Hey guys I write for the Colts blog, but in my fantasy league I drafted Nate Burleson in the finals round because of the injuries sustained to both Branch and Engram. My question is how has Burleson looked? Do you think he will have a successful season this year? I know last year he had some success later in the season so maybe he will be able to replicate that for a full year. Is there anyone else to fill in outside Burleson?

Thanks!

Hey I am MasterRWayne and I help write for www.stampedeblue.com which is the blog here for the Indianapolis Colts.

I really liked the article posted yesterday discussing that the Saints really didn't have any true defensive philosophy or identity. This, I feel, is really hurting your team. The Colts run cover 2 and cover 3. That is what we are and that is what we practice. Its not a very advanced scheme, but it works great because we know exactly the types of players we need to draft for it.  If you wanted to can read my article about the advantages of Cover 2 here...

http://www.stampedeblue.com/2008/6/18/554149/cover-2-is-the-best

Basically almost all of your defensive problems come from a lack of scheme and this is exemplified in Jason David. When Jason David played for the Colts he was very very good! Yeah you may think I am crazy, but trust me the guy won games for us. In fact, I remember one game four years ago where it was a high scoring game between the Colts and the Packers with the Packers driving for a game winning touchdown. Farve threw a 15 yard pass to Javon Walker and Jason David (who was a rookie) stripped the ball and recovered the fumble thus ending the game.

This just shows that Jason David can be a very good player when he is in the right system such as Cover 2. The system you guys run just has him confused out there. He doesn't know his assignments and after playing Cover 2 for so long the guy just can't play the system the Saints run.

If you want my advice you guys need to have a system and a philosophy on defense because that can make ALL the difference. Eight years ago the Colts had one of the worst defenses in league history and then Tony Dungy came and we switched to Cover 2. We made an effort to draft faster, smaller guys that fit into our system. Currently we drafted a guy named Marcus Howard at the bottom of the 5th round and he has FOUR sacks his pre-season and is amazing. The reason we got him in the 5th was because he was "small" and other teams wouldn't touch him. Its the same reason we got Bob Sanders (last years DPOY) in the 2nd round because he was "small" at 5'8.

Bottom line is you guys need a defensive system that compliments your quick strike offense and Cover 2 can do that. By scoring fast and effectively with your offense it forces teams to throw the ball in order to catch up which in turn plays into the strength of the Cover 2's speed rushers and zone coverages.

Anyways I wish you guys the best of luck. In my 3 Man keeper league this year I thought about keeping Reggie Bush, but decided instead on Larry Fitzgerald. I am just not sure if Reggie has it, but feel free to challenge me on that or on my knowledge of NFL defenses.

Overall a very sloppy game with lots of turnovers.

Recap will come tomorrow. I am heading to bed right now.

Open thread for todays game.

Go Colts!

Hey its MasterRWayne here from Stampedeblue! You may recall last year I posted on www.stampedeblue.com that if you guys swept us I would, "Eat my keyboard with tartar sauce." Well I am still just as confident this year even though Peyton will never play again *rolls eyes* Anyways I look forward to owning you guys for another year, but hey look on the bright side; at least Matt Shaub can be looking up at the ceiling of a different stadium (Lucas Oil Field) after Freeney sacks him!

Also, I hear that Ahman Green bought a new car! That's hardly surprising because he basically "earns" a new car per yard that he gains with the over inflated contract that you guys gave him.

Oh and even though you guys suck I do hope that you don't have any injuries this camp or during the pre-season.

Peace!

-MRW

With this article I wanted to advance a long held belief of mine that the Cover 2 defense is the best defensive approach to use for the modern NFL. Now there is, naturally, a great deal of strategy that goes into defensive and offensive arrangements. Some teams, such as the Patriots, prefer to employ a bigger and more veteran 3-4 defense. While other teams have employed styles different from the Cover 2 and had great success, I still hold that the Cover 2 (Tampa 2 variation) is the best defensive arrangement.

A major advantage that the Cover 2 defense has is that it is much easier to draft for this style of defense than other types of defenses. The reason behind this is that most teams put a high emphasis on size, strength, and height because their defensive arrangement demands these sorts of attributes. Take the DT position for instance; in most other defensive schemes, the DT must be massive so that he can take up two offensive linemen and thus free up the LB’s to flow directly to the football. The Ravens are a team that does this and they drafted Ngata a few years ago just to take up space to free up Ray Lewis from offensive guards that might get to the second level. Therefore, there is great demand for these types of players and they are almost always drafted early and often. They also tend to go quickly in free agency.

Cover 2, on the other hand, places much less emphasis on size. Consequently many players that work great in Cover 2 (such as Mathis, Sanders, June) do not get drafted by other teams because they are worried about size issues. This naturally enables the Cover 2 system to have easier access to talent because it allows for players to thrive in its system that otherwise do not work in other more “traditional” defensive systems. The best example of this would be Montae Reagor who failed to ever get off the bench in Denver’s system, but when he came to Indianapolis he thrived because the system values speed above just pure strength at the DT position. It is based on “knifing” through the line as opposed to engaging offensive guards and centers.

Corner back is yet another great example; guys like Marlin Jackson and Kelvin Hayden were passed up by other teams because they lacked amazing 40 times. However, the Cover 2 defense does not require CB’s to have 40 times speed in the 4.3 range because they play in a shallow zone were size and tackling is more desirable. So when other teams are drafting the Antrel Rolle’s and Fabian Washington’s early in the 1st round, the Colts are able to get bigger more talented CB’s due to the fact that they have skill sets that other defenses put less of an emphasis on.

Cover 2’s other major advantage is that it is a very affordable defense to run effectively. This is due to the fact that young players fit very well into the system and can often times effectively start in their rookie seasons. This is in direct opposition to the 3-4 defenses which requires veterans players at many of its positions because it can take two to three years to get a young player adjusted to the complexity of the scheme. This, in turn, drives up costs for operating this defensive system because your 3-4 defenses have to award veterans contracts to veterans who additionally may have trouble with injuries. A prime example of this is when the Patriots signed Chad Brown and Duane Starks to massive contracts because they desperately needed veterans who understood the 3-4 system.

The Colts, with their Cover 2 system, can employ young, affordable rookies and plug them right in. Guys like Antoine Bethea, Cato June, Freddie Keiaho and Tyjuan Hagler would have never worked out in the standard 3-4 system. But because the Cover 2 is a much simpler system you can make use of young guys who can produce at a much more affordable rate. This, in turn, allows your team to spend more money on its offensive skill position players such as Manning, Harrison, Wayne and Clark. It would be virtually impossible for a team to have big time experienced offensive skill position players and also run an expensive 3-4 defense. This, I believe, is the ultimate doom of teams such as the Patriots, Browns, and Cowboys because there is simply not enough cap space to pay an expensive defense on top of an expensive offense.

Furthermore when you have an expensive offense, you will throw the ball a lot more as the Colts, Pats, and Cowboys all did last year. When you have a great passing attack you will score early and often, and that is when you want a Cover 2 defense because its specialty is stopping the other team from throwing on you whereas the 3-4 defense is focused on blitz packages and stopping the run. The Cover 2 therefore has a great synergy with an explosive offense because you can score early and often and force the other team to throw when you are dropping seven guys into coverage and rushing with four pass rushing specialists. How many times have we seen the Colts destroy teams with that basic and effective system?

So that concluded my brief article on why the Cover 2 is the best defensive scheme in the modern NFL and, as always, feel free to comment on this and challenge my viewpoints.

This is one of my favorite pictures!

I know this isn’t Colts news, but I feel it is appropriate to salute Michael Strahan because he has just retired from the NFL. Strahan was always a player that I greatly respected and admired. In fact, back in 2002 BBS asked me, "if you could trade Edge for one player to improve our defense who would it be?" I immediately said, "Michael Strahan."  

Strahan is doing the right thing by going out on top. He just won the Super Bowl in one of the greatest games ever played. Therefore let us salute a great player who had a great career.

Just so you know before hand I am posting this story as an example as to why us "amateurs" actually do things more efficiently and more democratic than the "experts." It tends to be a theme on this site I know. Besides Colts news is low right now so I have to rant about something!

So today I was just checking the news at work and I came across some political article at www.cnn.com in which the poster took a stand politically to the right of Genghis Khan. Just for giggles I decided to post a comment about the article under the comment section. Mind you I did not use any profanity or any other language that I would deem offensive. After "posting" my comment I was greeted with this response…

"Thank you for contributing. Comments are moderated by CNN and will not appear on this story until after they have been reviewed and deemed appropriate for posting. Unfortunately, due to the volume of comments we receive, not all comments can be posted."

Ummmm what?! Do you mean that you are actually so lame as to filter all your comments before posting them on your site? I mean I go www.cnn.com and put up with the trillions of ads you have on your site as well as your often poorly constructed stories so I figure I should be able to post a comment without your screeners pouring over it. Did I suddenly get sucked into a time warp and ended up in Germany circa 1942?

We in the blogosphere allow everyone to post on our site and there is zero "comment pre-approval" process because we adhere to open communication. Now if someone were to post something offensive (such as a racially charged post) then the comment would be taking down and then action might be taken against the poster, but we do not and never will, operate a screening program on here.

Besides its not as if anyone really cares about what CNN writers think anyway. What else can you expect out of a "news" network that spends most of its time discussing missing children cases ad nauseum than actually discussing and reporting the news.

The issue here is that sports "news" sucks and regular "news" sucks when reported by these supposed "experts" who are totally obsessed with sensationalism and have zero regard for the truth.

Well for any of you that get HBO they run an excellent series called "Hard Knocks" that chronicles teams in training camp. Last year they did the Kansas City Chiefs and BBS and I always get a laugh watching other organizations mismanage player/personal issues.

This year, however, we struck gold because "Hard Knocks" will be at the Cowboys training camp! Seven years ago the show did the Cowboys and BBS and I watched Jerry Jones sit in on coaches meetings and even special teams meetings to offer his "advice" on how to run the team. Its going to be awesome to watch the Cowboys plant the seeds of their own destruction this year.

Oh and on a side note its worth noting that "Hard Knocks" really only chronicles bad teams like the Cowboys and Chiefs. The reason for this is simple; bad teams have drama such as Larry Johnson not showing up for training camp and as for the Cowboys their entire team/organization is a long brown stain of drama. "Hard Knocks" would never chronicle the Colts because it would just be boring watching an efficient and effective organization that promotes individuals based upon merit and cultivates team work.

The Cowboys are the opposite of that so they are perfect for this show.

Colts grab Marcus Howard! He fell several rounds, but I am glad that we got him!