FO stats on the 0-1 Colts

if the OL cannot keep him upright…. our season is over…simple.

we should just all pray that our o-line troubles cease to exist and bob sanders has actually not torn a bicep and our Dtackles become run stuffing monsters… everyone pray in unison…
i am definitely gonna pray and Im not even a very religious or spiritual guy… but i feel like i have to

The 2010 Colts only have to win 2 games this season to not be labeled the worst in team history.

we still have Peyton Manning. We’ll still win 12 games this season. This isn’t the 1st Time we’ve played bad run defense.

Will help the run D some. It won’t make it good, but it might make it not disastrously awful.

Hopefully with time to gel our offensive line can remotely resemble professional footballers, and that’ll be enough for Manning to do his thing.

So, going back to your original question – was this game a ‘hiccup’ or a sign of chronic problems? If you and your interpretation of the stats are saying ‘hiccup’ (I think you are), I agree. Peyton and the passing game are really what wins games for us – that’s how the whole team is structured – and though Peyton spent too much time being hurried and on the ground, I think most people would be surprised he had the best performance of any other week 1 QB. Though the OL – which garnered all the pre-game fears – clearly needs to protect PM better, to the extent that they allowed the passing game to perform, it seems they were ‘adequate’ (that’s being kind, I think). Consistently catching the ball when it counted would have completed drives more successfully for points, and as far as the receptions go (I’m looking at you Garcon), that seems to me to be an artifact of 1st week rustiness, rather than ‘katie bar the door’ catastrophe. Looking around the rest of the league all the best teams showed some degree of rust…typical for week 1. As for the running game, we were ‘average’ relative to the rest of the league, which is about what you would expect (perhaps better than expected?).

Obviously what the stats tell us, and clarify for us, is that the the underperforming D is where the game was lost, particularly against the run. For me, I interpret this as ‘hiccup’…we may never know for sure, though the next few games should bear this out, but I think the Colts were caught without a gameplan for the run-heavy second half. That’s coaching and the fact it was the first game…what evidence is out there that would have prepared the Colts for Foster and the TXns newfound reliance on the run? Add to that some questionable personnel decisions and a very gassed 4th quarter D (typical for that much field time in the 1st game), and, well, there you go.

So I’m in the ‘hiccup’ camp. Only time will tell, though, but one thing’s for sure…the next few weeks will certainly put the coaching staff to the test. We will see the TXns strategy again and again this season and if the coaches can’t readjust the talent that’s out there, then at least we’ll have a better idea of the quality and ability of these Caldwell-era Coaches.
 

  we were rusty in some areas, and the Texans were gunning for us, this was their superbowl. If they had lost this, it would have almost wrecked their season from the start and they were playing that way.. There were very few divisional match ups in the first week, so I think this looks worst than it is because of that element alone.

I’ll hold judgment until we see what happens this week. And I also don’t think Garcon was that bad. His troubles were mostly earlier in the game, and given he played little or no preseason he did start to get into a groove as most of his catches were later. I can’t forgive Gonzo’s not having his feet inbounds when there was no defender pressing him.

I look for the Colts to have a nice chip on their shoulder come Sunday’s home opener. They’ll have to answer questions all week about how they’ll be able to deal with the Giants front line after getting smoked by the Texans’ line. Like someone mentioned earlier, this was Houston’s super bowl. This was also the O-line’s first game together this year.
I look for them to rip off a nice 5 game winning streak going into the bye.

What a crock of manure… A big game, yes, to some fans the biggest game, yes. To the players, it is 1 of 16. The Colts will do the same thing to us when we play in Indy. It is the Texans maturing enough to not cough up a 17 point lead again. Also a sick home field advantage. We have played close games and have lost by crazy meltdowns in the past. This year that didn’t happen. I would say the Texan’s are a well coached football team with some great talent. How can you deny that??

 I am a huge PM fan. Even when he was at U of T. I havn’t seen him that rattled before. The passing stats are scewed because the Texans D kept everything (except Collie’s bad ass touchdown) in front of them. Bend but don’t break. During the first half when we were more aggresive, look at the stats. How many punts? Yalll were dominated plain and simple. Of course with PM you will win 12 games almost automatically cause as bad as we were giving it to you, he still almost came back….