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 Turn out the lights, the party is over. All good things must come to an end. Call it a night.
Alright, so you don't enjoy older country music like I do, but you can see where I am going. The Colts lost to the Titans in a must win so (while it is still in the math for a playoff spot) I gotta believe that the Colts just punched their ticket to the golf courses. Who is to blame and what the Hell is going on? I will talk about it more inside, but I will start by saying the Colts did not lose this game on defense. That defense played very well. Robert Mathis is sensational. Clint Sessions is great. Melvin Bullitt could start for just about any team.
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The questions I have go as thus:
1. Is the losing season the Colts are having a result of personnel difficulties (injury, youth, inexperience, off-season delays, draft misses) or is it endemic to the program on a greater scale?
2. Has the coaching staff lost the attention of the team?
3. Should Manning continue with as much control as he  currently has over the playcalling?
4. Is Manning's playcalling becoming stale or predictable?
5. The Colts have proved several times that the speed concept on defense is a viable concept, so why are they so inconsistent?
6. What is going on with Tony Ugoh? Is he going to play or not?
7. Are Mannings skills eroding?
Here is what I think
#6 I read on Friday that the Colts were working Ugoh out on first team and that they had moved Charlie Johnson into the right guard spot. Then I read a piece where Tarik Glenn said that the coaches were really behind Johnson and that he was their man. On game night i think we saw something interesting. Jamey Richards had been playing right guard, but there was no way Howard Mudd was going to line him up against Haynesworth. It appears that Mudd has decided that Johnson is the firefighter, and that Mudd is going to throw him against the toughest assignment the line faces in a given week. If the assingment is a tough end, then Johnsons plays end. If the guy is a tackle, Johnson plays guard. Only more games will tell if that is now the tactic. I believe that Ugoh is the superior tackle when he is on. He is clearly the better athlete. He gets out of his stance better, he has longer arms and keeps people there better. He plays the outside rush better when Johnson is not quick enough to get out on the perimeter speed rush. If he has effort issues, and that is what is keeping him off the field, then that problem will be more manifest down the road when we can't keep him and Johnson doesn't perform well enough at tackle to be a long term option.
#7. No. He can still throw all the passes and fit them in places 95% of the other guys can't. He still moves well in the pocket. The physical skills are all intact. I don't know about the other stuff. I wonder myself.
#5 See #2.
#2 It is a question a lot of people are asking and I think it may be worth talking about. The fan in me has a knee-jerk, violent reaction that wants to rail against people who question the staff, but I think it is valid. If you were to show me this team's games, without prior knowledge of the team, I would tell you that they need a firmer hand. They aren't focused. Their inconsistency is either the product of a lack of focus or mental fatigue, since this team is so young, I am tentatively going with lack of focus. At this moment I propose a good cop/bad cop routine. Keep Dungy as the good cop, find a steaming bitch of a defensive coordinator to chew some heads.
#1 I DON'T KNOW
#3 No
#4 Yes
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2 Comments
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2008 Cubs Preview
I know we have talked about it during the drafts, but we have really missed out on some key defensive players at DT and LB! Hey, let's draft another TE to be our 5th on the roster!
Or lets spin our wheels and pick up just one more center. We need a bigger, more physical presence at guard. How long will we have to wait for it? Yeah, Polian has great drafts in a historical sense, but when we need a player now and the need is clear, he never wants to pull the trigger. I have to admit passing on a linebacker for the strongside has resulted in some pretty good play from Sessions.