Indy defense and their playoff opponents

[SVN]

i think everyone is ignoring the main thing here...IMO..
they still have a great offense...they won 12 games with a sucky defense...the issue is not the colts defense...can we shut down the colts offense like the ravens did who had better personnel than us ? that is the key...everyone is going gaga over this colts D. but its that offense which scares me most. samuel and hobbs were overmatched against wayne and harrison
People are just seeing peyton play and think he wont play well but ravens arent a slouch at D either...

 

[Triumph]

I'm just a humble country football watcher so I ain't even know about all this fancy statistics stuff and game plans and whatnot.

But I know what my eyes tell me. And my eyes tell me that the colts were playing some pretty darned good defense. And they were hitting hard and playing physical.

Kansas City did not get a first down in the first half. They had like 6 possessions for a total of 24 plays, of which 6 were punts. I'm not going to argue that the Chiefs were a dominant offensive team this year. They had trouble scoring this year against good defenses -- scoring 10 or fewer points in most of their games against good opposing defenses. But they also were able to score in the 30s and once in the 40s against average defenses. And the bottom line is that whatever one wants to say about game plans or Herm, at some point, zero first downs speaks for itself.

I agree we don't need the anointing oil just yet, but they are much improved.

Yes, INDY has looked much better, but Kc's game plan was about as imaginative as vanilla ice cream. Everyone in the NFL knew they would try to come in and run Larry Johnson. KC looked like they had no contingency plan if that didn't work. Herpy Edwards seemed to throw in the towel because KC couldn't block or run the ball. He had that 5 mile stare like on the Jets sideline.

When they did try to throw, their passing game looked like dog$hit. Granted, some passes were dropped, but I didn't see any rhythm or reason to what they were trying to offensively.

I guarantee you NE will be able to run on INDY. Maroney will thrive on this surface. They will throw to set up the run. If INDY loads the box Brady will make them pay over the top.

 

[Triumph]

i think everyone is ignoring the main thing here...IMO..
they still have a great offense...they won 12 games with a sucky defense...the issue is not the colts defense...can we shut down the colts offense like the ravens did who had better personnel than us ? that is the key...everyone is going gaga over this colts D. but its that offense which scares me most. samuel and hobbs were overmatched against wayne and harrison
People are just seeing peyton play and think he wont play well but ravens arent a slouch at D either...

Yes, but if NE can run the ball and keep Manning on the sideline half the battle is won. The best D is the ball in NE's possession.

 

[arrellbee]

The other issue is that neither team attacked Indy's true weakness in run D, draws and runs off tackle. Both KC and Baltimore called over 80% of their runs straight up the middle. As poor as Indy has been all year, that is the one area that they hadn't been that bad.

But draws and runs off tackle had scorched them badly.
Especially to the offensive left to Freeney's side. He is non-existent against the run. Mathis is not so easy to run against if you run to the right side.

Edited to add that Baltimore's two long runs were runs where the middle was so dominated by Indy that Lewis broke outside almost immediately. And they still kept running right up the middle!

..........................

 

[BelichickFan]

Additionally about this run defense :

For the season, Larry Johnson averages 4.16 in his first 15 carries per game and 4.77 in his 16-30 carries per game. Guess how many carries he got against Indy ? 13. Yes his average of 2.5 was well below 4.16 but most RB, and these stats show Johnson is among them, get better with more carries. 13 carries is nothing. NOTHING.

As for Jamal Lewis, he averaged 3.6 YPC for the season and 4.1 against Indy. What's so great about allowing 0.5 YPC more than his season average ? Again, the problem was 13 measly carries.

 

[SVN]

Yes, but if NE can run the ball and keep Manning on the sideline half the battle is won. The best D is the ball in NE's possession.

actually i never believed in that...we run the ball for 8 mins and score and if manning hits 4 plays and score it doesnt mean much...we must pass to score and run to win..our problem last 2 times we faced indy...we never got ahead, and once colts scored it was always downhill pressure on our offense , thats what the indy offense does
so the first thing would be to stop the colts and get ahead, i think its our onyl chance to win.
the indy D is built on playing from ahead which is what they have done in all their wins this season