Excited for the 2010 Colts defense

I just hope Hughes is ready for prime time because he will be needed at some point in the season.

I’m just so, so, so sick of injuries ruining season after season. I know it’s a violent game but goddamn, it’s so capricious.

Getting to the Super Bowl wasn’t even any fun cause I spent the whole two weeks driving my wife CRAZY talking about Freeney.

I’m tired of people blamming the lack of a pass rush for the Colts loss against the Saints. Having an effective rush can be completely nullifed by short quick passes and draw plays. The Saints continually used two step drop backs and short thorws against us. They then relied on their receivers to get good yardage after the catch. This type of passing puts emphasis on the corners to make the tackle or break up the pass, something we werent able to do. At some point you have to look at coaching and how were playing their receivers. Keep in mind, Freeney did have a sack, its hard to ask for much more from your DEs than a sack a game.
We should also look at special teams, ie the onside kick. You need to be prepared for this kind of stuff at all times. I mean, dont we play Fisher and the Titans twice a year, a team with a bit of history for tricky special teams play?
Finally, lets spread a little blame to the dropped passes by the Colts receiving corp. Too many big play balls were dropped and that is really inexcusible.

All that said, I agree that the D looks to be an extremely bright point this year. This team can never have too much depth, and even with all the injuries over the past few years, its incredible that we have been consistent Super Bowl contenders. As for the O-line, I think we will be fine. Jeff Saturday said to me that all the players on the current roster are better than any rookie based on sheer experience. I have a tendency to agree with him.

as per my understanding, made his big money up front and is not TOO expensive to hold onto nearing the end of his contract. Maybe sharing snaps with Bullitt will get him through next season in one piece. The Colts were depressingly shallow at CB and DE last year and it cost us the championship. I feel great about our 2010 defense.

Their was a lot of factors why we lost the SB. One that sticks out in my mind is lack of good field position on our kick returns. Our return game was horrible in the SB, while the Saint return game was stellar. I mean sometimes we were starting at the 15 yard line! The Saints consistently started at the 30-35. Another factor is lack of depth at the CB position, we had trouble all year at that position…(see Broncos game). I think we adressed some hug holes in the draft and I expect our D to be top 5 this season.

I like that Polian went after pass rushers. At the beginning of the Super Bowl, the Colts did great with Freeney in. But as the game wore on and Freeney’s injury became more of a factor, Brees had more time to throw and to allow his receivers to get open and the Saints started moving ahead. The other thing I noticed is that the Colts also changed their defensive coverage after the first quarter. For the first quarter, the Colts went man-to-man coverage and they dominated. But after the first quarter they switched to a zone coverage. The difference in space between the receiver and the defensive players covering them didn’t look like much. But it meant the difference between the Saints receivers being able to catch the ball for a 10-15 yard gain and an incomplete pass. The zone is great for cutting down yardage after the completion, but with a great quarterback like Brees it gave him just enough space to make more of his completions. The first quarter it was 3 and out…3 and out. After the first quarter they started driving down the field. I think the Colts need to re-evaluate always using the Tampa 2 zone coverage. Sometimes it doesn’t make sense. We weren’t getting hurt on the run, it was the 10-15 yard passes where the Saints burnt the Colts. Getting better rushers will help reduce that completion percentage, but I think the coverage type in the secondary needs to be evaluated.

As far as Bob Sanders, I really like the guy. But I don’t think he’s been worth the money the Colts are paying him. I loved the way Antoine Bethea played in Sanders place. In some respects I think he even performed better. Also, even in the years where Sanders was healthy he was normally out each year for almost half the season. Somebody mentioned that it doesn’t hurt to pay that extra amount for Sanders. I totally disagree. When you have capped spending limits, you only have so much money to pay out for the quality players you have. That extra money that the Colts are paying Sanders to sit on the bench could be used to help retain 2-4 other players that the Colts would like to keep in other positions. Last year, the Colts came very close to losing center Jeff Saturday. If it hadn’t been for some inventive money managing, they’d have lost Saturday. And with Saturday at center they average like 40-100 yards better on offense per game. That’s a huge difference. If Bob Sanders doesn’t come out and play well this year and if he isn’t healthy for most of the season, especially with as well as Antoine Bethea has been playing then I think the Colts need to release him. I hope Sanders comes out and has an incredible year this year. But just like with Harrison, if the guy isn’t healthy or performing you have to reach a point where you say it is time to part ways. Look at how well the Colts have done without Harrison. A player may be great, but if they are sitting on the bench most of the time or if they are always being hindered and are not 100% because of an injury, you can’t afford to pay them like they are playing at 100%.

When changing coaching styles we experienced gains and losses. Coyers tweaks minimized the effectiveness of running teams like the ravens and jets yet dungy/meeks typically did well stopping superior passing teams( for example the 07 pats). Since most teams don’t have tom brady or drew brees as quarterbacks and rely on the run our defense was more consistent than in years prior, yet we gave up more yards and points then during the meeks dungy era to passing teams like the pats and saints. Consequently I think coyers coaching enabled us to get to the superbowl by beating the jets and ravens, yet dungy/ meeks would have done a better job stopping the saints in the superbowl.

I am happy to see the defense perform better against the run, yet have concerns about coyers ability to slow or stop prolific passers.