2019 NFL Week 1: Colts v Chargers Second Half Open Thread — Chargers lead 17 - 6

If you’ve spent any time watching games in this first week of regular season football action, it’s likely you’ve come away feeling like there is a lot of sloppiness around the league. The nature of the evolving preseason results in less meaningful first team preparation ahead of the season and often a pretty nasty case of avoidable mistakes.

A lot of teams, including ones who will likely be in a playoff race later in the season, have look pretty bad to start the season and the Indianapolis Colts were unable to avoid some of these issues in the first half.

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DEFENSE

Matt Eberflus added a lot of weapons to his defense this off-season as Chris Ballard utilize a lot of draft capital to focus on that side of the football. The result has been an attempt to evolve the defense and take advantage of the fact that the athletes taking the field can handle more man-to-man coverage. This evolution will include some growing pains, and we’re seeing some of those today.

Rookie Rock Ya-Sin was matched up one-on-one against one of the best receivers in the NFL and got beat. It is a leaning experience for the rookie but not an entirely unpredictable outcome.

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OFFENSE

Outside of a fumbled snap, Jacoby Brissett has done a nice job moving the offense along. Offensive play-calling on the first couple of drives though was not inspiring. Our offensive strength should be at the interior and took many long developing outside runs failed to have the desired consequence.

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PENALTIES AND SPECIAL TEAMS

I am starting to get a little worried about Adam Vinatieri. My wife and I attended the Chiefs playoff game and saw him fall apart in that game. His start to the 2019 season is concerning. It’s hard to not have some fear when Colts fans watched a player who was the most accurate kicker in the league fall apart over the course of just over a season.

As for the penalty on Denico Autry and others on the Chargers field goal attempt - I believe it was a bad call. Here is the rule from the 2019 NFL Rule Book

Art. 9 (a)(11) The offensive player who attempts a snap during a Field Goal attempt or a Try Kick. He is no longer a defenseless player after he has had an opportunity to defend himself or moves downfield.

This means it is a subjective call to be made by the officials about whether the long snapper has had enough time to defend himself. In this case, the long snapper (in his first long snap of his career) didn’t even try to lift his head. That cost the Colts 4 points.

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Game Time

4:05 PM ET on Sunday, September 8, 2019

Location

Dignity Health Sports Park – Carson, CA

TV Channel

CBS

Commentary

Play-By-Play: Greg Gumbel

Color Analyst: Trent Green

Sideline: Melanie Collins

Radio

WFNI (107.5FM/1070 The Fan) and WLHK (Country 97.1 Hank FM)

Play-By-Play: Matt Taylor

Color Analyst: Jim Sorgi

Sideline: Jeffrey Gorman

Officiating Crew

Shawn Smith

“Enemy” Blog

Bolts From The Blue

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INACTIVE LIST

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FINAL INJURY REPORT

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