Just watched the Colts game replay on nfl gamepass

[Lothar]

4 things that jumped out to me after a quick review:

 

1. I really think that the crowd unnerved Luck. He seemed to have more time than Taylor (despite seeing blitzes through most of the game.) I was actually surprised that he didn't do a little better given that time. I know we're all thrilled at the outcome - and I'm sure the fact he threw the ball early made it seem worse as far as the pass rush goes - but the few times he had wide open receivers (like Gore on that screen pass early in the game which would have gone a loooong way if he didn't overthrow), he flubbed it.

 

2. On the other hand, Taylor was a master at buying time despite some of the worst offensive line play I have ever seen. Henderson was atrocious at both run and pass blocking for a good chunk of the game. Both Miller and Wood (maybe last season wasn't just about the guards - he really looks like he's regressed) were at times, awful. There were maybe 6 or 7 plays where I could see a seam for the running game or time for Taylor to run through his progressions normally. McCoy and Karlos mostly ran into their own linemen (even on the big touchdown run) and had to dance out of the way of defenders shooting the gap several times. I counted at least 3 'ole blocks from Henderson, including the opening play that Rex was convinced would go for a score. I really think if we had anyone else under center besides Taylor, this game, offensively might have looked as bad as the Texans game last year. That's how bad the OL looked. With the exception of Incognito, I thought the whole line was poor. The good thing is it was game 1. And the line can only get better. After watching the Pittsburgh preseason game 3, I thought maybe that the OL wouldn't be THE issue for this team. Now that we know how bad the Steelers front 7 looks, I'm less convinced. Instead, I think our playoff fate lies on its continual improvement

 

3. If the offensive line was overwhelmingly underwhelming, the DBs were downright fantastic. I give Rex's schemes some of that credit. He probably tells them that the ball will be coming to your guy inside of 3 seconds so stick to your man like glue and they did an amazing job. I give the corners and safeties a ton of credit for not giving up much to a dangerous offense. And that was despite losing Graham so early. What I was often amazed at while watching is that it seems like we had 13 guys on the field.That there were 6 or 7 rushers but somehow everyone was covered and we still seemed to have safety help. I'm sure that says a lot about communication for this defense. And the tackling, but for a couple plays, was top notch.

 

4. Ugh on the penalties. I do hope that discipline isn't an issue for the Pats game. The D survived a slew of borderline personal foul calls and frankly, as awful as our OL was, we could've put up a couple more scores. The difference between Brady/Gronk/Edelman and Luck/TY/Gore is that Brady won't allow our defense to sub-package in and he'll keep our nickel out there. So that means we'll need to do a better job generating pressure with fewer people - and it wasn't like we were getting to Luck with all those blitzers anyway. I was reading that Brady's passes in 2014 were coming out in about 2.37 seconds on average compared to Andrew Luck at 2.76. I'm hoping it's the confusion that Rex generates that can cause mistakes because it'll be just as tough to take down Brady.

 

Looking ahead to next week, I'm counting on the fact that Rex knows how to keep his team within striking distance with the D and Tyrod's continued development to pull out a win. If we ever get the line blocking the way Roman wants them to, we can build that bully on offense the way Rex has them on D. Until then, it's in Tyrod we tust.

Edited September 15, 2015 by Lothar

[Protocal69]

Yeah, I also looked some ALL-22 Footage and I see why Sammy went without a catch. It seems like to me he was double covered alot during the game by shading the safety his way. The BILLS need to do a better job with putting him in motion and moving him around the formation. Teams like the Falcons and Steelers gameplan on how they are going to get Julio Jones and Antonio Brown the ball. We need to do the same with Sammy. Not complaining cause we got the win

[John from Riverside]

Yeah, I also looked some ALL-22 Footage and I see why Sammy went without a catch. It seems like to me he was double covered alot during the game by shading the safety his way. The BILLS need to do a better job with putting him in motion and moving him around the formation. Teams like the Falcons and Steelers gameplan on how they are going to get Julio Jones and Antonio Brown the ball. We need to do the same with Sammy. Not complaining cause we got the win

[MyDogLuvsPB]

Same here, I finally was able to watch it from beginning to end. Run blocking is as bad as last year. I don't why people think or thought that we had 3 very bad RB's ;last year. If they had bothered to actually watch the running game they would've noticed that there weren't any running lanes for our backs to slice through. I thought we were building a bully? It seems that some people didn't get the memo.

 

There shouldn't be the number of penalties that there were if we are playing at home. At least, they weren't false starts or other procedural infractions. On one call, I think Glenn was called for a holding on a play that was taking place on the other side of the field. During the live radio broadcast, this seemed to mystify Mark Kelso and voiced his displeasure.

 

After reading several articles leading up to this game, the general consensus was that the Colts' OL would struggle to contain the Bills' pass rush. Well, they must've read it too because they played alot better than I thought they would. They only gave up 2 sacks and held their own.

 

Nigel Bradham needs to be re-signed ASAP!! This guy is a beast and he is starting to get it. I wish he had a better rookie year than he had. Preston Brown will be a Pro Bowler very soon.

 

I'm not worried about Shady McCoy. He showed signs of brilliance.

[Estelle Getty]

Same here, I finally was able to watch it from beginning to end. Run blocking is as bad as last year. I don't why people think or thought that we had 3 very bad RB's ;last year. If they had bothered to actually watch the running game they would've noticed that there weren't any running lanes for our backs to slice through. I thought we were building a bully? It seems that some people didn't get the memo.

 

There shouldn't be the number of penalties that there were if we are playing at home. At least, they weren't false starts or other procedural infractions. On one call, I think Glenn was called for a holding on a play that was taking place on the other side of the field. During the live radio broadcast, this seemed to mystify Mark Kelso and voiced his displeasure.

 

After reading several articles leading up to this game, the general consensus was that the Colts' OL would struggle to contain the Bills' pass rush. Well, they must've read it too because they played alot better than I thought they would. They only gave up 2 sacks and held their own.

 

Nigel Bradham needs to be re-signed ASAP!! This guy is a beast and he is starting to get it. I wish he had a better rookie year than he had. Preston Brown will be a Pro Bowler very soon.

 

I'm not worried about Shady McCoy. He showed signs of brilliance.

I must say i dont think kelso has ever agreed with a penalty called on the Bills

[Alaska Darin]

That officiating crew was number 1 in the NFL las season in holding penalties called. It was towards the bottom in pass interference penalties called.

[nucci]

I watched the replay also. I agree, Henderson was awful.

[ALF]

Kromer being out for 5 more games , that's a problem.

[r00tabaga]

Yes, Wood & Henderson were terrible. I rewatched too.

The way to beat Brady I thought was to NOT blitz and get pressure up middle with only four. I'm worried that he is gonna spit at our blitz pkgs.

[GG]

Watched the Sunday Ticket short cut last night, and have to agree. Amazing the difference in being there in person and thinking it was a downright domination, but upon further review, it really wasn't. Yes, Luck was clearly rattled and that made the difference. Pats* don't have nearly the same caliber of skill players, but it will be harder to rattle Brady.

 

Forget the ground and pound, we don't have the horses on the OL to do that. This offense will live & die by the big play until they all settle in.

 

Will watch All-22 today to see another perspective.

[stevewin]

Kromer being out for 5 more games , that's a problem.

This is what I was thinking. Regardless of what he tried to transfer before his suspension started, the fact is we currently have an assistant line coach as our line coach. I'm wondering if Roman will also be spending some extra time with the OL.

[Miyagi-Do Karate]

That officiating crew was number 1 in the NFL las season in holding penalties called. It was towards the bottom in pass interference penalties called.

Very telling.

[Alaska Darin]

Yes, Wood & Henderson were terrible. I rewatched too.

The way to beat Brady I thought was to NOT blitz and get pressure up middle with only four. I'm worried that he is gonna spit at our blitz pkgs.

Brady's QBR versus the blitz against everyone else is 77 (scale to 100). His normal QBR is 73.

 

Brady's QBR versus the blitz against Rex is 59. So he's significantly worse against Rex's blitzing than he is when there's no blitzing or other team's blitzing.

[TakeYouToTasker]

Brady's QBR versus the blitz against everyone else is 77 (scale to 100). His normal QBR is 73.

 

Brady's QBR versus the blitz against Rex is 59. So he's significantly worse against Rex's blitzing than he is when there's no blitzing or other team's blitzing.

That's a very interesting statistic. Where did you track that down?

[26CornerBlitz]

The All-22 Coaches Film of the Game is available.

[PolishDave]

Yes, Wood & Henderson were terrible. I rewatched too.

The way to beat Brady I thought was to NOT blitz and get pressure up middle with only four. I'm worried that he is gonna spit at our blitz pkgs.

We tried that with Schwartz and it didn't work.

 

Bring pressure from the middle to disrupt the pocket. The key is to get quick pressure so Brady doesn't have time to throw deep.

 

Bump receivers at the line so it disrupts the short timing routes. Give linebackers the green light to try to jump the short over the middle routes to go for a pick.

 

That is how you hurt their passing game in my opinion.

[jeffismagic]

We tried that with Schwartz and it didn't work.

 

Bring pressure from the middle to disrupt the pocket. The key is to get quick pressure so Brady doesn't have time to throw deep.

 

Bump receivers at the line so it disrupts the short timing routes. Give linebackers the green light to try to jump the short over the middle routes to go for a pick.

 

That is how you hurt their passing game in my opinion.

 

This. We got smoked playing vanilla D last year.

[ko12010]

4 things that jumped out to me after a quick review:

 

1. I really think that the crowd unnerved Luck. He seemed to have more time than Taylor (despite seeing blitzes through most of the game.) I was actually surprised that he didn't do a little better given that time. I know we're all thrilled at the outcome - and I'm sure the fact he threw the ball early made it seem worse as far as the pass rush goes - but the few times he had wide open receivers (like Gore on that screen pass early in the game which would have gone a loooong way if he didn't overthrow), he flubbed it.

 

2. On the other hand, Taylor was a master at buying time despite some of the worst offensive line play I have ever seen. Henderson was atrocious at both run and pass blocking for a good chunk of the game. Both Miller and Wood (maybe last season wasn't just about the guards - he really looks like he's regressed) were at times, awful. There were maybe 6 or 7 plays where I could see a seam for the running game or time for Taylor to run through his progressions normally. McCoy and Karlos mostly ran into their own linemen (even on the big touchdown run) and had to dance out of the way of defenders shooting the gap several times. I counted at least 3 'ole blocks from Henderson, including the opening play that Rex was convinced would go for a score. I really think if we had anyone else under center besides Taylor, this game, offensively might have looked as bad as the Texans game last year. That's how bad the OL looked. With the exception of Incognito, I thought the whole line was poor. The good thing is it was game 1. And the line can only get better. After watching the Pittsburgh preseason game 3, I thought maybe that the OL wouldn't be THE issue for this team. Now that we know how bad the Steelers front 7 looks, I'm less convinced. Instead, I think our playoff fate lies on its continual improvement

 

3. If the offensive line was overwhelmingly underwhelming, the DBs were downright fantastic. I give Rex's schemes some of that credit. He probably tells them that the ball will be coming to your guy inside of 3 seconds so stick to your man like glue and they did an amazing job. I give the corners and safeties a ton of credit for not giving up much to a dangerous offense. And that was despite losing Graham so early. What I was often amazed at while watching is that it seems like we had 13 guys on the field.That there were 6 or 7 rushers but somehow everyone was covered and we still seemed to have safety help. I'm sure that says a lot about communication for this defense. And the tackling, but for a couple plays, was top notch.

 

4. Ugh on the penalties. I do hope that discipline isn't an issue for the Pats game. The D survived a slew of borderline personal foul calls and frankly, as awful as our OL was, we could've put up a couple more scores. The difference between Brady/Gronk/Edelman and Luck/TY/Gore is that Brady won't allow our defense to sub-package in and he'll keep our nickel out there. So that means we'll need to do a better job generating pressure with fewer people - and it wasn't like we were getting to Luck with all those blitzers anyway. I was reading that Brady's passes in 2014 were coming out in about 2.37 seconds on average compared to Andrew Luck at 2.76. I'm hoping it's the confusion that Rex generates that can cause mistakes because it'll be just as tough to take down Brady.

 

Looking ahead to next week, I'm counting on the fact that Rex knows how to keep his team within striking distance with the D and Tyrod's continued development to pull out a win. If we ever get the line blocking the way Roman wants them to, we can build that bully on offense the way Rex has them on D. Until then, it's in Tyrod we tust.

Was it really that bad? Damn, that's not good. Well, hopefully we will be in a position this offseason to really be able to focus almost solely on OLine through draft and maybe FA, but probably higher draft picks. Although I want to see how the line improves throughout the season.

 

Edited September 15, 2015 by ko12010

[jeffismagic]

Was it really that bad? Damn, that's not good.

Well, hopefully we will be in a position this offseason to really be able to focus almost solely on OLine through draft and maybe FA, but probably higher draft picks. Although I want to see how the line improves throughout the season.

 

No, I don't think so. Taylor usually had a clean pocket to throw in. Now I do agree with Whaley that teams are selling out to stop the run so it will be hard to bully anyone unless Taylor can throw. And so far so good as he burned the Colts bad with big plays.

[ko12010]

Yeah, I also looked some ALL-22 Footage and I see why Sammy went without a catch. It seems like to me he was double covered alot during the game by shading the safety his way. The BILLS need to do a better job with putting him in motion and moving him around the formation. Teams like the Falcons and Steelers gameplan on how they are going to get Julio Jones and Antonio Brown the ball. We need to do the same with Sammy. Not complaining cause we got the win

I was thinking the same thing last night while watching the Eagles-Falcons game. Jones had like 10 catches for 100 something yards and 2 tds. Clearly, the Eagles would have focused on stopping him. Sammy is just as talented as Julio--he should be getting his catches no matter who the opponent or CB covering him. Last year the All 22 revealed even Revis had trouble staying with him. I understand this week using him to draw away coverage worked well, but I still want him to get the ball somehow. Then again, we have so many playmakers it's ridiculous. But I for sure don't want Sammy to be a decoy. He will NOT be happy with this happening frequently, despite what he says about if the team is winning, he is all good.

 

No, I don't think so. Taylor usually had a clean pocket to throw in. Now I do agree with Whaley that teams are selling out to stop the run so it will be hard to bully anyone unless Taylor can throw. And so far so good as he burned the Colts bad with big plays.

That's what my initial thought was. I've rewatched the Texans and Chargers game from last year and they seemed much much worse than this past Sunday. A few times guys came in free on Tyrod and he out maneuvered them, but those two games last year EJ was bombarded from everywhere constantly.

[Dorkington]

That officiating crew was number 1 in the NFL las season in holding penalties called. It was towards the bottom in pass interference penalties called.

I personally think we got away with a few PIs that game, lots of hooks by our guys, that I expect to have called in future games.

[PromoTheRobot]

I'm just as surprised with the O-line. (While pleasantly surprised with our DBs) While seeing the game (mostly on my phone) the first time I thought McCoy was the goat, upon review our line was the real problem.

[elroy16]

I was thinking the same thing last night while watching the Eagles-Falcons game. Jones had like 10 catches for 100 something yards and 2 tds. Clearly, the Eagles would have focused on stopping him. Sammy is just as talented as Julio--he should be getting his catches no matter who the opponent or CB covering him. Last year the All 22 revealed even Revis had trouble staying with him. I understand this week using him to draw away coverage worked well, but I still want him to get the ball somehow. Then again, we have so many playmakers it's ridiculous. But I for sure don't want Sammy to be a decoy. He will NOT be happy with this happening frequently, despite what he says about if the team is winning, he is all good.

That's what my initial thought was. I've rewatched the Texans and Chargers game from last year and they seemed much much worse than this past Sunday. A few times guys came in free on Tyrod and he out maneuvered them, but those two games last year EJ was bombarded from everywhere constantly.

 

 

I didn't see the entire game, but Jones was doing a ton of damage against single man coverage. At one he went in motion, no one followed him, and then he lined up in the slot with no one covering him. The eagles were showing blitz and I knew they were going to Jones. He ran a quick out and got a first because they weren't covering him. It was horrible defense by the Eagles, it was like they weren't game planning against him at all. His second TD was on a go with no safety help.

 

 

From what I've heard and can tell (Haven't seen All-22), the Colts had their best corner and a safety over the top almost all game against Sammy. It sucks he wasn't involved and I think they should find a few ways to get him involved, but if other teams are going to use two players to take away sammy, including the best corner, then the best matchups are going to be away from Sammy.

[Over 29 years of fanhood]

Was it really that bad? Damn, that's not good. Well, hopefully we will be in a position this offseason to really be able to focus almost solely on OLine through draft and maybe FA, but probably higher draft picks. Although I want to see how the line improves throughout the season.

 

Roman is pretty good with o lines. If it was really that bad and they still won so handily, man that is great news. I didn't see them get a whole lot of heat on Tyrod, so I am surprised folks saw such poor play.

 

Both guards are better than last year AND the bookend guys are frequently described by the coaches as solid players so let's hope it's just a teamwork thing.

Edited September 15, 2015 by over 20 years of fanhood

[dave mcbride]

I think Henderson is a bad player. He seems to get a pass because he has outperformed his seventh round draft slot, but there's a reason he was taken in the seventh round, and it wasn't the weed. I hope he improves, but right now he is not good.

 

Bear in mind that people here were high on seventh rounder Terence Pennington too because he started as a rookie. He lasted all of one and a half seasons in the NFL despite starting at RT for most of his rookie season.

Edited September 15, 2015 by dave mcbride

[HeHateMe]

Can Cyrus be any worse than Henderson at this point?

[dave mcbride]

Can Cyrus be any worse than Henderson at this point?

Yes, he could be. Henderson is moderately serviceable in pass protection.

[GG]

Can Cyrus be any worse than Henderson at this point?

 

If two separate coaching staffs made this determination - yes he can be worse.

[Malazan]

4 things that jumped out to me after a quick review:

 

1. I really think that the crowd unnerved Luck. He seemed to have more time than Taylor (despite seeing blitzes through most of the game.) I was actually surprised that he didn't do a little better given that time. I know we're all thrilled at the outcome - and I'm sure the fact he threw the ball early made it seem worse as far as the pass rush goes - but the few times he had wide open receivers (like Gore on that screen pass early in the game which would have gone a loooong way if he didn't overthrow), he flubbed it.

 

I'm pretty sure this was by design. Luck is one of the best when it comes to dealing with blitzes, but the Bills seemed to look at getting pressure up the middle. Pretty much all of their blitzes were up the middle. Also, look at Mario and Hughes. They did not have very many plays where they went "inside". They were keeping contain while the Bills brought pressure from inside. I don't think the defensive scheme called for "hitting" Luck, but getting in front of him so he couldn't step up and containing so he couldn't move around.

Edited September 15, 2015 by jeremy2020

[Alaska Darin]

I personally think we got away with a few PIs that game, lots of hooks by our guys, that I expect to have called in future games.

The officiating crew that did the game is one that is known for letting some physical play go on with the wideouts but calls more holding penalties. They stayed true to form.