Colts Week 1
White Anthony Walker Jersey , 34-23 loss looks bad on paper if you’re simply looking at the score, but the Colts showed signs of being a team that can make the division very interesting as the season progresses. It wasn’t all good, otherwise they would have won the game, but they were clearly better prepared than in year’s past.The season is obviously very young, so there’s not much that we can truly know about them, but the four quarters we all saw did give us a little peek at what the Colts may be this year. It’s certainly not all doom and gloom, but the team still has a long way to go.Here are 3 things we learned about the Colts in Week 1.The Colts defense is bending a bit too muchIt’s understood that the Colts new defensive scheme is going to have these kind of games where they allow a ton of yards. They want the speed and instincts from their players in order to turn the ball over, and the defense is ultimately made to play with the lead. Similar to the days of Peyton Manning.Well, that didn’t turn out too well Sunday. At first, I presumed the Colts were significantly better in the first half being as the defense had only given up 10 points. That was not the case, in fact, they were technically better in the second half in a couple areas. Let me explain.The Bengals actually were trying to rack up some big plays by putting guys like Joe Mixon in space, but the Colts forced two turnovers in the first half and managed to turn the tide a bit. The Colts did, however, allow 7.36 yards per play (28th) in that first half, but because they were so good on third downs, they weren’t allowing long, sustained drives. They allowed one 10-play drive that ended in a field goal, but otherwise, a 5-play drive — a touchdown drive nonetheless — was the high for Cincinnati in the first half. The Colts’ 22 defensive plays in the first half was fourth-lowest in Week 1.In the second half the Colts allowed 6 yards per play (24th), and that isn’t good either, it’s just less than the first half. They began to allow long drives as Andy Dalton regained his confidence and the Bengals were putting points on the board each [possession. They scored on every meaningful drive in the second half aside from their first.They were equally porous on the ground and through the air allowing 5.1 rushing yards per attempt, and 7.6 net passing yards per attempt throughout the duration of the game, and that simply has to stop.It’s going to be a process, we know that much, this defense is new for most of the Colts. But, Matt Eberflus must scheme a way for them to take away some of the big plays that came in space Sunday. The Colts only allowed 4 plays over 20 yards, but they allowed a 75% completion rate which tells you that the Bengals challenged the Colts to stop them on these underneath routes as the game wore on. The Colts have to be better in that respect, but again, that’s how this defense is designed. The pass rush did create some occasional pressure, but Andy Dalton was 11-of-14 in the second half and was nearly unaffected by it. An increase in successful pressure needs to be created in future games if those in the back seven are going to be able to stop anyone this year.The second half is still the Colts’ enemyThe Colts were 6-of-8 on third downs in the first half. They were rolling. They were getting some good yardage on second downs — 7.5 yards per play (10th) — to make third-and-manageable a regular occurrence Sunday afternoon. They did manage to go 5-of-9 on third downs in the second half, but they simply weren’t doing anything with ball averaging only 4.05 yards per play.With the Bengals scoring on their possessions, the Colts allowed both of their sacks in the second half, Luck nearly threw 2 more interceptions
http://www.authenticsindianapoliscolts.com/cheap-clayton-geathers-jersey , and added the crucial fumble recovery in the final seconds to sew it up. No amount of stats can tell you that a team shouldn’t give away a 23-10 second-half lead with Andrew Luck under center.The thing is, though, is that they did. They were dominated in the fourth quarter, again, and when they did begin to get it together they coughed up the ball. Last season the Colts amassed a total of 3 touchdowns all year, and while you’d have to be quite irrational to think that will be a trend with Luck under center, it’s still a problem that needs to be rectified by Frank Reich at the very least.Colts offensive line is a work in progress, but still better The Colts started two backups, a rookie, a former first-round pick, and an old guy Sunday. Andrew Luck did get forced out of the pocket a handful of times, and did take his two sacks on the day, but with all things considered, this group of lineman did a pretty solid job of protecting the franchise quarterback.Luck dropped back 56 times... Fifty. Six. against one of the better defensive fronts they’ll play all season. The Bengals did generate 8 QB hits behind the line of scrimmage, but very few of those were hard hits or affected Luck’s ability to make the throw outside of the two sacks. It’s not an excuse for them, necessarily, rather more of an acknowledgement for the workload they were tasked with and how they worked together.For some perspective about the group this offensive line had to battle in Week 1, five of them that they matched up against accounted for 31 of the Bengals’ 41 sacks from 2017. That was no small feat in my eyes by this Colts’ line. I was actually pretty encouraged by their efforts and am quite interested to see what they can accomplish once they’re fully healthy.Colts fans are used to having a swiss cheese offensive line, and everyone wants Luck untouched as he comes back from an entire season of rehab — I get it. They may still have a bad year with the injuries they’re accruing, but Week 1 wasn’t one of the games we should attempt to form much of a judgement. They could just as easily improve with such a young group along the front line.There are too many bad things that could have happened with Joe Haeg in his first start at left tackle and the slowest human on earth (J’Marcus Webb) at right tackle — so let’s not overblow this one. It is Week 1 after all.Frank Reich’s offense: The assistant coaching years | Ken Whisenhunt and Doug Pederson Over the next few days I’m going to give you more intricate details on what I expect the 2018 Frank Reich led Indianapolis Colts offense to look like. I have arrived at this conclusion based on his history as a player and a coach. I will say, that while this is an educated theory (I subjected myself to all 16 San Diego Chargers contests of the 2014 season for this series, you’re welcome) it is at best a theory. We don’t know, beyond a shadow of a doubt what his offense is going to look like, but I feel I can get pretty close considering his influences and what the man himself has said. Tomorrow morning we will cover what I expect The 2018 Indianapolis Colts offense to look like. I hope you enjoy reading about the Colts new head coach as much as I have enjoyed researching and writing this piece.Ken WhisenhuntWhisenhunt’s ideology focuses largely around using five receiving options (do the math really quick, 5 is the max) and spreading the defense horizontally. He often looks to get guys open on short quick hitting passes in an effort to get yards after the catch. (see also: West Coast Offense). The first pass play from the 2017 Chargers vs. Dolphins matchup was the spot concept. It fits Whisenhunt’s ideology perfectly and when the 2018 Indianapolis Colts need three to five yards to pick up a first down, I expect to see this concept used. Spot This isn’t the play from that 2017 Chargers game, but it’s close. They did less crossing but I like the dynamics of this “play” more, so this is what I drew up. The idea of the play is to create a simple read for the quarterback and an almost guaranteed open man. As you might imagine this concept creates quite a bit of traffic for defensive backs to try to fight through and it isn’t uncommon to see a receiver run a route seemingly at a defender in an effort to get his teammate open. This concept almost always uses all five receiving options and it gets the ball out quickly. You can find this concept in all 32 teams playbooks but it’s very likely to be used often by Frank Reich. Whisenhunt’s Run GameGenerally speaking, teams will have a mixture of gap blocking and zone blocking concepts on their play sheet, but every team leans one way or the other... every team but the one Whisenhunt is calling plays for. Whisenhunt is the rare offensive coordinator that uses a fullback in 2018, but I’ve seen him use a fullback on a called power play and he’s not afraid to use the same fullback on an outside zone. Granted he doesn’t always bring in a fullback, but he does mix zone and gap schemes at a near even rate, there is seemingly no preference. This is just a simple I-Formation power play. The backside guard pulls playside, the fullback blasts his way through and the running back will be taught where to aim based on what the coaches like. I’ve been taught to read power inside-out meaning that the hole is most likely to open inside
White Ryan Grant Jersey , but I’ve seen a lot of power plays go through the b-gap as well. Again, Whisenhunt will use gap blocking schemes like power at the same rate he uses schemes like the outside zone. It’s an interesting schematic choice that has worked well for Whisenhunt during his long NFL career as a play caller. Doug PedersonNailing down what Doug Pederson’s offense should be called is difficult. I’ve seen other writers describe it as a marriage of the west coast and spread offensive systems, and that’s probably as good of a way to describe it as any. The ball gets out of the quarterbacks hand quick with high percentage throws, most of the time. He works in a lot of “spread” elements and has an answer for seemingly every possible situation. By now you’ve heard the term RPO which is short for run-pass option. During the Eagles Super Bowl run last season TV announcers were declaring every single play action pass a “RPO” and they were wrong a lot. With that said Pederson liked to work in RPO’s but he also liked to have a balanced attack, a big part of his game plan in the divisional round of the playoffs against the Falcons was to wear down their defense with a strong run game. Doug Pederson knows that running the football well doesn’t always lead to wins in the NFL, but the RPO gives his offense a tool to maximize the effectiveness of the run game and also gives his quarterback an easy, one read pass if a key defender is playing the run instead of the pass. I’ve noted above that the center, left guard, left tackle and tight end will all block for a zone run, the guard and tackle in a few of the RPO’s I saw the Eagles run, simply pass block. To this point I haven’t included any defenders in any of these plays because there are just so many variables, I didn’t align that linebacker anywhere specifically I just plopped him down in the general area you’ll normally find him and that’s the guy the quarterback has to key on. If that linebacker follows the running back, the quarterback should pull the ball out and throw the slant. If the linebacker falls into coverage the quarterback should hand the ball off. This creates a simple read that needs to be made quickly, but should result in positive yardage.Another thing to note, Pederson loves a good screen. He called screen passes early and often as a way to get the ball in the hands of play makers in space and allow them to make plays. Screens get the ball out of the quarterbacks hand quickly and, if everyone does their job, can be effective — though there is no evidence of that watching the 2012-2017 Indianapolis Colts.Doug Pederson’s Run GamePederson is another weirdo who doesn’t seem to have a preference between zone and gap run concepts. With that said my gut tells me he uses more zone schemes, but that could just be due to how much I love the split zone plays the Eagles used so well last season. Split ZoneThe Split Zone works much the same way as a regular zone run, though it is normally run as an inside zone, the running back still has Bounce, Bang and Bend, the biggest difference comes on the backside of the play. Normally the backside defender, an outside linebacker or defensive end, is on the receiving end of a cut block from the backside tackle. The split zone allows the backside tackle to work to the second level easier than in a normal zone concept. The backside defender is then blocked by a fullback or tight end (highlighted above with the red box) who usually lines up playside at the snap of the ball. Once the ball is snapped the tight end flows to the backside of the play, much like a pulling guard except he’s “pulling” the opposite direction. This play does a couple things, if a linebacker keys on the tight end moving across the formation and follows him to the backside of the play, it will open a hole that will allow the back to take his “bang” read and run it up the gut. If no linebackers follow the flowing blocker it means that as long as that flowing blocker executes against the backside defender the “bend” read will create a huge hole on the backside of the play. Obviously this is all dependent on the defensive alignment and the offense executing. I’ve heard it said that all plays are designed to be perfect, it ultimately comes down to execution. It also comes down to a well timed play call, anticipating when a defense may give you a look that will allow your called play an opportunity to work. Frank Reich’s offense: An introductionFrank Reich’s offense: The Maryland yearsFrank Reich’s offense: The NFL yearsFrank Reich’s offense: The assistant coaching years, part 1Frank Reich’s offense: The 2018 Indianapolis Colts, part 1Frank Reich’s offense: The 2018 Indianapolis Colts, part 2