Silver Lining - Pats O vs. Colts D

[Xzibit23]

It's pretty obvious that the road to the SB goes through Indy. That being said, the Pats showed everybody and themselves last night that a January game in Indy is winnable. The 2 biggest reasons:

1)Volmer proved he could at least contain Freeney, and that pretty much is the difference between what the Pats O did last night and what they did in the Superbowl 2 years ago. But because the OLine held their own, it showed that....

2)The Colts have no answer for Randy Moss, who caught 180 Yards of passing and now leads the NFL in receiving yards. Their inexperienced secondary was absolutely gutted last night, and I mean GUTTED.

 

[fair catch fryar]

In the end, I believe this all going to be anti-climactic because Indy will obviously cruise now and get a bye. That said, I wouldn't be surprised to see someone like Pittsburgh go into Indy and knock them out of the playoffs.

 

[Jangles]

2)The Colts have no answer for Randy Moss, who caught 180 Yards of passing and now leads the NFL in receiving yards. Their inexperienced secondary was absolutely gutted last night, and I mean GUTTED.

Kind of

Randy had some big catches but it wasn't like Brady found success wherever he looked.

There were a few crucial 3 and outs and missed scoring opportunities. If we're going to play like a team with not much faith in our defense then we can't be leaving points on the field with the offense

 

[chris66]

Colts d stepped up pretty good in the last Pats 2 offensive possessions.

 

[Jangles]

Colts d stepped up pretty good in the last Pats 2 offensive possessions.

And that was frustrating

Our offense performed very well for the most part but against such an inexperienced secondary I thought they could have done more

 

[Colts18to87]

It's pretty obvious that the road to the SB goes through Indy. That being said, the Pats showed everybody and themselves last night that a January game in Indy is winnable. The 2 biggest reasons:

1)Volmer proved he could at least contain Freeney, and that pretty much is the difference between what the Pats O did last night and what they did in the Superbowl 2 years ago. But because the OLine held their own, it showed that....

2)The Colts have no answer for Randy Moss, who caught 180 Yards of passing and now leads the NFL in receiving yards. Their inexperienced secondary was absolutely gutted last night, and I mean GUTTED.

You gotta remember our best seconday player Kelvin Hayden did not play and will be back by playoff time. So Randy, who is a awesome player, will have a much tougher time against Hayden. Welker I think will be the problem for us in the playoffs.

 

[mystrymaster]

It's pretty obvious that the road to the SB goes through Indy. That being said, the Pats showed everybody and themselves last night that a January game in Indy is winnable. The 2 biggest reasons:

1)Volmer proved he could at least contain Freeney, and that pretty much is the difference between what the Pats O did last night and what they did in the Superbowl 2 years ago. But because the OLine held their own, it showed that....

2)The Colts have no answer for Randy Moss, who caught 180 Yards of passing and now leads the NFL in receiving yards. Their inexperienced secondary was absolutely gutted last night, and I mean GUTTED.

Randy didn't gut our young corners. None of his big catches came against our corners. 1 came again Brackett and 2 against our safeties. Powers and Lacey did a good job when they were on Moss.

I think last night's game proved 1 thing.

Both teams are good and match up very well against each other.

 

[NYCPatsFan]

If our O has been that great, where did it disappear in the second half ? And it is not as if this is the first time this is happening, right?

I was livid when Maroney fumbled because I just couldn't let the memories of the previous AFCC game when Manning took our tired D apart in the second half.

Unfortunately it was deja-vu, again. .

 

[Jimke]

It's pretty obvious that the road to the SB goes through Indy. That being said, the Pats showed everybody and themselves last night that a January game in Indy is winnable. The 2 biggest reasons:

1)Volmer proved he could at least contain Freeney, and that pretty much is the difference between what the Pats O did last night and what they did in the Superbowl 2 years ago. But because the OLine held their own, it showed that....

2)The Colts have no answer for Randy Moss, who caught 180 Yards of passing and now leads the NFL in receiving yards. Their inexperienced secondary was absolutely gutted last night, and I mean GUTTED.

I thought Butler was the steal of the draft but I now believe Vollmer

is the steal. He did a heck of a job on Freeney and should be a

fixture for many years.

 

[Jangles]

If our O has been that great, where did it disappear in the second half ? And it is not as if this is the first time this is happening, right?

I was livid when Maroney fumbled because I just couldn't let the memories of the previous AFCC game when Manning took our tired D apart in the second half.

Unfortunately it was deja-vu, again. .

Agreed

I have complete faith in the offense but after all the FG drives and 3 and outs my faith has been shaken somewhat.

 

[chris_in_sunnyvale]

The silver lining is that this loss is a wakeup call to the coaching staff. The 4th quarter was so full of coaching mistakes that I can imagine they have to learn from them. To wit:

- For 3 quarters the OL does a decent job on Freeney and Mathis. Then in the 4th quarter these DEs collapse on Tom (mostly Mathis). Yet the tackles (particularly Kaczur) are left alone repeatedly on these two. A little help was in order.

- For 3 quarters the offense does a decent job keeping the Colts' D off balance, mixing up formations, mixing up running and passing from shotgun, using playaction and attacking downfield. In the 4th quarter, the offense goes almost exclusively shotgun and when they ran from it, they went to the well one too many times and the Colts were ready, putting the O in 2nd- and 3rd-and-long. When they threw, they did so horizontally almost exclusively...nothing vertically. The Colts eat that horizontal game up.

- For 3 quarters the offense does a very good job bottling up Clark and Wayne. In the 4th quarter, Clark gets free for a 19yd catch to start the comeback. Right away it became obvious the Pats were playing soft after playing tight the whole game.

- The end-of-game timeout management was horrendous. The 4th-down call reeked of spur-of-the-moment decision-making instead of a calculated decision (in which I bet they run it twice on 3rd-and-2).

Let's hope the coaching staff learns from these mistakes and remembers them well into February. Better to make these mistakes now than then.

Regards,
Chris

 

[coltsfan]

You gotta remember our best seconday player Kelvin Hayden did not play and will be back by playoff time. So Randy, who is a awesome player, will have a much tougher time against Hayden. Welker I think will be the problem for us in the playoffs.

Jerraud Powers is our best secondary player, that kid is a stud. Hayden used to be good, but has been hurt for about 16 straight games now. Jackson could never cover 1/10 as well as Powers, he's a zone guy all the way.

Powers has made a huge difference.

 

[D-Money]

The offense didnt put the colts away!!Thats how i saw it last night.The game was loss when it was 31-21 and this team didnt put up a touchdown.This team has had problems in the red zone all year!

 

[patsinthesnow]

I thought Butler was the steal of the draft but I now believe Vollmer

is the steal. He did a heck of a job on Freeney and should be a

fixture for many years.

The only positive I can make out of this game. Also, I would call him more then a fixture. Vollmer just stopped Freeney's streak of 9 straight games with a sack. Kid is something special.

 

[BionicPatriot]

The only positive I can make out of this game. Also, I would call him more then a fixture. Vollmer just stopped Freeney's streak of 9 straight games with a sack. Kid is something special.

Yup, this offense is beastly. Just not when it counts. We need our tough runners back so they can pick up the hard yards. Maroney's OK, but he's not the guy to pick up the tough yards in the 4th qtr.