It's no secret that, in the first half, the Colts offense was humming. Part of the reason for this was the return of Austin Collie, who lead the team in receptions and receiving yardage even though he only played two quarters. He also had two TDs. Peyton Manning's numbers in the first half were 20-27 for 166 yards and 2 TDs. Without Collie, he was 9-12 for 63 yards and no TDs.

So, how did the Colts win? The answer is their run defense.

Prior to Sunday's game, Indianapolis allowed roughly 140 rushing yards a game, surrendering 4.7 a pop. They were an embarrassment. But against the Jaguars, they allowed Jaguars phenom back Maurice Jones-Drew to gain just 46 yards on 15 carries. The entire Jaguars offense had just 67 yards rushing at 3 per carry.

Now, unless you watched the game, the cynic would look at this and start pointing fingers at the Jaguars coaching staff. True, Jack Del Rio is indeed a moron whose fourth down calls once again cost the Jags a key win against Indy, but the gameplan for Jacksonville was no difference than any other successful gameplan they had run against Indy. They didn't forget to run the ball, or come into the game thinking they would throw all over Indy.

The difference between yesterday's gameplan and the one that defeated the Colts back in October was that the Colts defense simply dominated the line of scrimmage.

Continue reading this post »

At Colts.com, the roster page has not been updated since Oct. 21st. Dallas Clark, who we know was IRed on Friday, is still listed on the active roster. However, Clark's roster replacement, Gijon Robinson, is listed. This means that with Clark on IR, the Colts have an extra roster spot.

The question is, who will they bring in?

Remember, Pat McAfee is suspended for Week Eight against the Texans. Unless the Colts are comfortable with Adam Vinatieri handling all the kicking duties (which I doubt they are), the open roster spot for Week Eight will likely be a punter. But after McAfee returns, the rent-a-punter will likely be waived and we're back down to 52 actives again.

Does the open spot mean we could see Brandon James promoted from the practice squad? John Chick? Another safety getting signed?

The problem areas right now for the Colts are safety and wide receiver. Both areas were very deep entering the season. Now, that depth is nearly depleted.

[UPDATE]: Colts sign punter Jeremy Kapinos.

Against the New York Giants, Kansas City Chiefs, and now the Washington Redskins, the Colts have run for 427 yards and three touchdowns on 103 carries (4.1 a carry). Through the first six weeks, Indy has 154 rushing attempts, which is almost half of the total rushing attempts Indy had all of last season (366). Last year, Colts runners averaged 3.5 yards a carry and roughly 81 yards a game. This year, so far, it's 3.7 a carry, but roughly 95 yards a game.

What those loose numbers tell us is that the Colts have a renewed investment in running the football. They aren't necessarily running it 'better,' but they are not so quick to abandon it if the per rush numbers are not great. 

As Matt Grecco and I are always parroting, running the football is secondary to throwing the football. Last season, three of the top five rushing teams failed to make the playoffs. Those teams were the Panthers, Titans, and Dolphins. Why did they miss the playoffs? Inconsistent passing attacks. All ranked 20th or worse in that category last year.

But, for the Colts moving forward, running the football is probably more paramount than ever before. After watching him win his NFL record fourth MVP last year, defensive coordinators have collectively refused to allow Peyton Manning to beat them with the big play. Teams are routinely deploying base nickel and dime defensive packages to combat the Colts offense. This means removing linebackers from the base defense, and replacing them with defensive backs.

In essence, NFL defenses are daring the Colts to run at them.

Continue reading this post »

We used the recap to focus a bit more on the positives because, well, there were a lot of good things that happened in Indy's 19-9 win over previously unbeaten Kansas City. Here, we discuss the flaws, and while there were fewer of those than the positives, the flaws were quite glaring.

***

Ryan Diem

He was awful yesterday, but, as bad as his play was, the line protection calls made to assist him were even worse. Towards the end of the third quarter, I caught myself screaming at the television, hoping Colts offensive coordinator Clyde Christensen would magically hear my insane banter through his headset. The screams went something like this:

F*cking assign f*cking Hart to f*cking chip Hali already, you f*cking clueless f*cking dirtbag!

For some odd reason Christensen and offensive line coach Pete Metzelaars thought it was a good idea to have stiff old Ryan Diem block Tamba Hali, KC's best pass rusher, one-on-one. The results were near disastrous.

All game long, Peyton Manning was running for his life from Hali. The apex of the Diem v. Hali debacle was early in the third quarter with the Colts driving into Chiefs territory. On 2nd and 10 from the 29 yard line, Diem whiffed on a block, and Hali slammed into Peyton Manning's blindside, causing a fumble. This was one of several blindside hits we've seen Manning take this year mainly because this offensive line is the worst he's ever had to play with.

Fortunately for the Colts, Jeff Saturday recovered the fumble, and Indy would later convert on a 47-yard Adam Vinatieri field goal.

Continue reading this post »

Lots of familiar names here...

Out: Bob Sanders, Kavell Conner, and Anthony Gonzalez

Questionable: Joseph Addai (knee), Antoine Bethea (hamstring), Donald Brown (hamstring), Austin Collie (foot) Pierre Garçon (hamstring), Mike Hart (knee), Charlie Johnson (foot), Brandon King (hamstring), Jacob Lacey (foot), and Jamey Richard (shoulder).

Probable: Gary Brackett (back), Jerraud Powers (foot), Clint Session (hamstring), Reggie Wayne (knee).

Brown and Hart did not practice today, which probably means both will be de-activated on Sunday leaving only Joseph Addai and Javarris James as the available running backs. 1070 The Fan Tweets that Addai practiced all week. Collie was limited today.

As reported earlier this week, Garçon is expected to return. Garçon also practiced Thursday.

We wrote about this a little bit over at SB Nation Indiana:

With 36 seconds left in regulation, the Jaguars were backed up to their own 23-yard line and looking to run out the clock and send their game against the Colts into overtime tied 28-28.

However, rather than let the clock run out and take his chances in overtime, Colts coach Jim Caldwell called a timeout. This allowed Jacksonville to regroup its offense, and three plays later Jaguars quarterback David Garrard hit receiver Tiquan Underwood for 22 yards to the Indianapolis 41-yard line.

That play was all the room Jags kicker Josh Scobee needed. The veteran known for making long, last-second, game-winning kicks against the Colts, nailed a 59-yarder with time expiring. Jaguars won the game 31-28.

Simple question: Was it a good idea? Did it help the Jaguars beat the Colts?

We imagine 'The Bill Polian Show' will provide us with all sort of excuses tomorrow evening. Between now and then, Jim Caldwell will likely have to explain himself over and over again for that rather puzzling timeout. But, as seemingly 'dumb' as Caldwell's timeout was, it was nothing compared to the overall 'dumb' play of the Colts defense.

31 points allowed to an offense that had only one passing TD coming into the game. I'm still seeing red.

When I'm not insulting the glitter helmets the Jacksonville Jaguars wear or laughing at the general incompetence of owner Wayne Weaver, I'm often singing the praises of one of the Jags most loyal and well-informed bloggers, Alfie Crow.

Alfie, as you may or may not know, took over the day-to-day running of Big Cat Country after my good friend, Chris Harris, had to take a break from blogging so he could work on a U.S. Senate Campaign Team. Alfie has done a magnificent job transforming BCC into a must read blog.

But, compliments aimed at Alfie are not enough to prevent him from challenging me to pistols ad ten paces after I insulted his favorite team. Since neither one of us could get our hands on flintlock pistols or a pair of white, poofy wigs, we decided to fight it out, Queensbury rules style.

Once we both quickly discovered we could box to save our lives, we settled on asking each other five questions.

His to me at located here. Mine to him are after the jump.

Continue reading this post »