially considering that they were opening their brand new stadium paid for by the fans. But there were times last night were this team looked lost, confused, and (in some cases) like they didn't know how to play football.

The blame for last night's embarrasment falls squarely on the coaches and management. Botching the timing of Manning's knee surgery cost Indy this game. Dungy poorly game planning and preparing the team allowed Chicago to Shanghai a night that should have belonged to the fans. All in all, this was one of the worst Colts games I have ever seen, and it better get straighted up quick.

Obviously, much of these problems are correctable. But as a fan, I feel Colts management cheated us fans out of a win. There are no gimmes in football, but the Colts are better than the Bears. Even Bears fans know that. And if that's the case, and the Colts played like that, than this opening day loss is on Dungy, Polian, and the Colts medical staff. They better get this team ready and get a good game plan in order, because next week it gets harder.

Thanks to all who posted hundreds of comments in the open threads. Hope you are enjoying some of the new features SB Nation has to offer with our new sites. As always, thanks to Windy City Gridiron for cross-blogging leading up to this game.

Seriously, can you think of a more disastrous opening weekend for the NFL? Tom Brady is out for 2008 with torn ligaments. Vince Young might be out for 2008 as well. The Colts, Chargers, and Seahawks laid eggs against teams that didn't make the playoffs last year, and Cleveland's new defense looks as horrible as it did last season. Week One = total mess.

An utterly pathetic effort to run the ball last night.
Photo: Andy Lyons, Getty Images

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The more physical team almost always wins in the NFL

A few plays here or a few plays there? I know it feels like that but in the NFL 90% of the time the more physical team wins. We know because the year we won the Super Bowl that was why we won. We were more physical in the playoffs than anyone else. I know the Colts are capable of bouncing back strong from this kind of loss. I’m still confident of the makeup of the roster. The Coaches have shown that they too can bounce back from a poor game plan. Now whether or not they can do this is up to them. IF they do we’ll all be proven right about our assessments of this team. IF they can’t then I guess the mainstream media was right and the window is closing on this team. (I for one believe it’s the former and this team will still finish with 11 or more wins this season.

by Rob-Westside on Sep 8, 2008 8:42 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

missed the game

I was as sick as a dog last night and entirely missed the game… Sounds like I was better off not seeing it.

Well week 1 in the NFL is always weird. Some teams need the first game to get things together and really see where the weak spots are… Good thing is this gets rid of the undefeated season nonsense early… (and even if the pats won.. they lost big with brady gone). Let’s be honest, this isn’t that unexpected with Peyton not having done anything in preseason.

Best to put it behind and hopefully things are a lot more in sync by next week. .

An expert is someone who knows more and more about less and less until they know everything about nothing...

by bluegirl on Sep 8, 2008 9:04 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Harrison

While I agree the coaching was not good and there was ‘rust’ everywhere, two recent games were probably lost due to Harrison fumbling. I love Marvin, and he’s certainly been the reason the Colts have won tons of games over the years, but lately, his fumbling after the catch has cost the Colts bigtime. He really needs to resolve that issue. Who knows, that fumble could have been a 14 point swing right there. Anyway, it can only get better from here in my opinion. I don’t think the Colts are likely to go into a game that unprepared again and make that many mistakes. Next week I look for them to be great! Once they get that first win, everything will get in sync!

by Ayrshire on Sep 8, 2008 9:47 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

To early to panic

When you consider that the offense had no training camp with Peyton, then you look around the division (Jacksonville, Houston lost and Tennessee may be losing Vince Young for a while (not sure if that is good or bad), then you look around the conference (the Brady injury and the San Diego loss), it could be a lot worse. The offense was completely out of sync Sunday. Our problems are nothing that practice and some attention to detail will not fix. If we can avoid major injuries, I believe we will be OK. We are just going to have to work harder during the regular season this year, and that may not be a bad thing given our past history.

by Blueisgood on Sep 8, 2008 9:55 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

maybe the balance of power in the NFL is turning

Bears beat the Colts, Panthers beat the Chargers, Jax loses, Pats won’t make the playoffs w/o Brady, Cowboys, Giants and Eagles looked really good beating their opponents.

The only AFC team that looks good right now are the Steelers.

In Romo we Trust

by Terry on Sep 8, 2008 9:58 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Terry

It’s week one. And your team still hasn’t won a playoffs game. Calm down.

SB Nation's Indianapolis Colts blogger at Stampede Blue. Please make an account and post a diary, add some comments, and make some noise. Accounts are free, and only require an email address.

by BigBlueShoe on Sep 8, 2008 9:59 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

hey, I'm just saying

and your comment about not winning a playoff game is absolutely irrelevant to their success this season.

In Romo we Trust

by Terry on Sep 8, 2008 5:04 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

"Success this season"

They’ve won one game, Terry.

SB Nation's Indianapolis Colts blogger at Stampede Blue. Please make an account and post a diary, add some comments, and make some noise. Accounts are free, and only require an email address.

by BigBlueShoe on Sep 8, 2008 5:22 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Against a team that was majorly overhyped

"I'm not racin', I'm just sprintin'
Cuz I don't wanna finish
they diminish, I replenish"
-Lil Wayne "Let the beat build"

by shake n bake on Sep 8, 2008 5:59 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

This is depressing

The whole game was just weird. The coaching, the D, Peyton didn’t look well at all. He’s lost alot of weight. Watching him ride the bike was strange…he never needs to do that. It isn’t the end of the world, but the coaches better get together some sort of game plan. That was the oddest game I’ve ever seen.

Anybody know anything about Clark?

April in CA

by peytonsthebest on Sep 8, 2008 10:22 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Another one of the issues

was third down efficiency. They converted 5 of 11 and allowed the Bears to convert 10 of 16. That will kill a team. Luckily play on third down regresses to the mean (or in the case of a healthy, in sync, comfortable Manning regresses to a spot solidly above the mean). Third down is very high leverage and small sample size. That’s why it’s FO’s favorite indicator. The more I look at the game the more I see it as just catching a lot of bad breaks and being to injured/rusty to overcome them

"I'm not racin', I'm just sprintin'
Cuz I don't wanna finish
they diminish, I replenish"
-Lil Wayne "Let the beat build"

by shake n bake on Sep 8, 2008 11:09 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

I almost expected the Colts offense to start out slow because Manning was obviously going to be rusty. But I didn’t think they’d be that bad. They seemed to start clicking for a few plays and then all of the sudden they just lost it. Two of the drives stalled in the worst possible place as well, the red zone. They Colts really need to figure out why they are failing to score touchdowns when they get into the red zone. This is a problem that occured quite often last year that also drove me nuts as well.

However, if I were to blame anyone for the loss, it’s going to be the defense. What happened to these guys? They played great all last season, and then all of the sudden they forgot how to tackle, fill gaps, allowing easy completions, etc, and it cost the Colts the game against the crippled Chargers. And now, a new season starts, everyone on the defense is healthy, and the game looked damn near identical. Couldn’t stop the run, allowed too many third down conversions, and just dead in the water really. I don’t know what it is, something is wrong. This isn’t the same defense I remember dominating people last year.

We Colts fans did not pay $720 million dollars in public funds to build a brand new stadium that will get opened on Sunday Night Football by Jim Friggin Sorgi.

by KingRichard on Sep 8, 2008 12:21 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

You make a good point.

I hadn’t posted this yet, but this is a concern. Even though I was excited about Freeney’s play at times, there is one nagging thought. The Bears offensive line was suppose to be horrible. They even lost their first round draft pick at LT for most of the year. I wonder if we looked as good as we did because of that. What if Minnesota’s awesome line mauls us next week? That is my biggest concern by far, as well.

by coltsfanawalt on Sep 8, 2008 1:50 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Minny

You can put the blame on the QB instead of the line, but the Vikings have not been good at preventing sacks. They were bottom 5 in the league in adjusted sack rate.

They can really run block though.

"I'm not racin', I'm just sprintin'
Cuz I don't wanna finish
they diminish, I replenish"
-Lil Wayne "Let the beat build"

by shake n bake on Sep 8, 2008 2:51 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Agreed. The both lines for the Colts played horrible. It’s going to be really interesting to see how the Colts handle the team with the best offensive and defensive line.

We Colts fans did not pay $720 million dollars in public funds to build a brand new stadium that will get opened on Sunday Night Football by Jim Friggin Sorgi.

by KingRichard on Sep 8, 2008 6:32 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Our sixth preseason game

Think the best way to look at this game is as our sixth preseason game. It was the first time a lot of these guys were really together on EITHER side of the ball. I suspect we will be a lot better next week (and I am holding on to my optimism.. of course not actually having seen the game since I was as sick as a dog probably helps)

An expert is someone who knows more and more about less and less until they know everything about nothing...

by bluegirl on Sep 8, 2008 2:10 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Establish the run?

How do you establish the run when they are stacking the box? You take what the defense gives you. The Bears were giving the Colts short passes, and the Colts didn’t execute (overall, they did at times). With Marvin’s fumble and Peyton short-hopping short passes numerous times, that didn’t work. Then the bone-headed run-into-the-teeth-on-4th-and-1 at midfield, that killed any chance the Colts had. If they feel compelled to go for it there, play-action is the way to go, just like the Bears did later in the game. What’s the point of perfecting play-action if you don’t use it perfect situations? Of course, they should have just punted and taken their chances with a whole quarter left. The rust was slowly coming off the offense. They had a decent chance if Dungy didn’t go for it at midfield. The whole game hinged on that.

by PlayAction on Sep 8, 2008 4:33 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

I feel somewhat responsible for the loss.

I wore my blue Manning jersey all day before the game. The last time I did that was the day of the game v. Pittsburgh in the playoffs in 2005 – ugh. It will not happen again.

April in CA

by peytonsthebest on Sep 8, 2008 6:53 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs