FanPost

Colts Wide Receivers in the Red Zone, Weeks 13-17 of last season

This is an analysis of all the red-zone pass plays by the Colts at the tail-end of last year's regular season, from week 13 to week 17 of last year. It was inspired by a debate about whether Whalen was a good red-zone player, but it can be used for other subjects. For example: what are Pep's red-zone plays like? How does Luck perform in these situations? What personnel are used?

The following is a table of all the plays.

# Time Down & Distance Position Formation Play Notes Wide-Receivers
Tennessee Titans, Week 13
[1] 4Q 2:52 2nd and 8 TEN 17 Run formation A.Luck pass short right to C.Fleener to TEN 4 for 13 yards (B.Pollard). Fleener battles through line to get wide open. Hilton, DHB
Cincinnati Bengals, Week 14
[2] 3Q 6:33 1st and 10 CIN 19 Shotgun A.Luck pass incomplete short left to C.Rainey (M.Johnson). Bad pass, batted down Brazill, Rogers, Hilton
[3] 3Q 6:30 2nd and 10 CIN 19 Shotgun A.Luck pass short middle to L.Brazill for 19 yards. TOUCHDOWN Short pass for small gain, except the Bengals temporarily forget how to tackle. Rogers, Hilton, Brazill
- 4Q 2:00 1st and 10 CIN 20 Shotgun A.Luck pass short right to D.Brown pushed ob at CIN 11 for 9 yards (V.Burfict). (Garbage Time)
- 4Q 1:52 2nd and 1 CIN 11 Shotgun A.Luck pass short middle to D.Rogers to CIN 3 for 8 yards (V.Burfict). (Garbage Time)
- 4Q 1:31 1st and 3 CIN 3 A.Luck pass short middle to D.Brown to CIN 2 for 1 yard (V.Rey). (Garbage Time)
- 4Q 1:24 2nd and 2 CIN 2 Shotgun A.Luck pass short left to D.Rogers for 2 yards. TOUCHDOWN (Garbage Time)
Houston Texans, Week 15
[4] 1Q 9:34 1st and 10 HOU 14 Shotgun A.Luck pass short right to G.Whalen for 14 yards. TOUCHDOWN Whalen cuts left to receive pass for simple score. Rogers,Hilton, Whalen
[5] 2Q 13:29 1st and 10 HOU 17 A.Luck pass incomplete short left to T.Hilton. Luck throws bad pass to TY, who just fails to catch it. Hilton, Rogers
[6] 2Q 12:41 3rd and 8 HOU 15 Shotgun A.Luck pass short left to J.Doyle to HST 19 for -4 yards (J.Watt; J.Mays). Weird Screen play Rogers, Hilton
[7] 2Q 7:28 2nd and 9 HOU 9 Shotgun A.Luck pass short middle to T.Richardson for 9 yards. TOUCHDOWN Shovel pass. Hilton, Whalen, Rogers
Kansas City, Week 16
[8] 1Q 3:30 1st and 10 KC 17 Shotgun A.Luck pass incomplete deep right to G.Whalen. Why Whalen, and not Hilton or Rogers for this play? Rogers, Hilton, Whalen
[9] 1Q 3rd and 9 KC 16 No Huddle, Shotgun A.Luck pass incomplete short right to D.Rogers (B.Flowers). Pass nearly intercepted on goal-line. Hilton, Whalen, Rogers
[10] 3Q 3:03 2nd and 5 KC 12 A.Luck pass incomplete short right to W.Saunders. Fake handoff, Luck rolls to right, throws away Hilton
[11] 3Q 2:56 3rd and 5 KC 12 A.Luck pass incomplete short left to T.Richardson (D.Johnson). Tries to get Richardson the ball in space, but KC wise to it. Rogers, Hilton
Jacksonville Jaguars, Week 17
[12] 1Q 12:02 2nd and 7 JAX 16 No Huddle, Shotgun A.Luck pass incomplete deep middle to G.Whalen (A.Ball). Ball knocked out of Whalen's hands in the end-zone Brazill, Whalen, Rogers
[13] 1Q 11:57 3rd and 7 JAX 16 No Huddle, Shotgun A.Luck pass short left to T.Hilton to JAX 8 for 8 yards (P.Posluszny). TY runs just past the first down marker, then cuts back. Rogers, Hilton, Whalen
[14] 1Q 11:13 1st and 8 JAX 8 No Huddle, Shotgun A.Luck pass short right to T.Hilton to JAX 1 for 7 yards (W.Blackmon). Whalen and Hilton have crossing route for simple completion Rogers, Whalen, Hilton
[15] 1Q 8:28 1st and 6 JAX 6 No Huddle A.Luck pass incomplete short left to T.Hilton. Luck scrambles to left, but is unable to throw to Hilton coming all the way round the back of the endzone from the right. Brazill, Hilton
[16] 1Q 8:21 2nd and 6 JAX 6 Shotgun A.Luck pass short left to T.Hilton to JAX 2 for 4 yards (J.Cyprien). Brazill and Whalen block for TY Brazill, Whalen, Hilton
[17] 1Q 7:38 3rd and 2 JAX 2 Run formation A.Luck pass incomplete short right to C.Fleener. Fleener wide-right 1 on 1, pass just overthrown. Whalen
[18] 1Q 3:23 1st and 10 JAX 19 No Huddle, Shotgun A.Luck pass incomplete deep middle to G.Whalen (J.Cyprien). Whalen not open Brazill, Whalen, Rogers
[19] 1Q 1:40 2nd and 4 JAX 4 Shotgun A.Luck pass incomplete short left to T.Hilton (L.Reynolds). Nearly intercepted on goal-line Hilton, Rogers
[20] 1Q 1:36 3rd and 4 JAX 4 A.Luck pass incomplete short left [P.Posluszny]. Luck scampers to left but nobody is open. Hilton, DHB
[21] 3Q 10:46 1st and 7 JAX 7 Shotgun A.Luck pass short right to G.Whalen for 7 yards. TOUCHDOWN. Hilton, Whalen, Rogers

I'm not going to show the garbage time red-zone plays against the Bengals, but I have kept the details in the table for completion.

A summary of the plays:-

Plays: 21
Completions: 9
Yards: 77
Touchdowns: 4
First Downs: 2

A breakdown by wide receiver:-

Player Plays Targets Catches Touchdowns
Hilton 18 6 3 0
Whalen 11 5 2 2
Rogers 15 1 0 0
Brazill 6 1 1 1
DHB 2 0 0 0

I've created screenshots of all 21 plays, with mild commentary. I will post each of the plays in comments, allowing you to comment on each play individually.

Since I'm in no way expert at knowing what is going on with each play, I've mainly left out any analysis on who is doing the right or wrong actions. There are a couple of questions that I have formed on going through them:-

  • Why is Rogers so rarely targeted? Luck rarely even looks his way.
  • All the plays look really dissimilar. Is this common? Or have I missed the similarity between some of the plays?

Any thoughts/opinions?

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.