AFC Championship Game : Patriots vs. Colts -- Pre-Game Thread

[dales804]

is bryan stork done for the year ? or could he come if they get to the SB I have not heard anything that would suck big time if his done for the year

Nothing official has been said. All we know is that Stork left the game, Pats declared him out for the remainder of it. He wasn't in the locker room after during media availability.

The Twitter account @ProFootballDoc says it looked like an MCL strain and, depending on the severity, he will probably miss this week but could return for SB, if they get that far. Here's one of his tweets:

David J. Chao, MD @ProFootballDoc · Jan 10
.@Patriots advance but will likely be without center BRYAN STORK next week. At least significant right knee MCL sprain. OK by Super Bowl.

Take it for what it's worth. He's been right before.

 

[chasa]

thankfully the patriots require their olinemen to wear braces, this could have been much worse.

 

[Double TE]

Can Cannon play RG or do we have to see Kline? UGH

 

[dales804]

Can Cannon play RG or do we have to see Kline? UGH

He was terrible at LG this year. I would guess Kline gets the start at RG. Causes the least amount of shuffling.

 

[QuantumMechanic]

Plus Brady is doing a lot of running this season - probably has more yards this season than his entire career - and so our O will certainly be more challenging.

I know there's a smiley , but it's not even close. Brady had 57 yards rushing this season.
2003: 63
2001: 66
2005: 89
2007: 98
2006: 102
2011: 109
2002: 110

http://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/B/BradTo00.htm#rushing_and_receiving::none

 

[Dexter]

He was terrible at LG this year. I would guess Kline gets the start at RG. Causes the least amount of shuffling.

I won't be surprised if Fleming will be the one.

 

[Mack Herron]

thankfully the patriots require their olinemen to wear braces, this could have been much worse.

Hopefully, but not necessarily. He could have torn his ACL for all we know.

 

[tmajr3]

Thoughts on Walt Anderson as red for AFCCG

 

[NYCPatsFan]

I know there's a smiley , but it's not even close. Brady had 57 yards rushing this season.
2003: 63
2001: 66
2005: 89
2007: 98
2006: 102
2011: 109
2002: 110

http://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/B/BradTo00.htm#rushing_and_receiving::none

Thanks bud!

and yes, that was tongue-in-cheek. My emoticon was actually a big grin.

Looking at the stats that you were kind enough to post: Yikes!!..talk about a downward trend! Enough reason to fire him and bring a QB who can run. Jeez...

 

[SHOWTIME15]

Nothing official has been said. All we know is that Stork left the game, Pats declared him out for the remainder of it. He wasn't in the locker room after during media availability.

The Twitter account @ProFootballDoc says it looked like an MCL strain and, depending on the severity, he will probably miss this week but could return for SB, if they get that far. Here's one of his tweets:

Take it for what it's worth. He's been right before.

Grade 1 Sprain is 1-2 weeks. Grade 2 sprain 3-4 weeks. Grade 3 - 2 months

 

[fightingirish595]

I'm watching the nfl network and Lavar Arrington just ranked the patriots defense 3rd out of the 4 defenses left and that the colts have a better defense than us right now. Then Terrell Davis said we had the worst offense out of the teams left. I just realized how much of a joke the nfl network is

 

[IllegalContact]

I think it's good to have people out there talking up the colts.......
2012 - 59-24
2013 - 43-22
2014 - 42-20....even though the pats were a -1 TO diff........this game was a bigger beating than the score would indicate.....AT INDY

but I am sure everything has changed over the last 2 months....the colts defense has improved because they played some suck-arse QB's down the stretch.......but any decent one who was healthy has torn the colts a new one......even romo went 18-20 for 4 TD's....roethlisberger threw for over 500

the talk of the town was the broncos taking the load off of manning by running with cj anderson for the last 2 months.......you can see why.......manning is a corpse right now....the broncos had not beaten a playoff team since week 5....yeah, they sucked long before the colts showed up

sorry guys........it'll be fun reading everyone's psychoses this week

 

[dales804]

So will IND continue to blitz Brady? If you read one of the posts on Reiss' blog this morning, you can see how much they blitzed Brady in the matchup earlier this year (53.5% of dropbacks). We all know that Brady kills teams when they blitz (best QBR in the league against it). I have a feeling IND changes things up and goes with the 4-man rush and 7 in coverage game plan, at least initially. If that doesn't work, then they might as well get back to attacking.

I hope NE runs the ball successfully and makes it even more difficult on their pass rush because of the threat of play action.

 

[dales804]

Stork the only player missing from practice. Good that Browner was out there. They practiced in full pads.

Source

 

[PatsDeb]

Blount in playoffs vs Colts last season: 24 carries, 166yards, 6.9average 4 TDs.
Gray in regular season vs Colts this season: 37 carries, 201 yards, 5.4 average 4 TDs.

Ridley scored 2 TDs on the Colts in the same game Blount had 4. We know exactly how New England will attack the Colts. We know exactly how the Colts will attack New England. One has been massively more effective than the other.

This makes me feel a little better as I bet Gray does not play this weekend, and I am in the camp of those who think Blount just isn't that good (okay on the goalline when you need one yard and late in games where the D is worn down. Elsewhere pffffffft). Also, in the game where Gray ran away with it, didn't we use an extra o-lineman all game? They will be ready for that this weekend (although whether they can adjust is still up for grabs as they couldn't adjust last time we played). Now there is rain in the forecast for Sunday night (great for those of us going, NOT). Does that change our game plan? Brandon Bolden anyone?

I know a lot of folks think this will be a walkover for the Pats but I thought Indy looked pretty good on Sunday, broken Peyton or not. They have a small shifty back that has emerged since we played them, that Denver couldn't contain, and we had trouble with one of those this past week. They clogged up the middle and held Peytie Pie and his good receiving corps. to three yard dump offs with no yards after the catch. The Denver running game could not get going. What are the Pats going to do to counter all this? Sideline throws (which admittedly Peyton could not do)?

 

[The Brandon Five]

Stork the only player missing from practice. Good that Browner was out there. They practiced in full pads.

Source

DBs Davis (Knee) and Toler (Groin...ouch!) did not practice for the Colts. Interesting. Also LB D'Qwell Jackson (Rest).

They have 6 CBs and 5 Safeties on the 53.

The Colts inactives vs. the Broncos were:

COLTS: CB Jalil Brown, RB Trent Richardson, CBSheldon Price, LB Henoc Muamba, OL Xavier Nixon, OL Jonotthan Harrison, DL Zach Kerr

So they started 9 DBs. Not sure if some of them are strictly ST'ers. Will be something to watch in the game if Davis or Toler re-aggravate those injuries. I recall Davis going to the locker room in the Broncos game.

 

[Marqui]

I'm watching the nfl network and Lavar Arrington just ranked the patriots defense 3rd out of the 4 defenses left and that the colts have a better defense than us right now. Then Terrell Davis said we had the worst offense out of the teams left. I just realized how much of a joke the nfl network is

Did you watch the Raven's game, our D flat out sucked for most of it. Stop being a homer.

 

[Deus Irae]

The Colts now have a distraction to deal with:

Colts linebacker Josh McNary has been charged with rape in Indianapolis.

The Indianapolis Star reports that McNary faces one count of rape, one count of criminal confinement and one count of battery.

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2015/01/14/colts-josh-mcnary-charged-with-rape/

 

[The Brandon Five]

DBs Davis (Knee) and Toler (Groin...ouch!) did not practice for the Colts. Interesting. Also LB D'Qwell Jackson (Rest).

They have 6 CBs and 5 Safeties on the 53.

The Colts inactives vs. the Broncos were:

COLTS: CB Jalil Brown, RB Trent Richardson, CBSheldon Price, LB Henoc Muamba, OL Xavier Nixon, OL Jonotthan Harrison, DL Zach Kerr

So they started 9 DBs. Not sure if some of them are strictly ST'ers. Will be something to watch in the game if Davis or Toler re-aggravate those injuries. I recall Davis going to the locker room in the Broncos game.

The Colts have 6 DL on their 53. They had 5 active for the Broncos game. It will be interesting to see if they carry an extra DB as insurance (in place of a 5th DL) for Davis and Toler. Or, they could go the other way and load up to stop the run.

 

[The Brandon Five]

The Colts now have a distraction to deal with:



http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2015/01/14/colts-josh-mcnary-charged-with-rape/

Wow. Not good.

He is primarily a ST'er.