I have a seasoned bullshit filter at this point in life.

He's probably pissed, but he's old. He's probably as tired as we are but even more so since he's the one paying for all of it. I'm 30+ years younger than Jim, I pay nothing, and I'm tired. Bless him.

I'm still fucking mad and I know I shouldn't be. I expected to lose today and I've been expecting mediocrity. Matt fucking Ryan mediocrity ...so it goes...

I was one the the ones who was excited to have Ryan at the end of his career. Last shot at a ring, very cerebral QB, doesn't turn the ball over unnecessarily. Motivated to get one. Holy fuck was I wrong. He is not the same guy I watched play in Atlanta.

Matt Ryan is not the problem, aside from his inexplicable inability to hold on to the damn ball.

The problem is the offensive line. It’s the worst I’ve seen since some of those awful Luck years.

Look at it this way-what do you think would have happened to Philip Rivers behind this line? He would have already been hurt or retired. He sure as hell wouldn’t be doing as well as Ryan has.

The quarterback just doesn’t have a chance with this OLine.

Luke Schultheis
@LuckAtLuke
Per NFL Next gen stats, the Colts are facing an 8 man box only 8.64% of the time, so this is not reality.

The guys up front simply aren't winning their matchups (quote via
@zkeefer
).

what you say is true


ryan can still play. but part of the problem with his turnovers is himself. like you referenced.

there is probably no fix this year. it can get better but by how much? i would guess not a lot. so ryan will continue to be fail.

99 percent of the Colts issues this year can be traced back to how bad the OLine is. Everything else springs from that.

I mean, the deal with Ryan was "look how good he can be if he has time to throw in the pocket. He has a good release and is accurate."

That still holds true, even this season. In the 2nd half the protection was better (not great, but much better than that disasterous first half) and he did some decent things when he had time.

However, I don't think anyone would have been clamoring for Matt Ryan if they knew the OL would be this piss poor.

Ryan is not the problem outside of the fumbling. I'm not being a smart ass, I like a lot of what he's doing. But like I said in the other thread... a relatively simple negative play turns into a game-altering catastrophe. 9 fumbles is bananas. That's two games where the offense was moving, but we kept giving it away.

As for the OL... Reich basically said in coach-speak today that we're compensating for two guys. We have a guard playing LT and a back-up playing RG. Raimann needs to bump Pryor inside. I think that would help the run-game a lot, too.

For now, the coaches seem to think that the pass-pro was much better yesterday and I agree. They got beat a few times (other guys get paid, too) but there wasn't this non-stop onslaught collapsing the pocket every play like JAX/KC. If we can pass like yesterday going forward and Ryan can simply fall on the ball if he's in trouble... I think they can beat a lot of teams.

This is what should piss us of the most. How the hell did the coaching staff and FO not realize that Pryor isn't quick enough off the snap to block speed rushers or that Pinter isn't strong enough to play OG in the NFL? It's just fucking mind boggling.

Well, look, there's multiple aspects to this. For the guys we have... Pryor has been serviceable. Obviously he's not ideal, but he's not totally lost. He's just a guard. Pinter spelled Kelly last year and did decent. I'm really surprised at how poorly he played.

They still drafted Raimann to be the LT. It's clear they want him to take over with the rotation and unfortunately his injury halted that progress. By the way, he was full participation last Friday and looks like he's not on the injury report anymore. Hopefully this happens soon.

And then we just can't know about free agency except in regards to the teams that sign the guys. Like we talked about Terron Armstead a lot here. Did the Colts not like him? Was 5yr/$75m too expensive? Did Armstead just flat out say "No" to the Colts? I would love to know that kind of stuff, but unfortunately all we can know is that he signed with Miami.

Pryor's been a turnstile a couple of games, and as you said he's a guard not a tackle. Why would the FO even consider handing him the starting job at the most important spot on the OL at a position he isn't suited for? They saw him in practice everyday for an entire season and unless they're completely incompetent (which they might be) they must know he's not suited to play LT.

Same goes for Pinter. Like you I am surprised that he struggled as much as he did, but you and I aren't watching him in practice everyday. I read that Pinter struggled all throughout training camp w/ bull rushes, which of course continued into the season. This can't be something new with him. You would think at least Strausser would have known that Pinter would be a disaster, and that he would let Ballard know this before Ballard let's guys like Glow and Reed walk with the expectation that Pinter could step in as a starter. Maybe the FO and coaching staff are working in silos or Strausser is too big of a pussy to say anything to Ballard.

Agree on Raimann, but it can't be wise to pin your hopes on a 3rd round rookie out of mid major who's only played the position for 2 years. Not to say that he's not going to pan out in the long term, but from a realistic standpoint he's probably going to struggle his rookie year.

I think it was you and me that talked about it when it happened... But to me, letting Glow and then Reed leave were some of the more surprising moves they've made. Didn't like it then, don't like it now.

I can only guess that they were satisfied Painter's 2021 film and thought he could make the move to guard. His backup being young Will Fries might be part of the reason they stuck with him so long. Fries had much better pass-pro than Pinter.

But Pryor is massive and God knows we need some push in the interior. I really hope they're considering it.

My guess is they didnt want to pay glow and reed, I am surprised they didnt keep one of them. They bet on pinter and lost.

I get that maybe they couldnt get a LT to sign, but if truly believed that pryor was acceptable then they have major issues.

Yeah, I hope they are too. And if Raimann isn't ready then put Dennis Kelly at LT and move Pryor to RG.

Agree on Glow and Reed. Especially Glow b/c based on what we've seen this year he may have been our best OL and the glue that kept the OL from turning into a shit sandwich. Also, I know Reed probably gave Minny a somewhat hometown discount, but you would think we could have outbid them for not much more than the 2 year, $4.5M contract they gave him if he was given a legitimate chance to start here.

I'm sure the plan has been to have Pinter replace Glow from the day Pinter was drafted, which that type of thing is pretty standard across the league. It's just crazy how far off the coaching staff/FO was on his evaluation after having him on the team for 2 seasons.

Agree that we maybe couldn't have brought in a FA LT w/out breaking the bank, but there had to have been a better option than Pryor. Just go look at the link in Chromeburn's post. Pryor is completely lost out there.