Pre-Game Recon: Unlimited Questions With Our Resident Colts Fans

But thing is that it isn’t equal. Painter has more time with the team, more knowledge of the playbook, and more of a report with the players. Collins didn’t do very well at all against the 2nd team of the Bengals, and while Painter wasn’t perfect, he did well enough to give the Colts the lead at half time against the first team of the Packers.

Collins is the starter though, and has a lot more mental toughness to last through a game without letting mistakes keep him down, not to mention he isn’t Vince Young. He has the second most passing yards in the NFL for an active QB for a reason. Look for Collins to remain shaky the first couple of weeks, but continue to get better as he learns new twists to the offense and becomes more comfortable with the offensive line and his receivers.

but Kerry Collins has actually performed at an above average level in real, full, seasons.

The Texans secondary is not going to morph into the ‘85 Bears over night. Collins has the gun to go down field and when you have a new QB it tends to benefit: A.) The Primary WR and B.) The TE. It’s the guys on the 2nd and 3rd read who will get shortchanged. I would avoid Garcon and Collie this week until we see what Collins can do. Wayne is still a must start.

They are both excellent receivers with crisp routes and in Collie’s case nearly flawless pass catching ability. Their short to intermediate routes will be about the extent of the time that Collins will have to work with so look for them to pick up most of the yardage through the air. That said, I would not be surprised to see Collins air it out to Reggie and let him go up for it. I think Collie will have ~100 yards, Clark ~80 yards, and Wayne ~70 yards with Collie having the most receptions, and Wayne only having 2 or 3.

Our line has gone from a barely 300 lbs. average to having 4 of the 5 starting linemen close to 320 lbs. We’ve also replace Donald, ‘I can’t run in traffic,’ Brown with Delone, ‘Get out of my way, I’m coming through,’ Carter. As Collins will not have a full grasp of the passing game yet, I can see him working the running game quite a bit, especially if we can get some good run blocking initially.

As for the transition out of the Manning era, I hope that a major defensive guru comes in and absolutely transforms the Colts defensive strategy while the Colts find serious long term replacements for guys like Reggie Wayne, Dallas Clark, and Dwight Freeney. It is unlikely we’ll find another GOAT QB, or be in the chance to get him, so we need to shore up the defense and change the defensive philosophy while still trying to provide a new QB the most weapons possible to succeed.

Spanish 1: Collins still has a strong arm so they’ll use Garçon to try to keep an 8th man out of the box and the DBs from cheating, then try to run plenty and dink and dunk in the passing game.

Spanish 2: I would hope Peyton is 100% after a couple games out, then plays at a high level for the rest of his new contract. 4 years from now, some high quality QB prospect slips into the late 1st, Indy takes him, sits him for Peyton’s last year, then QB X takes over and is very good.

He was a frustrated grouch while having to sit out, but he admitted the next season (and it was obvious by his play too) that the time off had restored a couple of years worth of youthful athleticism.

Hope it works out for Peyton too.

I expect him to sit the season.

You laugh and wince at the same time!!!

Joseph Addai had nerve damage in his shoulder last year, missed 8 weeks and even after his return admitted that he wasn’t 100% he had just recovered enough that he could catch and hold onto the football. Now that he’s had a full offseason to recover he’s fine.

If he even sees marginal improvement, I see Manning chomping at the bit to get out there. But if the doctors tell him to tell the front office that he should be IR’d, the front office will IR him. With much gnashing of teeth and flowing of tears, but they’ll IR him. It’s one thing to miss a single season (even the one where the Super Bowl is held in your own town), but it’s another to risk the franchise. Granted, he may only have abour 4 to 6 years left, but the Colts damn well want him for those years. If he needs to be sat, he’ll be sat. But he’ll have to be forced to, because if it’d be his choice, he’d go in.

They have been experimenting with the Run-D line in the preseason with a good deal of success. Mathis and Freeney play on passing downs and then they bring in Anderson and Brayton to play DE on the running downs. A marked improvement thus far.

We have to get major pressure on Schuab, and thanks to the development of DT Drake Nevis, that is a much more likely possibility. We’ve never had consistent pressure up the middle, but Nevis has been tearing apart first team D-lines all preseason, which is inspiring.

2) As for guys to watch, it would be Nevis, CB Jerraud Powers and DE Dwight Freeney in a positive sense and LB Kavell Conner, SS Melvin Bullitt, and CB Jacob Lacey in a negative sense.

Nevis I explained. Powers has had injury problems the past few years but has been growing exceptionally well to the point he was on a borderline Pro-bowl season last year before he got injured. Freeney has had an amazing preseason and is looking more dominant against good LTs than he’s seemed in a while. If this is a true sign, look out for him to tear into Schuab if the run game isn’t working.

As for Conner, he is an exceptionally poor tackler and coverage LB. He gets into the backfield and sniffs out the run rather well, but can’t wrap up properly and has trouble maintaining gap discipline on the edge. His Coverage skills are non existent as well and has never forced an incompletion on a guy he was covering. Bullitt is Sander’s primary backup but he’s been making some really horrible mistakes last year while he was healthy and during this preseason. He had 1 good year filling in for Bobzilla, but has regressed since then. Lacey is our man coverage specialist and starting CB on the right side. He seems to have caught the same bug as every other CB who has started on the right side and gives inordinate amounts of cushion, usually from playing too far back on the snap initially. Because of Lacey’s pedigree and lack of this problem previously, as well as the emergence of Tim Jennings in Chicago, speculation is that this is a scheme wrinkle that no one can explain properly. Either way, though, look for Lacey to be the one giving the most room when you need a 3rd and 7.

3) The safeties are interesting. Bethea and Bullitt are a great coverage duo, and Bethea is easily a top 10 safety in the league. I’ve expressed my concerns about Bullitt, but for the most part he has been very consistent in coverage. The real guy to watch for if he can take the field is Joe Lefeged. He is Bobzilla’s run stopping self incarnate. His coverage skills are poor, but if you want a guy who can stop a charging MJD dead in his tracks at the 1 yard line Lefeged has shown he’s your guy. I’m going to be very interested to see if the Colts play a 3 safety nickle package with Lefeged playing in the box.

It’s possible that, with Drake Nevis and Fili Moala in the middle (albeit at different times, since they’re both normally undertackles) that the D-line will actually be solid in the middle and might be better at getting pressure on the quarterback. And Freeney and Mathis are always what they are. That’s the positive.

The negative is that I don’t know that Indy’s CB rotation is good enough. I’m hoping that the front-4 pressure is enough to mask some of that, but they seem to be coached to play a bit too far off their man, and while they don’t give up huge plays, they get the chains moved on them with regularity. That bugs me, because the players are capable of playing tighter, but the coaching philosophy seems to be to keep everything in front of you at all costs. So if the D-line can’t pressure enough, I fear that Indy can be thrown on all day.

Of course, the point of such a defensive philosophy is to have the D-line get pressure. So again, maybe that’ll be masked. We’ll just have to wait and see. I think a lot of that first game will depend on the solidity of your team’s offensive line. If they can keep the pressure off, I may be biting my nails the entire game.

All day.

Collins may not move in the pocket, but Garrard plays a completely different style of QB.

I think Foster plays the whole season with the normal amount of nicks and wear…
However, if Foster goes down, Ben Tate is right there behind him. Ben Tate was actually the “preferred” running back going into last year’s camps and was injured in pre-season. From what Tate showed in the preseason, even if Foster remains healthy, I’d expect more load share just to reduce the wear and tear on Foster, to keep fresher legs on the field AND because there won’t be a cataclysmic drop-off in production. Also, keep in mind that Glacier (Ward) has a surprisingly high YPC as well.
A slight improvement over last year’s D would be disastrous since last year’s D established a new baseline for the concept of “suck”. However, I expect a significant improvement over last year (damning them with faint praise, possibly).

No running game, still a top 5 offense.

Welcome, HWHL!

I believe so, he might get off to a slow start but will manage to do well once get a feel for the game.

Yes, Delone Carter will be a great RB in 3 & 1 situations (something the Colts have failed to covert at times, he’s the power-back that we have been lacking for some time now, I think Darren Evans will have something to offer as well

Strengths: Newly built D-Line and revamped LB corps, our new additions in Sims and Nevis will be keys to our winning on the defensive side of the ball

Weaknesses: The Secondary, Jacob Lacey has been named the #2 CB and his quite inconsistent in man coverage and tends to run away from his zone coverages, also Melvin Bullitt is a serviceable backup at beast but not starter caliber

-Costanzo will take his rookie lumps, but he is for real.

-Carter is probably not an every down back, but very solid. Addai is still the man.

-Jacob Lacey is awful. Why he is starting in place of Justin Tryon is a total mystery. We are one injury away from being totally up sh!t creek when it comes to the secondary. We have no depth at all.

but the problem is that most of them are untested. Powers and Tryon are fan favorites despite both having tackling issues. Powers is easily the number 1 CB, and if his development continues the way it has he could end up in the pro-bowl. Tryon is a hard hitter with amazing closing speed, but he tackles worse than Powers, and by worse, I mean atrociously. Lacey is our number 2 CB, and while he is a man specialist who had been fairly good the past two years, now that he’s been raised to the starting CB spot, he seems to have been told to give a huge cushion, possibly because he can get beat deep. Anyway, it remains to be seen if he will correct this or not. The other 3 are rookies and first year players who show promise but are untested.

Promise: D-line… Freeney has been tearing things apart this preseason, which always benefits Mathis when teams start to double up on Freeney. Not only that we’ve added DT Drake Nevis who has gotten into the backfield more times this preseason than all the other Colt DTs have in the past 2 years combined. We’ve also added Jamaal Anderson and Tyler Brayton who have done very good at stopping the run and containing it in the backfield. As the edge was our big problem last year, they’ve helped fix a major part of that.

2) Castonzo is a real starter. He does look shaky some games, but has generally been consistent and solid, and has seemed to improve with each game. He should be more than adequate, especially if he can put bulk back on.

3) Carter very well could. He’s replaced Donald Brown, and while he’ll only get 40% of the workload or so, He could very well be this years, “Javarris James,” back and score a massive amount of TDs with only a few yards.

4) See above. Strength: D-line; Weakness: Corner experience

Castonzo looked lost occasionally, but it’s nice not to see the Colts left tackle either totally outmatched physically (Charlie Johnson, Jeff Linkenbach) or randomly blowing plays (Tony Ugoh).

Addai is still the main man in the backfield, he fits everything they do. Carter and Brown will be good situationally. Carter is a really powerful runner with more agility than I expected. Brown has always been a fantastic receiver out of the backfield and seemed to make progress in pass blocking and vision which were major problems for him in previous seasons.

DL is very deep, secondary is very shallow.

usually continuity is a good thing on the OL, but when the OL is horrendous…
The line is way more talented than it’s been in years. Castonzo seems legit, Linkenbach had a rough preseason but if he can play like he did in limited time last year he’ll hold of Ijalana for a while longer. The Colts seem to have given up on the whole having guards thing and moved two tackles, Ryan Diem and Joe Reitz inside where they’ve looked pretty good. Saturday isn’t what he use to be, but is still a great player to have.

A Carter/Brown/Evans platoon wouldn’t have the versatility they have with Addai, Addai can do everything in the playbook, but there’s talent there and if the OL is better as it should be Indy can get by without Addai for a bit.

As a true Colts fan, I will see them through regardless of they are winning or losing, even if its one game or all of them. I will be a Colts fan through thick and thin.

I’ll be the loud guy in the upper level who just got liquored up at the Churrascos Club shindig before the game. If we’re down by 28 at halftime, I’ll still be rooting for my team.

No disrespect to Texan fans, but I’ve seen too many of you abandon your team too early. When the Colts went up by ONE point in 2009 (with a good 8 minutes left in the game), I saw a good 5-7,000 Texan fans evacuate Reliant Stadium before the extra point was kicked. If the Colts fall into a 5-score deficit, I’ll just need to find more beer.

9-7 is my most optimistic choice

Maybe 4-2 or 3-3, depends on how well our offense and opposing defenses play

All season: 6 or 7 wins.

First 6 games is a rough stretch. Probably start 1-3, but win the next two. 3-3 through the first 6.

If by some miracle Manning makes it back by then, I think we are still on pace for 9 or 10 wins and a potential playoff berth.

I think 9-7 wins the division this year.

Possibly 4-2 or 3-3 in the first 6 games.

somewhere between 5 and 7 wins.

2-4 or 3-3, even without Manning they are a better team than the Bengals and it’s not unreasonable to think they can take 1-2 games off of the rest of their early schedule HOU, PIT, TB, KC, NO

I predict a 4 win season. Thing is, it could indeed be a 6 to 8 win one, depending on how and if the rest of the team steps up. I don’t see an 0 – 16 shutout, but I don’t see a 12 – 4 season either.

I mean we have Addai, Brown, Carter and Evans. We only carry 4 RBs, if one was to go down then maybe they’ll take a look at him.

We are still trying to get rid of the one we have.

lol… I don’t know if that was meant to be trolling… but you are not going to receive a warm response.

He only got 50 snaps last year because he could usurp either starting pro-bowler. At this point he’s unlikely to usurp any of the 3 or the 4th guy who was a top 10 draft choice. Hughes has been showing some hints of skill, but has disappointed a number of people because he’s no wracked up half a dozen sacks this preseason.

he’s shown some talent and progress, but pass rush opportunities are hard to come by behind Freeney and Mathis. I don’t think he should be written off until he actually gets some PT.

If its a game like last year we’d put in Brayton and Anderson at DE with Foster and Johnson at DT, then switch Sims in for Conner and we’d have a very tough nosed front line. We limited the Packers to 2 YPC with that configuration. They obviously don’t have an Arian Foster, but their ground game is supposed to be good.

Now the only problem with that configuration is that it is a complete sellout vs. the run. Neither Brayton nor Anderson will get pressure on the QB meaning Schuab would have forever to throw.

I think the circumstances make this contest quite a bit less of a Collins v. Phillips battle and more of a ‘who can adapt the fastest to their situation and the weapons they have been given.’

Nah. This will probably be the most relaxed I’ve ever been watching the Colts. No expectations.

Yes, THAT is why we are worried this week… : )

If they are out of contention I would be fine with handing the reins over to Painter to see if he’s worth keeping around then picking up a top WR or DB in the draft.

2) Peyton would have 4 years left in his contract. While getting Luck to fall to us would be an amazing feat and one that the Polians would automatically jump on I think that its about a year too early if this is Manning’s last contract. Having a QB of Luck’s caliber sitting for 4 years is out of the question, so I think the Colts would go with one in a year or two instead of having a Favre/Rodgers situation on their hands.

He can still turn it around, but he’s got to really stop making so many stupid mistakes. I’d actually look for Lefeged to be Bobzilla’s replacement. He hits just as hard as Sanders, but currently lacks the coverage skills.

2) Just to the Packers? Depends of the Packers win the SB again. If they do I’d say 20%, if they don’t then I’d say about 10%. But that is only if Manning doesn’t come back 100%.

Or don’t comment at all.

… and fall right into the Dunning-Kruger effect when discussing sports teams. They really fall flat on their face when they try to evaluate someone who’s been in the profession for years and has been part of two Super Bowl teams, one as head coach.

Is Caldwell a great coach? No. I actually think he’s rather average. But the point is that I don’t think he sucks, and I’m continually amused by the fan reaction to him, as if they see what he does in practice, in tape sessions, and so on. I’m just as aggravated at some of his tendencies as the next guy (my God, let the DB’s press. And don’t call dumb$@%& timeouts). But some people would rather see a guy breath fire and piss brimstone, nevermind that that’s the exact wrong mentality for a team of cool, collected veterans.

Caldwell’s not in danger of making the Hall of Fame, but he shouldn’t be turned out onto the street either. Too many fans judge him on a few seconds out of each game instead of understanding that it’s the workweek days back in Indianapolis where he does most of his job.

Caldwell isn’t. He isn’t perfect and doesn’t show the fire of a guy like Rex Ryan on the field or in press conferences, and has made some new coach mistakes (ill conceived timeouts, etc.) and so it seems like in general people expected him to be more than he was and so since he’s not a HOF coach like Dungy he is obviously not all that good. We COULD have a coach like Del Rio if people wanted a bad coach, but if the coach isn’t flawless, then there is always room to complain.

I will never forgive Caldwell for blowing the perfect season.

I think that fills in the blank very appropriately actually. We don’t know what the Texans defense will be until we see it in a regular season game. By all accounts they should be better, but they were beyond awful last year. 38 year-old Kerry Collins could have shredded that D with the Colts’ WRs. If it goes the Colts way, that may well be why.

I hope he’s not done like this.

If I’m that first surgeon I am double checking my malpractice insurance right now…. just sayin’. $90 mil is going to come from somewhere.

No way he should play after a fusion. No way. And two to three month recovery? I’ll call bullshit on that. He won’t be able to do much for the first month (if it’s like my surgery, including eating without pain, amongst “other” things), and he’ll atrophy over that period. He’s really got to think about life after football.

I just might stop watching football all together after a season like that.

I think you top out at 10ish wins even in a division I don’t think will be good, but the Texans are improved imo and while the Colts would have been as well, without Manning they aren’t.

The Texans are clearly in a better position than the Jags and Titans. They will assume control of the division once the Colts give it up for good (if they haven’t already.) Even so, I agree with Shake. I think the Texans top out at about 10 wins this year. I actually have them at 9-7, but winning the division. They have been the sexy sleeper pick to make a deep playoff run the last couple years, but I don’t think they are ready for that. The gap between they and the Pats, Steelers, Ravens, et al is still significant. Make the playoffs this year. Show me the defense is for real. Then we can talk about next year.