1. Addai and Brown looked great (no surprise)2. I watched the first series on D. I'm pleased with what I saw. They forced two fourth downs without the starting secondary, so that's a plus.
3. Whatever that was starting at RT will not be making the final cut. Yikes. It was hard to get a gauge on Ugoh because the RT was failing so miserably.
4. I hate preseason football.
The Colts’ offensive linemen spent the offseason discussing the need for improvement after finishing 31st in the NFL in rushing offense last year. It was clear speaking to the members of the Colts’ offensive line that what happened at Lucas Oil Stadium Friday night in a 13-3 loss to the Minnesota Vikings wasn’t what they had in mind."It was not the way we wanted to start," OG Ryan Lilja said, adding that the first-team line was disappointed to leave after gaining just one first down — and allowing QB Peyton Manning to be sacked three times — on the first series.
"We went back to the sidelines wanting to go back in and obviously score and try not to get sacked. That’s frustrating. Nobody wants to leave the game after that type of performance. We were pretty frustrated we didn’t get to go back in and redeem ourselves a little bit. We have three more games to kind of work out the kinks a little bit before the games start counting. Hopefully, we can come out with a little better performance next week."
Anthony21 at Daily Norseman:
In the quarterback competition, Sage Rosenfels has won the first round decisively. That much was decided tonight, as Rosenfels played two drives and couldn't have performed much better than he did. Tarvaris Jackson, meanwhile, treated Vikings fans to a rough couple of quarters -- which were somewhat salvaged by an impressive performance on the ground from Albert Young but will still be remembered for T-Jack's stumbles.Of course, the disclaimers: The Colts were playing without a single starter in the secondary, and they've never been a team terribly interested in winning preseason games. As a result, saying that this game somehow ended the quarterback competition would be a mistake. But Rosenfels nevertheless pulled ahead tonight.
After the jump, Coltsfan58 offers a very good recap of the game, which he posted as a comment in Colt Homer's recap.
Coltsfan58 from the game recap last night:
Happy the games have begun, but...
The local television coverage was beyond awful. When they weren’t conducting interviews (i.e., prompting players to spout cliches) and not following the play on the field, the camera position was in, say, Beech Grove. For an organization which usually spends its money wisely, the Colts have paid for laughably bad production values.
On the field, a couple of points not mentioned in the game threads or above.
1. While I agree with others that Jacob Lacey made some good hits, on the long ball Jackson threw into the endzone I thought Lacey was out of position. The receiver did not get behind him (good) but a poorly-thrown ball by Jackson (I know you’re shocked) might have been picked. I see potential in this kid, but with the existing depth he looks like the initials PS will appear next to his name on September 6.
2. Kyle DeVan made a nice sealing block on Brown’s first carry.
3. If these are the new, improved special teams I’m disappointed. Kick coverage was about the same as last year. You can’t really say well, these aren’t the units we’ll see in the regular year, because a lot of the reserves who played most of this game will be reserves who play on regular season special teams. Can anyone explain Powers’ decision to field the punt inside the five? I understand (or at least I’m guessing, due to the poor TV coverage) that he thought he had a clear path to some yardage, because perhaps the Minnesota punter out-kicked his coverage, but still. Perhaps this was nothing more than a young guy pressing to make a play.
4. I thought Dante Hughes looked good. Not used to typing that sentence.
5. Could anyone say Eric Foster did anything? I saw him on the field but I couldn’t tell that he made any contribution.
6. Chad Simpson, Chad Simpson. Paging Chad Simpson. You’re asked to meet with the coaches and bring your playbook…Couldn’t get a good handle on how Rushing is coming back, but my handle on Simpson as a returner (ugh) and as a back (ugh again) was all too painfully clear. Lance Ball has got to be ahead of Simpson.
7. Wil Wofford, not usually a font of insight, made the point on post-game radio that the Vikings dressed 79 players (only Pat Williams—apparently out shopping for supplements—didn’t play) and seemed to come into this game with much more of a regular season intensity. The Colts, of course, didn’t have about 15 people available. That doesn’t account for those that did play being a step slow, but the two teams approaches to the game did appear markedly different.
8. I said in a post yesterday I wanted to see something make Caldwell explode and get his red ass on. The sideline shots of him looked like he was either expecting this ugly performance and was internalizing his frustration to channel it back in practice or that he was stunned that his team could play so poorly that he was unable to express his displeasure. The postgame press conference seemed to confirm the former. But if Corey Hilliard’s decision to let the Vikings have a free run at #18 doesn’t piss you off, either you can overlook a lot or you have great self-composure skills.
9. After seeing the Colts play relatively well against Tavaris Jackson, I wish Michael Vick could play Thursday. Defensive speed seems to negate so much of what mobile quarterbacks bring to the table.
My God, let’s get to the regular season.
More IFR:
The breakdown on the Colts’ three first-possession sacks allowed: DE Ray Edwards blew around Colts OT Corey Hilliard; Fred Evans fought off C Jeff Saturday; and Edward blew around Hilliard again, with Hilliard drawing a holding penalty that was declined.
Here’s why if I’m a Colts fan I don’t sweat the outcome of the preseason opener. On Minnesota RB Chester Taylor’s first-quarter, five-yard touchdown run, four Colts touched him: DT Dan Muir, DE Keyunta Dawson, CB Jerraud Powers and Jamie Silva. None of the four likely will start opening day.