A confused Fans Prospective on the Game

Look my take on the game is that we got out game planned. They have clearly watched some game film on the Texans, because the exploited right out of the gate what I think has been our biggest mistake.  When people throw short underneath passes and have a high tempo.  We saw this in the first half in Arizona and in the Second half in the SF game.  I would have done the same thing and I can’t believe that Koobs and Bush didn’t see this as an realistic option for them to do.  I mean they do like the hurry up and have one of the best QB’s in the game, and their D is designed to have opponents playing from behind with a lead so they needed to get a lead quick.   The fix to the issue was obvious from the first play they ran in the hurry up,  JAM THEM AT THE LINE.  By the second quarter Bush had made the adjustment but the damage was done.  It was made that much worse by the O getting off to a slow start, I put a lot of this on Schaub for forcing the throw to AJ in triple coverage! (I know he is great in double coverage getting the ball but he didn’t have a chance at that).  I give huge credit to the D for minimizing the damage of the first quarter though.

Now the second quarter very effective drive in the last part of the second quarter and get’s the ball to the Colts one great fist and goal at the one.  The Schaub walks out to run a play with 2:20 left, and some coach, said let the clock run to the warning.   Schaub got this from the sideline, according to him on 610 this morning.   Let me make this clear to whoever made the call on the sidelines if there is any question about a call that goes your way, run the next F-ing play and screw clock management for just a second (which you generally suck at anyway).

The second half I was generally happy with the overall performance, with one major exception.  Cushing got exposed on his coverage abilities, I know we all kind of knew that he would struggle against an elite TE but he got eaten alive out there.  Again much improved when he jammed at the line but not as good as I would have liked to see.  The other comment I have is Dunta is just not what he was a few years ago, he is still good  (but far from great) , for us he is the #2 or #3 guy at that position right now, Thanks to Rick Smith for not pushing an overpriced contract that we would regret in salary cap problems for years (if there is a salary cap next year) , other koodos to Smith for the Pollard pickup, you are awesome for that.  My only grip is that you should have locked up Ryans’ and OD earlier.  We might get a little discount on OD next year because you will get to see what your back ups look like and the excuse of "we’re just not sure you are going to be the same guy after the injury, so we should do a big contract but with less guarantees".  The pass rush is still not spectacular but let me say I saw a lot of movement of our guys into their backfield and pressure as well as a closing pocket, it could have been better but the 4 guys up front did that without a lot of blitzes which allowed our coverage to hold up.  I think the front 4 on D are who kept us in the game.  On the O line generally a good job but I am now convinced the best guy on their team isn’t Paytun it is  Dwight Freeney, I saw him against Brown on several occasions where he would run different "Moves" on Brown and just dominated Brown on everyone of them, the guy is nothing short of amazing.  (note for next game, get a few cut block on him early and slow down his motor just a little)

On our side of the ball let me get to my biggest grip of the game that was penalties, and Barwin was leading the pack on that, most where just bone head stupid stuff and some at the worst possible times, penalties where one of the reasons the colts O was so effective the first half and why our O was not.  Conner B if you don’t figure out some other move than just the speed rush, and you don’t stop making bone head mistakes you won’t last that long in the league.

I am a little disappointed in Kris Brown but this happens, just don’t let it happen very often.  But again clock management was odd, why throw down the middle then hope you can get up and spike the ball, run 2 out routes if they don’t work let Kris kick a little longer shot.

Summary and Grade

I give them a B for the game, good over all effort, but a little short of beating an elite team at home.  They did beat the spread too for anyone who cares (-9 really?).   I think we have a very good chance of winning at home against them here in a few weeks.  On the up side I now have a full week to be annoyed about this game and the douche from Stampede Blue before I get to start thinking about the Tit’s game.

What Grade would you give them and why?