Ok. Time for a vote on the LT situation

by jedye on Aug 21, 2009 12:53 PM EDT

So this is getting surprisingly contentious. My personal observations from last night's game is that Charlie Johnson just isn't good enough to be the starting LT. However, when I watched Ugoh play, it seemed like his heart just wasn't in it. It seems like there are two possible causes of Ugoh not showing a lot of intensity.

1) He just doesn't have the competitive spirit / intensity to be an effective player in the NFL
2) He's so disappointed by his surprise benching that he just can't get excited about playing against 2nd and 3rd stringers in preseason when he remembers the thrill of playing against marquee players is real high pressure situations.

To put it another way, either Caldwell benched him because he's broken, or he's broken because Caldwell benched him.

So with that intro, here's a poll to get the pulse of the Stampede Blue faithful.

Poll

Who would you rather see playing LT during the regular season?

Tony Ugoh

90 votes

Charlie Johnson

14 votes

Let's give it 2 more preseason games.

32 votes

Polian, quick, make a trade!

23 votes

Ugh. Can the 2010 draft get here any faster?

13 votes

172 votes | Poll has closed

This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of Stampede Blue's writers or editors. It does reflect the views of this particular fan though, which is as important as the views of Stampede Blue's writers or editors.

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Comments

This is getting tiresome.

A better poll would have been, Which play from last night made you jump up and scream like a little girl?

"You can't defend the perfect throw, what can I say?" Peyton quoting Marino

by Indy Lori on Aug 21, 2009 1:36 PM EDT reply actions

Ugoh should start in the regular season

Until his play proves that he needs to be replaced. I don’t think his play has shown that to this point. He needs to be more aggresive and play tougher, but he hasn’t shown that he’s not a capable LT in the NFL.

I do think we need to draft an OT in the first 2 rounds next year, in order to build the depth and possible replace the RT or LT position. If Diem’s not ready to retire yet he could be slid into a OG position if we want to keep him starting, but the Tackle position needs to be more athletic.

by GoHorse88 on Aug 21, 2009 1:50 PM EDT reply actions

What about Ugoh’s play has said he should be the starting LT? And I don’t want to hear, well it was his job before or they said he did well in the off-season. I mean honestly, what has anyone seen in the two games thus far that proves Ugoh is better? CJ may not be great, but come on, Ugoh has looked worse, and against lesser competition.

by dfree93 on Aug 21, 2009 3:09 PM EDT reply actions

Not everyone thinks he looked worse.

I wasn’t totally focused on him but read WillyDuer’s breakdown in the comments of BBS’ story on CJ vs Babin and Ugoh vs Babin.

The message I got from it was against the same competition they had similarly bad mistakes, but Ugoh had a few bright spots to go with the general disappointing play and few flat out disasters from both.

It's shocking what you can miss sometimes. The amazing color changing card trick.

by shake n bake on Aug 21, 2009 3:16 PM EDT up reply actions

Really?

The message I got when I wrote it was that Johnson’s mistake stood out because it was Manning, but that Ugoh made far more mistakes and looked worse.

Right now I don’t have faith in either of them, but there’s a bit more in Johnson. That’s not a compliment though.

The only correct answer to that poll is “let’s give it two more preseason games” – I’m amazed that people are voting any other way.

by willyduer on Aug 21, 2009 5:59 PM EDT up reply actions

that was before the post on the second half stuff

but hey, maybe this is a spot where some of my subconscious biases are slipping in. I’m not immune to it. If I was or believed anyone was I wouldn’t like objective stats so much.

It's shocking what you can miss sometimes. The amazing color changing card trick.

by shake n bake on Aug 21, 2009 6:05 PM EDT up reply actions

After you posted Willyduer kept posting and it appears that he believes Ugoh started playing a lot worse in the 2nd half. Let me clarify something though, I’m not necessarily a huge CJ fan but the tone by several on this site suggests Caldwell is starting Robert Gallery over Tarik Glen and that just isn’t the case. What really matters at this point is that NEITHER tackle is playing to the level that will allow the colts offense to reach its full potential.

by dfree93 on Aug 21, 2009 5:29 PM EDT reply actions

Are Gallery and/or Glenn available?

Just wondering….

I hate Joe Namath. That's how long I've been a Colts fan.

by Bobman on Aug 21, 2009 5:38 PM EDT up reply actions

Just kidding, of course.

We already HAVE one OT who has lost his passion for the game and one OT with dubious hair on the roster.

I joke now, but in 4 weeks, I’ll be grinding my molars flat over this.

I hate Joe Namath. That's how long I've been a Colts fan.

by Bobman on Aug 21, 2009 5:45 PM EDT up reply actions

I noticed during the game last night

that they were scrolling through available free agents and there were a few notable names up there, but (a) I can’t remember any of them, and (b) even though the names are familiar I have no idea whether they’d be better plays than just sticking with our current guys and coaching them to (hopefully) improve.

From what I saw last night, though, I’m less sold on having Ugoh slide back to his starter role.

How can you not love a team that does this?

by LovinBlue on Aug 21, 2009 6:23 PM EDT up reply actions

This is ridiculous

I sometimes wonder if they aired the same game across the country. 90% of the pressure on Painter came from the interior of the line, whereas 90% of the pressure Peyton felt was from the edge. This is no surprise. The people we had in at guard and center did not play well at all. The only run that Ball had that was impressive was to Left Tackle.

Ugoh had two early penalties, yes, but that was the worst of his mistakes. Much of the rest of the poor line play was poor line calls to adjust protection before the snap, or not calling an audible out of a play that was doomed to fail against the defense.

Ugoh played for more than three times as long as CJ, but CJ was single handedly beaten physically for a strip sack by the same End that Ugoh played for a good portion of his playing time.

Let’s play out the rest of the preseason, give each a chance, and then Tony will get his spot back. He will then play lights out as a starter. If he doesn’t, he’ll then deserve to ride the bench – or learn RT fast.

BTW, I can’t wait for Google Wave to come out, so we can do some collaborative game-tape watching and breakdown. If you haven’t seen or heard of Google Wave, it pretty much owns all forms of collaboration invented so far. Follow this link:

wave.google.com/help/wave/about.html

I suggest going back to the Google Wave homepage and watching the ridiculously long video. The things that this is going to allow are cray.

/nerd rant

I also wish I had time and motivation to blog at Speed Blue Nation

by Bullard47 on Aug 22, 2009 10:37 AM EDT reply actions