They are lucky they play in that horrible division. They might not have even seen the playoffs yet without it. I expect Houston to overtake them this year
They really are. There are a lot of holes in that team and their defense seems to be perennially soft year in and year out
They remind me a little bit of the Dan Fouts-era SD Chargers. Great, but wild passing attack, live or die by their QB, soft team overall with no running game to speak of.
It's a good thing the NFL doesn't have the franchise tag anymore. Luck can pretty much go where ever he wants to. Because that's how the NFL works. _
That is what I was thinking. No way they ever let him walk. They would tag him right up to $35 million per year probably. So if you are going to be stuck for 3 years anyway, may as well get the long term guaranteed contract.
There is no way his Daddy would allow him to leave multi multi multi multi millions of guaranteed money to sign on for a franchise tag in the HOPES that he doesn't get tagged again and again. Silly thread. _
Perhaps but I question the "no talent" comment that gets thrown around about them. They beat the Seahawks last year. They cruised by the Bengals and Colts this season in the playoffs with only slightly above average QB performances in those games. You can't do those things without some talent. They just really can't match up with the Pats. That's what is killing them. We weren't a very good or very talented team this season, but played the Pats in 2 nailbiters. Something is going fundamentally wrong with the gameplans or coaching for the Colts for them to get blown out by the Pats every time. Also, for all the accolades Luck gets, he played far worse football this season against the Pats than Geno Smith did. He has to figure out a way to play better in these matchups too. If Geno Smith can find a way to play a good football game against this Pats D, why can't Andrew Luck? Mental block or something, the way Peyton used to have when facing Belicheck early in his career.
Also, the perceived weakness of his team in some ways is doing Luck a favor as it is shielding him from criticism from subpar postseason play. In 6 playoff games, he has 9 TDs v. 12 INTs with a 71 passer rating, compared to 86 TDs v. 43 INTs and an 87 passer rating in the regular season. That is a significant drop-off. The shield won't last though, one more stinker and he will start getting skewered the same way Peyton was. You can still chalk up the mediocre playoff numbers to a small sub-sample, if that trend continues over more games, expect the heat to turn up on him. So far he is "Teflon Andrew" (as evidenced by this thread and just the complete lack of any criticism he received for a poor performance on Sunday). The only guy taking heat this week for Sunday seems to be Wilson, who played a mostly terrible game (read: very terrible) but managed to find a way to pull out a win at the end. And Wilson has been a pretty consistent playoff performer, his postseason numbers mirror his regular season numbers, no drop off despite the improved quality of opponent. That doesn't excuse his poor play, but I haven't seen too many media outlets point out that Wilson's WR targets are all undrafted free agents and the one guy that showed significantly higher upside and was a high draft pick, Paul Richardson, suffered a season-ending ACL injury against the Panthers. That no doubt hampered Wilson and the Seahawks passing attack, haven't heard a single media outlet comment on it though. Yes, there are many, many QBs who would love to have Seattle's D and Marshawn Lynch. But is there a single QB in the NFL who would trade his WR corps for the guys Wilson is throwing to?
The Colts have inconsistent weapons- Coby Fleener puts up good stats, but , for most of the year, he was up and down and was pretty bad in '12 and '13. Yes , Reggie Wayne is a future HOF, but he's regressed and is no longer a "game changing WR"; he didn't do much this season. And Hakeem Nicks was an epic failure for the Colts this season. Also, Luck threw two interceptions on sunday when the score was 31-7, and in the 2013 playoffs against the Patriots two of his four interceptions were thrown when the game was out of reach. Russell Wilson may not have TY Hilton, but he has a rock solid running, a superior coaching staff, a really good offensive line (when healthy ) and a great defense to bail him out when/ if he struggles. I'd take that over a great WR corps any day of the week. And I haven't heard anyone in the media bash Wilson for his performance on Sunday, everyone has been praising him...,,
The Colts weapons in the passing game are no worse than league average. And probably better than average. Just consider what Andy Dalton and Russell Wilson threw to in the playoffs this season as a couple examples of how much worse it can be in terms of your passing targets. That's just two teams in the playoffs but go around the league and you will find a number of teams that would trade their WR and TE corps with the Colts (including our Jets prior to the Harvin move and maybe even after depending on how you feel about him as a WR). And I'm not really comparing Luck to Wilson as it is a hard comparison given their respective situations and what they are asked to do over the course of a season. I disagree about Wilson's line being "really good" though regardless of health. There are some games when they run block well, but their pass protection is near the bottom of the league. They either led the league or were near the top in terms of pass pressures allowed. It is not an enviable line to drop back behind, but neither was Luck's. The game situations when Luck threw the INTs were still a part of the game. Is it too much to ask Luck to produce a 300 yards, 3 TD against the Pats even on a day when his D struggles? Too much for him to turn a 31-7 deficit into a more respectable 38-28 defeat against softer late game coverage? Look at Geno's first game against the Pats this season. Why is Luck unable to even produce a game of that quality against the Pats? It is definitely a mental block and the only comparison I can think of would be early career Peyton against Belicheck. Luck's too good a player to have had the run of bad games against the same team as he has had against the Pats. He doesn't need your excuses, nor would he make them himself. Also, you cannot tell me the Pats D is so untouchable a week after Flacco torched them for 4 TDs. Luck bombed on a big stage, plain and simple. Still has a long career ahead, but when you are going to garner the almost immeasurable praise he has received through 3 years in the league, you deserve a substantial dose of criticism for 130 yards, 2 INTs, and 7 points scored in a conference championship game.
The Patriots were playing man defense and pressing the Colts Wide Receivers all game. Ty Hilton, Reggie Wayne, and Donte Moncrief did not display the physicality or crisp route running to beat great corners such as Brandon Browner and Revis at the line of scrimmage. When the Patriots played us, they were rushing four all game and sitting in zone coverage. Geno Smith had the time necessary to go threw his progressions reset his feet, and to step in to his throws. Zone defenes have soft spots, in the case of a cover three defense, the spots of the defense is along the sidelines and the seams ; smart Wide Receivers and Coordinators are able to realize this and attack these "spots". The gameplans the Pats used against Geno is a completely different than they used against Luck... I never said Luck played "great" he didn't, but it's silly to bring Geno's Smith performance up against the Pats, Bellichick designed a completely different gameplan for Luck. Folks give too much credit/blame to Quarterbacks when they win and lose... football is too complex of a sport to play the narrative game. He was bad , but the coaching staff and GM all deserve blame as well. Why can't Pagano and his coaching staff put together an effective gameplans against NE? Why hasn't Grigson drfted a Nose Tackle, who can consistently win one on one matchuos at the LOS? The Ravens put together an excellent game plan , and they had success running the ball against NE, because the Patriots struggle against teams with Zone Blocking schemes. That's what I call top notch coaching.
Assuming we fix our secondary and beef up the O-line a bit, he is the missing piece of our team. Now that Rex and the circus are out, you can't say that this isn't a bad place to land anymore.
