My take
 

Our offensive line is just absolutely atrocious. Nelson, Kelly and fucking especially Pryor are just a fucking turnstile out there. It is embarrassing to be that bad.

Facyson needs to be shown the door. Kenny Moore needs to help him carry his bags and they can be room mates on some other fucking team.

Defense as a whole played good enough to win, sans that complete collapse the last 2:34 of the game. If we convert from the fucking 1 yard line instead of kicking a FG we win this game.

Reichs constant lets run this m'fer up the middle when D-Linemen are in the backfield before the QB gets the ball is fucking stupidly insane. Yet he is relentless at it. Hey, Frank, this o-line sucks. Just an fyi for ya you tone deaf retard.

Our receivers are just going to get better and better. Holy shit Paris has played well the last 3-4 games. Could he have finally arrived? Hope so,

Sam played well. He showed some great escape capabilities, and he throws a good accurate ball. Its one game so not ready to anoint him our future. Open the playbook up and lets see what this kid can do. He showed the game wasn't bigger than him. It was just refreshing to see something different, and promising.

Nothing to say about the run game. It will be no better then what we have seen given the overpaid, overrated suck ass O-Line. They are just not giving Taylor a sliver of space to get into.

We have some good young talent on this team. Fuck it, make some trades at the deadline Tuesday and get some picks and roll with the young guys and see what happens. We are not winning anything anyway

Nothing matters this season because the line is just to bad. I just hope they can accurately evaluate Sam.

Job number 1 in the off-season is a complete overhaul of the OLine. At a minimum, Smith and Kelly need to be released. A good hard look needs to be taken at Nelson.

I would argue it’s at least as important as figuring out whether Sam is the answer at quarterback.

Pat Mahomes would struggle behind this line. It just absolutely blows my mind how bad they are.

It won’t matter if they draft the next Tom Brady if they don’t fix the line.

This offensive line has been here a long time now. They've been really good in the past, but they've been through so many changes and they got paid and just don't give a shit anymore. It shows. We need to start shipping them out, but we're stuck with a couple of them.

-Fumble at WAS 23 and fumble at WAS 15, there's your game. People act like turnovers are "fairly important, be nice not to have them." No, they are crippling, game-altering fuck ups. Likely the biggest difference between this year and last year is we were +14 last year and we're now, what, -10 or -11 this year?

-Taylor isn't right yet.

-Leonard isn't close to right yet despite whatever Voodoo he has that got him an INT.

-I've been begging for some more creative wide runs. We did some of that misdirection, motion-sweep, etc. type of stuff and it looked good. Something to loosen up the middle because it is so clogged.

-Defense played well most of the game. 7 points and like 265 yards is fantastic... until the last two drives. 21 plays, 170+ yards, 10 points. Totally undoes the good they played up to that point and is unacceptable.

-QB's arm looks fine to me, for one game at least. Possible that he gets some experience and can be a player. We'll see.

Get rid of these fucking losers. Let them try to make as much money signing a free agent contract with Cleveland.

They won’t.

I’m so beyond done with these fucking clowns. I’d rather they cut every single one of them and sign free agents off the street for the New England game. I’m dead serious when I say that.

I'm not even mad that's the sad thing.

I’m not mad about the loss either. I fully expected that.

I thought Sam looked pretty good. His arm looked fine.

I’m mad about the same thing I’ve been mad about all season. Since they gave up 3 sacks in the opener to a gawd awful Houston team.

The offensive line, the highest paid position group on the team, and the highest paid OLine in the league, is an absolute fucking disgrace.

THAT’S what pisses me off.

My take is that even though Sam looked pretty good and made some plays that Ryan could not have made - I still think Ryan would have had a pretty decent passing game against that defense.

That said, I repeat that because Sam was able to make some plays on his feet, we were able to sustain more drives than Ryan.

I think it boils down to 2 things we all already know: the oline is bad, and Reich’s play calling is stupid.

Quenton Nelson is a worn out pussy.

I love JT, but his fumbles have likely cost us 2 games!

JT is hurt. I’ll give him a pass.

Damn you all all are way to harsh....

Had a new QB that moved the ball fairly well and minus the 2 terrible TO's the Colts win going away.

There was nothing wrong with the play calling. He had basically a rookie QB and dumbed down the plays And played his rollout to adjust for the bad Oline play. Wasn't Frank's fault in any way IMO

The offense moved the ball and besides the fumbles was working

I am not keen to the trickery plays but they didnt kill us

I didnt expect to win Figured Sam would take a few games before D's figured him out though

I am still not sold on Sam. But I liked what I saw for the most part

Belichick will give him all he can handle. Be interesting to see how he does.

Maniac comes through with a big INT, he's going nuts, has the crowd in a frenzy- then sits on the final drive of the game while they go 86 yards with 26 and 33 yard plays.

Every FUCKING time someone made a big offensive play- they came out of the lineup- EVERY FUCKING TIME!

Never in my fucking life have I witnessed a coach that is this fucking bad at sustaining momentum- literally he is the biggest buzz kill any team could ever ask for.

Pissed about the loss but delighted to be walking out and almost to a person people shouting shit about how Frank Reich has to go. Even if the dude survives tomorrow, he is a goner and that is a fantastic thing for this team. This team can win, they have talent, they have a miserable clown at the helm though.

Irsay says Frank and Ballard are both safe....thought of you when I read that!:eek:

He will have to back out of that statement- either that or Frank will have to have an Urban "I want to see my kids more" moment. Dude's gotta go!

My take is this OL is still shit!!! I put a lot of blame on Strausser is just shitty.
Plus team didn't do a good job of replacing Chris Reed, Mark Glowinski and Jack Doyle, which really hurt the running game.

You got overpaid Nelson laughing I'm paid Bro, I'm good....

We had some decent runs up the middle despite dline being the Commanders strength. JT is at 70%

We should have won this game by two scores. But fumbles and mis communication plague this team.

To me it’s a chemistry problem. Too many QBs over the years. Bad oline inserted.

Still I saw some nice things from Ehlinger. Enough to keep playing him. See what happens when the game slows down for him. He makes pretty good decisions and he is showing good accuracy. He will throw deep and take chances, he will put it up high for tall receivers to get it, did at Texas too a lot. That last pass was clutch, MPJ needs to catch that. Something was up with him today.

Our defense is playoff worthy. Too bad we’re still looking for a QB.

If you think a savior QB is coming through the draft I will say don’t get your hopes up. Not sure about the QB class except that they are better than last year.

If we don’t go QB, I’m praying we get a good LT.

I thought Leonard’s play was curious.

They had him on the LOS in some odd fronts and I think he looked awful. Way to light in the ass to be trying to fuck with tackles.

It was nice to see the INT but if this is how they intend to apply his skill set…

He'll get there, but he's not there yet. He looks a lot slower.

And I know what you're talking about. I remember a play where I think he was blitzing or at least feigning the blitz, and he folded backwards as soon as he touched the guard.

JT is definitely not himself. Still pretty good at 70%. Got stuffed on some inside runs, but some worked, too. The outside/misdirection stuff helps. Not only did Hines (led by Taylor) and Campbell have big runs... I think it was JT's 27-yard inside run where the defender let him run right past him because he was frozen not knowing where the ball was.

I'm actually encouraged by Ehlinger. Biggest reason was his maneuvering the pocket with eyes downfield and not panic running constantly. And his arm strength looked fine, deep balls were accurate.

Also, the explosive plays. We had passes of 47yds, 38yds, 22yds, plus a PI. And we had runs of 28yds and 27yds. All of that is great going forward.

But as for this game... it's redundant, but shit, we lost because we fumbled twice in the red-zone. Bare minimum that's 6 points off the board. It's about as bad as fumbling in your own red-zone and gifting the other team points.

o


In the game thread, I advocated going for it on 4th and inches when there was only 2:39 left to play in the 4th quarter ...... and I did so BEFORE the fact, not after the Commanders drove down the field scored their game-winning touchdown.

The reason being is that going for it in that situation would have given the Colts 3 chances to win the game ...... as it wound up being, the Colts only wound up with 1 chance to win the game. And again, I stated that I feared that would happen BEFORE the Commanders went on that 95-yard touchdown drive, not after.

The 3 chances that that going for it on 4th and inces with 239 left to play in the 4th quarter are the following ......


1) Get the first down.

2) If you don't get the first down, keep the Commanders out of the end-zone on a 35-yard field.

3) Even if the Commanders had gotten got into the end zone on that short 35-yard field, there is a pretty good chance that the Colts still may have had some time to get into field goal range on offense.


And while it was great that our punter booted a gem which pinned the Commanders on their own 5-yardline, we didn't know that he was going to do that when the decision to not go for it was made ...... more significantly, whether the Commanders started that final drive from their own 5 yard-line or their own 25 yard-line, the decision to punt the ball in that situation wound up bringing to fruition what I had feared what would happen in the first place ...... it only gave the Colts one chance to win the game (our defense keeping the Commanders out of the end-zone), as there wasn't enough time for the Colts' offense to get into field goal range at that point. And yes, teams have gotten into field goal range with less than 30 seconds left on the clock after receiving a kickoff that late in the 4th quarter, but that is very rare. The Cowboys did it on Monday Night Football against the Giants in 2003, the Chiefs did it in their memorable playoff game last year in the divisional round in 2021.


https://www.pro-football-reference.c...0309150nyg.htm


https://www.pro-football-reference.c...2201230kan.htm


Those examples of teams getting into field goal range with so little time left on the clock occurred 18 years apart (2003, and 2021) ...... and I'm pretty certain that it very rarely happened much in between.


o

Let’s put this in perspective a bit.
Sam fumbles in scoring territory
JT fumbles in scoring territory
Pittman drops a pass that could have led to a winning field goal
This game wasn’t on the coaches as much as you think


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

o


Oh, I'm not making the claim that Reich's decision not to go for it on 4th down was the sole reason for the loss ....... there is no question that the Colts blew numerous chances to put the game away earlier than that.


1) The normally sure-handed Jonathan Taylor fumbled the ball away while the Colts were deep in Commanders territory.

2) The Colts had the ball on the 1-footline on 3rd down, and failed to punch the ball into the end zone. Instead, they had to settle for a field goal.


Rather, I'm critiquing the decision to punt the ball as one of numerous reasons why the Colts lost the game.


Also ...... if there were 7 or 8 minutes still left to play, I would have punted the ball. I only advocated going for it because of the time that was left on the clock (2:39), and the fact that punting in that situation would likely only give the Colts 1 chance to win the game.


o

Frank said he debated the call. He went with the odds that the defense, who was stout most of the day, would keep them out of the endzone with a long field. I can't see criticizing that call.

I mean, look at what it came down to... Heinicke basically throws a hail-mary type pass from midfield. Gilmore, one the best CB's ever, still gets himself into great position. But then McLaurin makes a fucking unbelievable play going over the top just to get simultaneous possession, and then finishes the unbelievable play by tearing the ball away from Gilmore. What are the odds?

(by the way, none of that matters if we don't fumble twice in the RZ)

But imagine if we turn the ball over right there at our 34 and they still eat the clock and score. The man would be crucified.

o


If we had turned the ball over on downs there with 2:35 left to play, we still would have had 2 additional chances to win the game.

Also, whether or not one will potentially get crucified for a call should not factor into a coach's tough decisions, such as that one. I was one of the few who agreed with Bill Belichick for going for it on 4th down and 2 against the Colts in their nationally-televised game in 2009. If he had punted the ball, he would have been giving the Colts the ball back with enough time to score the winning touchdown and drain the clock. As it turned out, he gave his team 2 chances to win (going for it and getting the first down, and keeping the Colts out of the end zone on a short field should they fail to get the first down.) And frankly, the Patriots got the first down, but the refs made a bad call on the spot of the ball.


https://www.jt-sw.com/football/boxes...2009-10-ne-ind


Finally, and perhaps most significantly, it was 4th and inches, not 4th and 2, or even 4th down and a full yard. If a team cannot get one foot on 4th down, regardless of where they are in the field, then they have no one to blame but themselves for losing the game. As I said, they would have had 3 chances to win the game had they gone for it ...... and frankly, there is no good reason why they shouldn't/couldn't have capitalized on their very first of those 3 chances by getting a first down on 4th and inches.

o

What a shocking development, who could have ever guessed that would happen?

I hear you. For the record, I wouldn't have complained if they went for it. I think it was a toss-up. But since it was a toss-up, I can't complain that they punted.

Of course, this brings to mind what the Eagles have been doing. Lining up in victory formation and pushing the QB.

oh shut up.

add in gilmore's sure interception that the WR took from him.

Sam was basically what I expected. Did some good things, did some not great things.
I think he will go through some growing pains and will be interesting to see how he finishes the year.

also, I never want to see hines running between the tackles again. they say they want to get him the ball more but dont seem to scheme to his talents. he needs to be out in space as evidenced by some of his receptions and his touchdown run to the outside.

What did you think of Ehlinger's arm strength?

A weird thing I notice with this staff is that they don't use players situationally. They just plug and play. Guys get rotated in and out seemingly just to keep fresh legs, and the play calling style never changes based on who is in/out.

So if the situation dictates a run up the middle, they don't sub in JT (or even Jackson). If Hines is already in for this drive, then they'll call that play and leave him on the field.
Well this is true for the offense anyway, and I wonder if it is still a case of Reich should not be calling the plays - let the OC and his position coaches run the game with play calls and personnel groupings.

I notice the defense does a much better job of subbing in situational packages.

For all the times I have criticized Frank for taking reckless chances that have backfired, I do feel a little guilty criticizing him for not going for the sure win. But I agreed with C&O when he said it yesterday before the play and I still do, I would have gone for it! Would he have been second guessed and "crucified" had they failed and Washington scored....of course. But it wasn't like they only needed a FG to win, so even if you fail to make the first down, it's not unreasonable to expect your defense to hold them out of the endzone! I think it was worth the risk!

Not really a NFL strength arm, but not bad.

Tyquan Lewis is out for the rest of the season. Same injury as last time. Just heard it on the Dakich show.

That's what I hear. I know he's not Mahomes throwing in from midfield through the uprights on one knee or some crazy shit... I guess I'm trying to figure out what throws we don't think he can make.

That dropped pass by Pittman at the end was pretty. 25 yards in the air, right in stride, between two DB's.

Or the big throw to Pierce... that was 50 yards in the air, again right in stride.

Expected, but that really sucks. That dude started looking good last year before the injury, surprisingly came back quick and looked good again. That one stings.

His arm is plenty strong enough to make all the throws. His accuracy surprised me most. I knew he could move around in the pocket, and get out when it collapses (Which is a lot with us) He plays like that all year, works with a QB guru again this off season and that changes our draft dynamics. Like I said, one game so not gonna call him "IT" but he looked the part in his debut.

i have some gripes with the playcalling yesterday but overall i thought it was pretty good

I so much agree with this. Instead of Hynes being the de facto backup to JT, he should only play his role, which should be a Kevin Faulk type role.

Deon Jackson is the more logical backup to JT. Hynes can be a difference maker when used properly, but we only occasionally use him properly.

Also I can't stand Reich's reliance on so many personnel groupings. Just stick to 2 to 3 personnel groupings that are game plan specific.

But no, he's gotta use all the chess pieces, even if many are pawns.