Indy Dave Posted August 29, 2004 Posted August 29, 2004 OK...where to begin? Let me start with the special teams. They were just plain awful. Fumbles on returns, a blocked punt that they recovered for a TD, we allowed big returns, and did not get much from our returns. Special teams cost us dearly tonight, to say the least. What was most disturbing is that several starters saw action with those units. You'd think mistakes would be at a minimum. That wasn't the case. Oh yeah...Moorman was horrible tonight too. I think the blocked punt messed with his head the rest of the night. Hopefully he returns to his 2003 form. The defense was pretty good. The Colts could not convert a third down, and despite the fact that our special teams breakdowns gave a damn good offense great field position, the defense did not allow Indy to get into the end zone. The Colts had one good drive (60 yards) on our first defense. Most of the yards came on one big play, a 30-yard pass from Manning to Harrison on a play-action, fourth and 1 play. Clements nearly batted the ball away but the pass was perfect. Hey, it's the best QB and the best WR...stuff like that is going to happen. All in all, the defense played well enough to win. I'd take that effort against that caliber of an offense any day. Individually, Schoebel impressed me very much. I really hope we resign him. Denney and Kelsay, who I have always been down on, are not terrible. Hopefully they will continue to improve. Spikes is very good. Anderson will be a good backup. He is not very fast, but he makes plays and frequently beats his man. The young guys in the secondary played OK too. All in all, not a bad night for the defense....unless Lawyer is seriously hurt. As for the offense, well those of you who think Willis is better than Travis, let me just say, Um...no. He was pretty hesitant. He also lacked vision on a couple of runs, which was kind of disappointing. I had a good view of a couple of runs that I thought he could have cut one way and broke it into the secondary. Instead he put himself in a position to get tackled. The good news regarding Willis is that he did get stronger and more comfortable as the game progressed. It was his first NFL start after all. He will get better. Lee Evans...geez what a disappointment. Unless he was running a fly pattern, he could not get open. Twice he ran by the defense, just streaking down the field. But once, Willis made an errant flip to Drew on a flea flicker (still could have been caught by Drew, but it was a little off target). Later, Travis Brown was rushed and could not get near enough on the ball. But when Evans was running crossing patterns or out routes, he was nowhere near open, not when I watched him closely anyway. I would not cut Shaw...we may still need an experienced guy like him in our receiving corps. Josh is a good possession receiver, who is clearly best in the slot. We need Evans to develop. The offensive line. Ugh. Just cut Pucillo now. He played late and was getting beat by guys who will be working at Auto Zone in about a week. Had a penalty too...what else is new? No one distinguished themself as a solid starter on the line, but we have what we have. McNally is supposed to be a miracle worker. I hope he works one for us this year. This unit is not good. Drew....well, he has a nice arm. He moves as well as a fire hydrant. Still holds on the ball too long, but not near as often as he did last year. He's learning. Overall, the offense was pretty disappointing, especially considering the Colts aren't exactly the Monsters of the Midway. I just got the feeling that if the Colts' defense just stood on their sideline, our offense would still take five plays to score a touchdown. As for coaching, quite honestly, I was disappointed in that too. Too many times I was reminded of the dismal 2003 season. Trick plays that make you wonder why they were called in the first place, and then they backfired. Reminded me of the Miami game last year. Fourth and short from the opponents' 35-yard line and....punt? Third and 1....and stuffed for no loss. Hopefully, Mularkey and company are just keeping it simple and will wait until it counts before showing what we got. Hopefully Willis will get comfortable and more confident. Hopefully Travis will be 100 percent. Hopefully Mularkey is waiting to unleash Evans. Hopefully we get a decent backup quarterback off waivers. Hopefully Lawyer can play with a cast on his arm (if he needs one). Hopefully tonight will be a sign of things to come with regards to minimal penalties (4 for 35 yards). Hopefully the defense keeps making the big play. Hopefully the special teamers play 100 times better than they did tonight.
jarthur31 Posted August 29, 2004 Posted August 29, 2004 Excellent report, Dave. I knew Willis is favoring his knee never having seen a preseason game yet. It's what others who have been present have also said, including the highlites on ESPN. He doesn't trust it yet and it shows. He should B word slap his agent for declaring him fit to be starting material. I hope the cut Fast Freddie cuz his fumbles are a joke. One maybe you can live with but if you keep doing it over and over... Nate needs to be admonished for his fumble too. He better not be returning punts in the regular season either. Sadly, the big play is missing from the playbook. I don't think we even tried once to have all our WR's streak on a fly pattern to loosen up defenses yet. Tonight's flea flicker was nice as long as Willis isn't in the backfield, nor Josh as a receiver out there. Judging from Mularkey's post game comments (he was very despondent and sounded to me like being on the verge of tears), things may not get better anytime soon. Our O-line has regressed even more from last year, if that's possible. Travis won't rush for 1000 yards this year sadly. We can't even stop a pass rush of just 4 linemen just like last year!!!!!!!! I'd recommend that we put Jason Peters on the Homer Simpson diet plan and make him a guard cuz it looks like he'll be cut as a TE. [/rant]
Rayzer32 Posted August 29, 2004 Posted August 29, 2004 Sadly, the big play is missing from the playbook. I don't think we even tried once to have all our WR's streak on a fly pattern to loosen up defenses yet. Tonight's flea flicker was nice as long as Willis isn't in the backfield, nor Josh as a receiver out there. [/rant] 10574[/snapback] I think we have the big play in our arsenal, MM is just not showing it to anyone. Also on the flea flicker, it was not WMs fault. DB took full responsibility after the game. He said he saw the blitz coming and moved away from it resulting in him not being in the right place for the toss back.
Cash2Burn Posted August 29, 2004 Posted August 29, 2004 Here's my observations........it sucked. 10551[/snapback] Glad to see you working hard on that post count. Keep up the good work.
Guest BAD-OL Posted August 29, 2004 Posted August 29, 2004 As for coaching, quite honestly, I was disappointed in that too. Too many times I was reminded of the dismal 2003 season. Trick plays that make you wonder why they were called in the first place, and then they backfired. Reminded me of the Miami game last year. Fourth and short from the opponents' 35-yard line and....punt? Third and 1....and stuffed for no loss. I like the coaching staff, the punt from the 35 was iffy, but it wasn't like the infamous GW decision deciding to punt from there when he was down 20 in the second half against NE.
Mike In Illinois Posted August 29, 2004 Posted August 29, 2004 A couple of things from me on the sidelines: Gildon spent as much time on the stationary bike behind the bench than on the field it seemed. I agree that McGahee is not all the way back yet. It looked like Simonton and the other backs were a bit quicker than he was. How would the offense have played if a healthy Travis Henry is in the backfield? I'm encouraged that the defense is creating turnovers. I think Indy had four? I know we had five ourselves. The defense may help us win games if they get the turnovers we lacked last year. That crowd was loud last night. That helped Indy in some key 3rd down plays (so did The Wave). I believe it was the first sellout of a Colts preseason game in a while. The team made the fans buy tickers to that game in order to purchase the Packers game on Sept. 26. I really hate that horn which sounds before and after big defensive plays. I was standing in the corner of the end zone where Kenny Thomas ran the interception back for a TD. He ran down the tunnel and I followed him, Fletcher and some other players. As he was jogging back to the field, he started screaming "WHAT! WHAT! WHAT!" at me. I'm not sure if it was a Stone Cold Steve Austin or Lil' John reference.
Rico Posted August 29, 2004 Posted August 29, 2004 I was standing in the corner of the end zone where Kenny Thomas ran the interception back for a TD. He ran down the tunnel and I followed him, Fletcher and some other players. Cool! As he was jogging back to the field, he started screaming "WHAT! WHAT! WHAT!" at me. I'm not sure if it was a Stone Cold Steve Austin or Lil' John reference.He was probably just wondering who Kenny is.
Mike In Illinois Posted August 29, 2004 Posted August 29, 2004 I checked my video of the play; it was Spikes, not Fletcher that chased him down the tunnel.
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