Fire frank reich
 

So, this article just appeared on Yahoo. This is Frank's response in regards to the lack of the run and throwing it 26 times straight:

"Normally someone will say something to me. Nothing was said to me during that stretch but sometimes something like that will be said,” Reich said. “The reason probably no one was saying anything was because a lot of the things we were calling were working. A lot of them were working against a really good defense. So, I think that’s probably why.”

Says it all. The response is so low-key snarky and to me personifies what I bet he is like in terms of being "smart" and others not being so leave him alone. However the thing that stands out to me is the very first statement:

"Normally someone will say something to me. Nothing was said to me during that stretch but sometimes something like that will be said,”

So the head cheese admits that others on the staff / team have had to question what he is doing with play calling during games- ala- "do you realize what you are doing". "NORMALLY"- so is it like pretty much an every game thing, because as a fan, it's pretty damn close to that, seldom do you watch him coach and feel "good" about his overall management. He is a QB coaching a QB he wants to prop up because of his emotional investment in him. It's creating hero ball stuff and it's killing this very good, very well rounded team.

If he isn't fired, Ballard isn't holding up his end of the deal. This guy is a disaster, he is way too focused on what HE can do vs what the TEAM can do. He needs to go!

this is dumb and you are reaching. head coaches should rely on assistant coaches to point things out that he may not be noticing, that's one of the reasons you have assistant coaches.

You have JT and you don't realize you have passed the ball 26 straight times, and your assistants aren't saying anything. You have lost momentum and are watching your lead waste away and the assistants don't say anything.

Fine, can the assistants too.

The Colts began this game determined to beat the Bucs with a strong running game. The Bucs began the game determined to take Taylor out of the equation and they succeeded . It was the passing game that put the Colts up 24 to 14. In the third quarter I believe that Bucs were determined to continue to stop the run, thinking the Colts would come out running to begin the 2nd half. So passing was called for. I do believe there should have been some runs mixed in but if an RPO is called and the pass proves to be the best option then that's what they did. The decision is not done before hand but as the play unfolds. It was unfortunate turnovers that cost the Colts this game, not the play calling. To me, the dumbest play call was when they went for it on 4th and 2 instead of kicking the chip shot field goal. It worked and they got a TD, but I'll go to my grave believing it was the wrong call. There's an old saying, success has a thousand fathers and failure is an orphan.

You can point to a lot of things that cost the Colts that game, but when your opponent is of the quality of the Bucs and the QB is Brady, you cannot turn the ball over like the Colts did. Coaches call the plays, players execute the plays. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don't, but the coaches never turn the ball over. That's on the players.

DE's don't even try to hedge the run when you've basically stood up and said "we're not running, so come as hot as you can off the corner". Our PassPro has been pretty bad all season and was again last night, and the coaching decisions fed right into that becoming a huge turning point in the game.

The man has proven he is guilty of falling in love with the pass. And I too will go to the grave believing something, I believe Frank Reich has emotionally attached himself to the Wentz rise from the ashes story and we have play calls going that direction to further support that cause. I will also go the grave believing we are losing ball games because of it.

your post implied that having someone point something out to the HC was a bad thing.

I agree, even with the pass working, not having some runs mixed into a stretch of 26 plays is not how to operate.

This is silly.

Over the course of those 26 passes, the Colts scored a touchdown, moved the ball 45 yards to the Buccaneer 20, and moved into Buccaneer territory yet again.

Not a single drive stalled because they failed to convert a 3rd down.

You can argue that running the ball would have kept the Bucs honest, but on the interception, the Colts had Pittman matched up against a lone Safety, which is just about as good as it gets.

The NFL’s game replay shows something weird going on in Pittman’s stride, almost as if he was shoved by Winfield. But, mysteriously enough, they give us no slow motion view of the play, and replays start after the point where Pittman broke stride

As far as I’m concerned, the Pascal fumble was the crucial play of the game. It breathed life into a Buccaneer Offense that had been flopping around like a beached trout.

No question at all that there was a tug on Pittman to gain leverage and of course it isn't called, of course. Who F'ing knows, with the WWE sh!t this league pulls, sh!t Frank may not even be the one making the calls.

This is silly.

If Taylor had torn his ACL on rush attempt #28 last week, you would blast Reich for being an idiot and keeping him in a blowout game.

Likewise, if we miss on 4th and goal yesterday... "Frank Reich doesn't like points."... But, we scored a TD so now it was a good decision.

If Taylor fumbled at the TB 20 instead of Wentz yesterday ... "Why didn't we keep throwing it? Wentz was hot and TB was selling out against the run! Goddamn Frank Reich!"

Guys turn into retroactive Nostradamus after a loss.

Been on the Frank sucks train for a lot longer than yesterday. Too many games where you question what he is doing and can speculate that what he did was a huge contributing factor to the loss. The 4th down play yesterday, said it in the thread, bad call. Worked out, which is great, but again called it out as the wrong call.

At some point a trend is a trend and not an isolated thing. We have a trend of Frank losing track of the NFL's best running game, and IMO that has been a large part of half of our losses this season, to me, that's a huge coaching issue.

Even with all those turnovers, the Colts were in this game. The running game didn't work until the Bucs let up on run D and looked to stop the pass. But we can't give Reich credit for seeing that and going exclusively to the run, because he's an idiot. The passing game gave them the lead and would have been the reason the Colts won if not for all the turnovers. Early on, the Bucs (a great defensive team) went all out to stop the run and they did. Smart teams take what the defense gives them and do not bang their heads against the wall. JT is our best weapon, but the Bucs said "you won't beat us with your best weapon, go ahead and try"

I do question the reason for no runs whatsoever in the 3rd quarter, but the lack of runs is not what lost this game,

IT WAS THE TURNOVERS

Can’t turn it over four times and expect to win at any level of football.

The Hines muffed punt was worse. The defense had just done an excellent job, and had to go right back out at about the 15 yard line.

Just said the same in another thread. That was the killer

Colts put up 400 yards of offense and 31 points against a REALLY talented defense and people want the coach fired.

Ridiculous.

Colts stand a very good chance of missing the playoffs [AGAIN] with arguably the best RB in the league, definitely top 5 OL in the league, a really good QB, a dynamic perineal all-pro on defense, one of the very best DLmen in the league, and probably the game's best slot corner.

They have lost 3 games where the pig headed perhaps out of tune coaching decisions, have absolutely been huge factors in losing the game.

But for the ignoramus HC this team could be marching toward the # 1 seed in the AFC, but instead has a high probability of watching football in January and Feb.

People continue to defend the coach.

Ridiculous.

I sure did hate when Reich sent in the punt-muff play. I mean, what was he thinking. THAT is some bad coaching.

Dacich did like a full half hour segment on this whole thing. Swears he has "football" people texting him telling him that the NFL insiders are all stunned that Reich would admit that he has to have people tell him what is happening in a game.

I am not a huge Dacich, fan, think he is way too rigid in his thoughts, so who knows if true, but it wouldn't surprise me. That is a pretty glaring admission of not having a feel for the game as the HC that you didn't realize you hadn't run it once in 26 plays, and a completely different level of zombiesque IQ when that RB is the NFL's best.

He did play a little more of the audio and Frank went on to detail that there were 6 run call RPO's in there that went for passes and proceeded to detail that on those 6 plays they gained 42 yards so a 7 yard average and FURTHER went on to say that was "exceptional". To me, again it helps to reinforce my OPINION that Frank is all about proving FRANK is really good at this. Conversely, we were up 10, and we fell down 7, and even more "exceptional" is the fact that we once again coughed up a double digit lead under Frank's leadership!

JMV sort of swimming closer to the Frank is gonna prop up Wentz when he can and that may mean more freedom in the play execution than should maybe be allowed.

The best Rb in the nfl havd less than 10 carries going into th last quarter. That is just wrong

4th ranked offense in the league. Irsay would be insane to fire Reich.

It’s idiotic to even think about.

But, for the sake of argument, let’s say Irsay does fire Reich. Then what? Now you need a coach AND a quarterback because if Reich goes, Wentz either goes or turns back into the pumpkin he was in Philly last year. And the Colts aren’t bad enough to draft a quarterback high, plus they don’t have a first round pick. Did you consider that?

It’s just stupid fanboi fantasy that Reich deserves to be fire. Colts would be the laughingstock of the league if they fired Reich, and deservedly so.

How many yards had he gained in those 10 carries?

Who cares if he didn't do anything with those carries. You keep feeding great running backs, they run down a defense over time. But they don't run down shit if they don't run the ball more than 10 times in three quarters. I do not want Reich fired. I do want us to run the ball more

Exactly.

This argument has been adulterated by these weird attempts to take it to places it was never born from.

1- I haven't seen anyone say anything near "we should have run the ball those 26 times". Haven't seen anyone even say anything like "at least 10 of those 26 should have been runs to JT instead". No, those arguing the mismanagement side have not had an all or nothing view, hell personally for me, just seeing him get it maybe 3 times in that span, just to keep that threat in their minds, that would have been enough. It's just a need to keep them somewhat honest vs pinning back and coming after Wentz with questionable PP all season.

2- I agree so much with you on the "well he wasn't getting anything so you have to start passing" take. If Vrabel took that approach, Henry would average about 18 yards a game. Hell Barry Sanders would get stopped 15 times for an average of 1.8, and then go 80 yards- and JT has that same ability without question, he has demonstrated that repeatedly. As I have said, I feel like as a HC you have an OBLIGATION to allow this phenom to have a couple cracks at it in 26 plays. You just have to!

So is the argument that the Colts should be ok being less efficient on offense for the sake of what the run may be able to do later in the game? In the second qtr Taylor ran 3 times and the team scored 21 points. The drives were 75, 90, and 75 yds. To me that’s pretty damn good offense, but it doesn’t appear you agree. If they rushed him 8 times and scored 10 points are you suggesting that would be better football?

I wouldn't argue on any particular play or drive. I agree that those were very good outcomes and could not really be improved. What I am talking about is the general direction this offense is taking. Your assumption is that if Taylor had run 8 times we would not have been as effective. Maybe, maybe not. We scored but we also got a L. We don't have the wide receivers to succeed with this long term in my opinion. Our offensive line is also a better run blocking line right now. As far as good football, they lost.

Im not assuming anything. I’m fine with the way the offense played other than the fumbles. And I don’t think Reich called those. Besides the turnovers on offense, go look at what the defense did from about 5 mins remaining in the second quarter through the end of the game. I don’t understand why guys thing having 4 more runs would have changed that. You are assuming the team could have tried to enforce their will and ran the ball while maintaining the same offensive efficiency. I think that is a big assumption, but even if you assume that unless you specifically remove the turnovers then 3 more runs wouldn’t have mattered one bit. Other than the Hines fumble TB wasn’t given short drives and the Colts D wasn’t going three and out and putting a tired D back out there. TB scored 38 points. Yet the issue is the Colts offense?

The only way 3 more runs affect the outcome is if you cherry pick specific plays that were turnovers.

The issue is our record to me. I could obviously be wrong (am most of the time) but I think a bigger commitment to the running game would help in winning. Imposing your will kinda shit. Now I may be playing checkers and Reich is playing chess. We may be watching the pro refinement of an RPO offense being developed before our eyes. If so then you are right, next year will be fun (we should have the receivers by then and the line will hopefully be less banged up). I do like Reich. He has the things in a man that cannot be learned. Integrety, honesty etc. I just wish he would run the damn ball more.

I don't understand what happened? When he came in, we became a bully. We had that Run the Damn Ball mantra and we just roughed people up. Then something changed and he became much more about the tricky guy than the we'll just beat your ass guy.

As for the 3,4 runs and changing the game. Not saying any of those 3 or 4 would have been home runs, not any more than you can say all of them would have been 2 yards or less. But I do believe that just a couple hand offs MIGHT have kept the DE just a fraction of a second slower on the edge rush and helped prevent Fisher from getting bitch-made.

FWIW, I guess before we just pulled the plug on the running game JT was still averaging like 3.4 per. That's a first down in 3 runs, yeah yeah yeah I know, not how it works. That said, with this OL and JT, I will lay money on them getting the job done over a certain # of touches vs not getting it done.

At the risk of coming across as a dick (sorry), and I know you're not a "Fire Reich" guy which is who most of my comments are aimed at, but I have to say...

I don't understand this statement. If you believe the outcome could not have been improved, then what are we talking about here for three days?

If the gameplan couldn't have been better prior to catastrophic player errors, and then after the player errors we decide we don't like the gameplan... It's got to be a textbook example of post-hoc criticism.

I remember the Colts playing the Chiefs on Halloween in 2004. Manning threw for something like 470yds and 5tds. Edge barely ran the ball. We lost by 10 and got crushed in TOP.

I know it's not apples to apples. But the Colts scored. And they also got the L. I don't remember anybody questioning the play-calling or gameplan despite us having a top-3 RB in the league. The defense couldn't stop KC and were rightfully criticized.

Point being that you can have a proper and effective offensive gameplan and things still not work out due to players failing to execute.

I do struggle a bit with this angle. I know this is a little both sides of the coin. However, if Peyton came out and said I am not running the ball a single time against a 3 man rush and a cover 4 shell, I think pretty much the whole football world would say ok, do you. Peyton was pretty good at doing what Peyton wanted to do to any D you put up, unless of course it was BB's defense.

I agree, but sometimes you cannot just impose your will against certain teams.

[QUOTE=ChaosTheory;214088]At the risk of coming across as a dick (sorry), and I know you're not a "Fire Reich" guy which is who most of my comments are aimed at, but I have to say...

I don't understand this statement. If you believe the outcome could not have been improved, then what are we talking about here for three days?

If the gameplan couldn't have been better prior to catastrophic player errors, and then after the player errors we decide we don't like the gameplan... It's got to be a textbook example of post-hoc criticism.

No offense taken. I am not necessarily talking about one game. For me any one game can be a one off and you do weird things (like pass 26 times in a row). Sometimes it works, sometimes not. My concern is the track we are moving to the offensive side. We were on track to be a team that bullied folks with a mean offensive line and imposed our will. Racehorse says you can't impose your will on every team and he is correct, but you sure as hell can try. We are starting to play like those finesse teams of old. I would like us to be bullies again. Shit people keep saying we must have good blockers even at receiver. Why if you are not going to run the ball? Pascal's best attribute is his blocking for goodness sake. It looks to me that this team was being built to run the ball and I loved it. I hope this is just a blip and we get back to a more balanced attack.

I agree with this. I just don't like the hyperbole from those who say Frank needs fired.

Article in IndyStar backs up what I have been saying. Nobody is calling for Reich to be fired (at least not me) but even the players felt we were getting away from who we are. That is all I wanted, awareness that the road for this team is through the trenches, not primarily on Wentz's arm. We can run on anyone, lets force our will on teams the rest of this year.

https://www.indystar.com/story/sport...ty/8790325002/

I love our O-line, Taylor, and our running game. It should be our primary weapon, obviously. But I also like adaptation.

The thing that's bothered me most this week (and that article alludes to it again) is the play-calling taking the blame for the loss. For a 5-turnover game (4 really), turnovers have gotten a relatively low amount of press.

It's a dead horse so I'll leave it alone, but one more tidbit...

The Patriots just crushed the Titans 36-13. But how many people realize that Tennessee ran the ball 39 times for 270 yards? That's 6.9ypc. Without Henry. And they lost by 23pts.

How? 3 fumbles lost and an interception.

I generally agree with this, and as the week has passed, I am drifting away from my frustration. However, one bias I can't get over is that I believe that the most crucial TO was the strip sack, and while that was almost entirely to Fisher getting beat, I thought at the time, and still do, that our predictability helped put us into the possibility of a play like this. Just one or two runs to keep the D somewhat honest.

The reason they lost was the turnovers. Turnovers will kill your chances no matter what you do.

That said, I think we could have mitigated our turnovers if we had sprinkles in the run. By becoming predictable I think they allowed TB to concentrate on passrush with their speed. We have one good receiver and then it’s iffy after that. I would force us to pass all the time if I was the opposing team.

I just can’t agree with that argument. Only one of the turnovers would have possibly been affected by that. Pascals fumble, Hines fumble, and the first interception had nothing to do with pressure. The last interception was a Hail Mary where Wentz was flushed from the pocket by a 3 man rush, but still not really applicable. So only the strip sack. But every RPO the team ran became a pass because TB was dead set in stopping the run - both in alignment and after the snap. That doesn’t fit the narrative of a team no longer concerned with the run. They were so concerned with the run that they sold out to stop it. Colts players just made too many bad plays.

Great call out on the WR's. Frank isn't necessarily working with Randy, Jerry, and Marvin out there but we still throw it 26 straight times?

Goes to show you exactly how good the play calls were against one of the better teams in the league. They had no problem moving the ball against a good defense with admittedly a poor receiving corp.