How big was his loss? Your guys seemed to have stepped up well. Makes it seems like the offense is so payton-centric that it’s almost become a system.

I was a little excited. Then he got injured.

And that’s when everything went to shit for me.

seemed to be that they didn’t think there would be a significant drop-off. If I am remembering correctly.

He’s likely a better pass rusher than Hagler (pre-draft scouting reports on Wheeler called him the best blitzer in the nation), but obviously the Colts liked Hagler’s overall game better. So far he’s seen nearly as much time as a rush end (replacing Freeney for the short period he was hurt) than as an OLB (backing up Hagler).

Note: I love talking Colts, but I’m not participating in any thread that contains what I feel are inappropriate personal attacks on other members.

though Gonzo is physically not out there running routes with Peyton he is still studying film and talking with Peyton. When/if Gonzo comes back I’d give him a game or two and then expect him to be back to his normal self. I’m sure Peyton misses him as much as I do.

I think if he comes back with a few games left in the season, he’s still very valuable. He has put in a lot of work with Peyton in the offseason. As the others have said, it’s not like mentally he’s not keeping up with the game. I think he’s still our second most valuable receiver no matter when he returns.

Ill see if I can hunt him down.

Garcon has dropped a lot of passes and had several penalties the last few games. He’s still a project and has potential but needs some fine-tuning.
Ideally Gonzalez would be back and Garcon would be behind him, learning and getting better. Collie is already showing signs that he’s where he needs to be, even as a rookie. I have high hopes for him.
We might see a good game from Garcon, but I have a lot more confidence in Collie and Gonzalez.

Gonzo is still the better of the 3. Collie is the thinker, Garcon is the athlete and Gonzo is the kid on the star on the HS football team that you’re shocked when you realize he’s got straight A’s.

Gonzo’s best weapon is his consistency. Garcon is the most inconsistent player I’ve seen on the Colts for a long time. The Colts typically have 2 out wide, 2 in the slot, and 1 in the backfield. I expect Wayne and Gonzo out wide with Clark and Collie in the slot.

and played on the outside (with Wayne moving to the slot) in most of the 3 WR sets for 2008.

Neither year he had Marvin-like total production, but he had fantastic, Marvin-esque efficiency. I believe the numbers for his first two years were 12-13 yards per catch while catching over 70% of the passes thrown to him.

I’ve been waiting for them to be exposed, but it just hasn’t happened. I’ll reserve judgment until after the game, where they face the best passing attack of this season so far.

he’s been limited to the nickel role.

So rookie Jerraud Powers is basically a regular starter.

working link

I honestly thought Andrews was only doing elbows these days.

Sorry to hear that; you never like to see anyone’s season ends.

Now I’m off to scour the waiver wire…

18to88 contacted my favorite blogger (and beat writer), Phil B, about the Yahoo story and he E-Mailed them back and said that they were interpreting his info, didn’t have any inside sources, and were pretty much wrong.

Here’s the link so you guys can read the context:

http://www.18to88.com/2009-archives/november/phil-b-comments-on-yahoo-report.html

On D they brought in a new DC who runs a more aggressive style of Tampa-2. Dungy/Meeks ran a really pure, vanilla T-2. Caldwell/Coyer are more willing to blitz and mix up coverages. The Colts were always the least blitzing team in the league under Dungy and Meeks, now they are just towards the back of the pack.

I feel like the Bucs must have felt. Dungy built this team schematically from the ground up. I think Caldwell is Gruden-esque in that he takes a different mindset to the team that allows them to get over the hump. Lord knows I love Tony Dungy but I think his timidness and unwillingness to blitz and lay it all on the line when it mattered costs us down the stretch. That’s my opinion from what I’ve seen in the first seven games (insert small sample size warning here).

No idea. At least five years in my estimation. Could definitely be more. They’re already thinking far ahead in the future in the way they rest his arm as evidenced by the rest he got last Friday.

most of the greats either played well until their late 30s or were retired by injuries

so if he sticks to that, 7

That’s what I’m expecting.

I still can’t figure out how many years Favre has left.

The one thing I don’t see is Peyton pulling a Favre and switching teams. Peyton has better things to do than trying to hold on to the football at all costs. He will retire a Colt and get on with his life.

they played good D overall. The most noticeable thing they did was run a lot of plays with 0-2 down linemen, but 7 in the box to make it hard for Peyton to read the D. Beyond that they abused the right side of the OL and the deep shots Peyton took on them missed or had great plays made by the DBs on them.

Big Blue Shoe is in fact a Big Blue Douche. When people called him out on being a douche, he locked a couple threads on SB discussing the game, then banned people and deleted comments for asking him why he had sand in his vagina.

A little too Texans-homerish for my tastes, but this is a Texans blog. A couple things:

According to Football Outsiders, destroying bad teams is a much better indicator of playoff success then squeaking by against good teams. Check that out here.

Also, I have no idea why you keep putting an e at the end of Dallas Clark’s name.

I’m just hoping that if I ignore it, then it can go away and this week-long, 3 blog episode can finally be over. Here’s to hoping.

If it were just based on quality of play i’d say it’d probably be our center Chris Myers, Caldwell is his backup. He’s not terrible, he just gets bullied by bigger DTs all day long.

But really the player who gets the most heat from fans these days is probably D. Robinson, more because of his greedy “pay me!” antics than anything else. His play on the field isn’t God-awful, but it’s not worth a fraction of the $10 mil he’s raking in, and he wants more money.

I say Chris Myers. There is no “true” backup since the interior line has been ravaged by injuries, but in an ideal world it’d probably be Pitts at LG and Caldwell and Chris White at C/RG

because his play hasn’t been very good, and because he is a humongous asshole. Glover Quinn and Jaques Reeves should be the starters IMO.

Chris Meyers needs to be replaced, but he does block downfield on screens and such well.

Dunta has been horrible Chris, stop hitting me. Dangit!

But I want X Adibi in for Diles. Diles is OK and he’s having a good year, but Adibi gives us much greater upside and play-making ability.

We usually play Derek Anderson or JJ and they’ve been good for us but I wanna see more Andre Davis. JJ is explosive when gets the ball but let’s not forget what Apostrophe Davis did when Andre went down.

Dunte is having an average season. He is still one of our best open field tacklers on defense, but he’s been burned a few times in coverage and he took a bad angle on TO’s TD last week that put the Texans in a 7-0 hole in the first quarter.

Slaton is too good to be benched for entire games, but I understand what Kubiak is doing. Fumbling against teams like Indy and New England will definitely cost us possible victories.

Diles is better in run support than Adibi. He is also good in zone coverage, but not great. I agree, however, that Adibi is better at covering athletic TEs and RBs out of the backfield. Adibi does seem to be the better matchup against the Colts this season, but Diles is still the guy at the WLB.

If there was one guy I had to choose; I guess I’d have to choose Quinn over Dunte. I think benching Dunte for half of a game would scare the shit out of him and make him focus a little more on the football field. His play is inconsistent and that is uncharacteristic of him. Dude needs to get his ego checked for a little bit and I think it will have a positive impact on his play.

Just my .02

The Colts have been racked with injuries the last few years. They’ve gotten by, but there are certain guys that can’t be replaced (Freeney in ’07, Brackett in ’08) that cost them in the playoffs.

Check it out here:

http://www.stampedeblue.com/2009/11/6/1119332/the-day-of-depth-an-analysis-of

There’s not too much left to say about it, I think.