My Take
 

Starters, don't get to worked up. It was the Raiders, who are just as dysfunctional as we are/were.

Saturday done a pretty good job, and the kid called a good game. Both of them are really the rallying point this team needed. Jeff didn't sale these players a bunch of BS, he was 100% straight with them as men. They responded for him

Offensive line was good today. Not great, but damn what a game after watching them matador their way through the season up to this point. Sustainable? Who knows but today was definitely a fresh of breath air.

Matt Ryan: Dude can still play when allowed the time to go through progressions. The sack that costed us field position was inexcusable for a veteran, but I imagine he was feeling a little frisky and trying extra hard. I still draft a QB if one falls to us, or we move up.

Still have to get our Tight ends involved. Completely ignoring them is not going to bold well moving forward. Get Pierce more involved. The kid can play.

Campbell is playing his way to another contract. He is getting better as the season goes on and I am questioning the pick less and less.

Moore flashed some old Moore today, but still would ditch him after the season. Would also still ditch Facyson sooner than later. He is just lost in coverage most plays.

Rogers is a football player. Get that man on the field more.

Pass rush is still mind boggling bad. Paye goes down and what little we had completely disappeared. We need more blitzes in certain situations.

Special teams were not very good today, but they are usually adequate. Hope this is not a trend.

Now onto the Eggles for a beatdown to bring us all back down to earth.

Another positive for me today was getting blocked by Mike Wells on Twitter. That dude is a fucking huge douche! Does not like being called out for bullshit speculation.

ballard is a build the lines guy



the oline sucks and there is still, after many tries, no pass rush.


dayo is terrible and ngakoue is worse than terrible

ballard has failed

This made all of the difference in the game. As I said in the game thread: not sure if Saturday lit a fire under their asses or what but easily the best the OL has performed this year except for maybe the 2nd Jagoffs game (which I didn't get to watch). They opened holes for the RBs and for the most part gave Ryan time to step up and throw (only 1 sack allowed). I could hardly believe my eyes when we were running it for first downs on 3rd and shorts and making it easy like back in the good old days of just last year.........

This is pretty much the case. The run D is pretty solid but struggles without Paye. Every other DE is pretty bad. He let Autry go. He let Glowinski go which made no sense.

Ballard needs someone else to rank his DEs, because he puts WAY too much emphasis on traits. He's really good at identifying IDL talent, and OL talent, he just can't stop himself from falling in love with the traited up DEs with zero production.

Really, he's down Lewis and the Paye goes down, wtf do you expect? How about the play of Raimann?

I kinda think that he did his job.

Today was better because we ran the ball. Against JAX, 58 throws without a sack was great. And a lot of throws acted as run plays. But even though we only ran it 16 times, we were only getting 2.8ypc.

Today, we had 207yds. Take away Ryan's yards (holy shit, btw) and our RB's ran for 169yds on 29 carries, 6.5ypc. Just for shits and to show the consistency... take away JT's homerun and our RB's still rushed for 103yds on 25 carries, 4.1ypc. Even that is way better than what we were getting.

And I don't even think JT is right yet. The huge grain of salt with everything is... this was against a 2-win Raiders team.

So this is what the most egregious thing the NFL has ever done looks like. Irsay is a wingnut. I love it. Keep it real Jim, fuck those prognosticators. I'm enjoying this ride you got us on.

If the OL plays this well or better from here on out I think we can chalk their shit show first half of the season up to coaching. Fingers crossed that that's actually the case.

Agree on the DL. Dayo definitely sucks and Ngakoue is a disappointment to say the least. Seems like he does well as the complimentary DE, but he's definitely not good enough to be the main pass rusher.

Exactly. Where the fuck has this effort from the OL been all year? We'll see if it is, but hopefully it's not just that Vegas' DL is super terrible.

Agree on JT. A couple of times he got stuffed cutting it up inside but if he had kept running outside it would have been a big gain. Also, Ryan's big sack IMO was still him thinking he needs to play hero ball. Hopefully the OL holds up and he can get that mentality out of his head.

Lewis had a whopping 1 sack in 7 games this year. Yeah, Paye's good, but with the draft capitol Ballard has spent on DE he should have more than 1 good player to show for it.

ngakoue was a huge trade and dayo was a 2nd round pick. guys hurt don't help

he failed

Because Rock Ya-Sin was such a difference maker? DE is clearly Ballard's weak position. He should address it in free agency because that's where he's done his best work at the position (Houston, Autry).

Easily the most satisfying win so far this season because of Mcdouche but I’d agree it’s way to early to get excited. For starters, the Raiders are one of the few teams actually more dysfunctional than we are.

Also, they had literally no idea what Frazier was gonna do as a play caller. That’s a huge advantage which will go away as we move forward and his tendencies show up.

The OLine was a pleasant surprise but the raiders are somehow atrocious at rushing the passer despite having Crosby and Jones so it’s hard to say if the line was better or the Raiders were just bad. We’ll find out in a hurry next week. I suspect it’s the latter.

I like Fries though. The dude plays with an attitude.

JT is clearly still not fully healthy. They almost caught him on the long td which was surprising to me. A healthy JT runs that in 5 yards ahead.

Franklin is really starting to grow on me. He’s got a lot of heart out there.

I thought Moore had a really up and down day.

Ryan was never the problem and shouldn’t have been benched.

It was not surprising to see that Ya Sin still sucks.

Very satisfied with the win.

Ballard definitely missed enough on DE. Paye is a monster against the run and improved at pass-rush but still not great. Although it's only (an injury-hampered) year-2 and his potential was a big part of his draft position.

FA might be necessary for pass-rush due to the rarity. Like Buckner, dump the capitol for a known commodity. We rank low in sacks and more importantly turnovers/interceptions. We don't get home enough to produce strips and we don't even scare the QB enough to rush and make errant throws.

He was really pissing off #50 for the Raiders.

Take a big guess what Ballard won't do. If he's still here that is.

Did everyone miss me? Hope so lmao..

Just got home from my Fall vacation of Alaska, yeah my son drags me places nobody wants to go.. lol

My take is Offense looks different for sure. But you do realize we almost got beat by the Raiders. A win is nothing to brag about against a 2-6 team C'mon now worst defense in the league and they were missing their best players.

I'm 48 years old and could have done what JT did!! Okay, maybe not.. I couldn't but close damn it!! I knew JT was going to have a breakout against this D. Who didn't?? Trent Richardson could have had his hey day against this DL. They had one player Crosby... geeez

High hopes of course but I say IMO calm it down..

Did everyone miss me? Hope so lmao..

Just got home from my Fall vacation of Alaska, yeah my son drags me places nobody wants to go.. lol

My take is Offense looks different for sure. But you do realize we almost got beat by the Raiders. A win is nothing to brag about against a 2-6 team C'mon now worst defense in the league and they were missing their best players.

I'm 48 years old and could have done what JT did!! Okay, maybe not.. I couldn't but close damn it!! I knew JT was going to have a breakout against this D. Who didn't?? Trent Richardson could have had his hey day against this DL. They had one player Crosby... geeez

High hopes of course but I say IMO calm it down..

This is something I want to post on. I see a lot of Colt fans saying OMG Colts OL looks so much better. Are you kidding me? Raiders D had one pass rusher Crosby. They had their LB's out if one got hurt in the game they would have had to play a OL guy on Defense. May have helped them actually.

Lets see what happens when Colts go against Eagles, yes same old junk OL and Matty Ice freezes like a deer in the headlights.. Watch and see.

This is all true cause where was Yannick Ngakoue and Paye or Dayo?? Colt players on rush? Maybe hurt, Okay understandable not where it is on the DEPTH chart Ballard???? Same is your OL??

Hell Raiders had one whole player worth a shit on defense named Crosby and he about beat this team all by himself. Only smart move was Colts put Gilmore on Adams at the end of game when he was burning Moore majority of the time.

JMO of what I seen...

Have no idea why this posted twice wasn't me lmao.. okay maybe the RUM... lmao

He can't find a Franchise QB IMO

Davante Adams is one big dude who was balling out yesterday, was impossible to tackle, without him on offense, the Raiders would have done nothing at all.

The offensive line in the main held up today, but as has been said, this was against one of the worst pass rushing teams in the NFL.

In terms of this being a gentle introduction to coaching for Saturday, this was as easy as it could get, and we still struggled at times. The stupid thing is, is that i suspect we will play the Eagles in a close game, as that is what we have tended to do recently, play up to the better teams, and fall flat against the teams we should beat.

Our remaining schedule is pretty horrific though:
@ Eagles 8-0
@ Steelers 3-6
Cowboys 6-3
Vikings 8-1
@ Chargers 5-4
Giants 7-2

I would imagine we will be the underdog in every game, Steelers might be a push.

Oof. Not a lot of wins left on that schedule.

Beating the Raiders was probably a negative in the long run.

Eagles are a home game.

Eagles, Chargers, Cowboys and Giants all have bad run Defense. 20th rank and below.. Winnable games

Packers just showed how you can beat the Cowboys and Packers are not a very good team. Smart QB play and patience with run game beats the Boys

I've watched a few Steelers games. Very beatable.

Vikings will be a very hard game to win.

Eagles are due to lose a game.

I'll be called crazy but Colts have the talent to run the table.

Came on this morning to doom and gloom or we are on our way to Super Bowl. Really? To me it looks like we may be turning a mental corner, one that has to be turned if we are going to escape from a complete rebuild. If Raiman can be the answer at LT (not saying he is but from what I've seen I can't say he isn't the answer either) and the receivers continue to improve we don't need that much on offense. (I know QB. I am still ok with Ryan if he is given an offensive line and a running game for the next year or so) We aren't going anywhere with this pass rush which is a huge problem. I see us turning a corner (from being a complete joke to having a little pride), only time will tell if it is real or not.

would rather have ya-sin than ngakoue

o


You can delete a post ...... you click on the "edit" option, and then it allows you to either edit or completely delete the post.

o

I kinda don't understand how the Cowboys have won 6 games. Although its interesting to see how they've fared, they lose to a mediocre Buccaneers, beat the Bengals before they really got back on track offensively, beat the Giants and Commanders, beat a bad Rams team and a bad Lions, lose to Eagles, beat a bad Bears team, lose to a bad Packers.

To me they really only have 1 good win, and that was the Giants.

I dunno, I just don't see them as a good team.

I'm typically one of the few optimists in a sea of doomsday. But just like I try to offer some perspective and try to talk people off the ledge after losses, I'll do the same in regards to drinking the Kool-Aid and saying stuff like "we definitely lose this game if Reich is the coach."

I'll rewatch the game, but ultimately, I didn't notice a huge difference in the team. Obviously the Ehlinger experiment proved Ryan is way better (what a weird situation). But compared to the previous Ryan-led Colts, I think we saw a lot of similar stuff.

Look at it like this... Michael Pittman fumbled the fucking ball on the final drive at the LV 26 with about 5:50 to go. If he doesn't somehow, miraculously come in late and recover his own fumble... how are we looking at this game?

Even with that lucky recovery... If Stephon Gilmore doesn't make another outstanding individual play, this time All-Pro vs. All-Pro... how are we looking at this game?

We had already fumbled at the LV 22. According to Ballard, coming into the game, we'd had 11 turnovers inside the opponent's 50 and 9 of those were inside the opponent's 38 (scoring position). Today we added a 10th and came VERY close to adding an 11th. Those are massive in that they take points straight off the board and give the other team a big momentum boost.

We avoided one and came away with a win against a bad Raiders team. If we avoided both, we probably get a comfortable two-touchdown win. And that same logic applies to previous games against better teams where we had multiple turnovers. We played well enough to win in several losses but the turnovers are king.

Chrome pointed out in the gameday thread that he heard Bill Polian talking about the team and basically mentioned how thin the line is between having a good season and "burn it all down." That's completely true.

I noticed a massive difference in the OL performance. Granted, one can claim it only looked better because it was the Raiders, but this OL has looked like crap against Jacksonville on the road and they don't have some amazing pass rush either.

It was pretty jarring to see Smith go down and realize how close we always are to Pryor playing.

To me it was a little bizarre that Dennis Kelly wasn't the backup. But you're right we probably lose that game if Pryor had to play RT for any length of time.

kelly has to be the next tackle up. has to be

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Yeah well, it’s likely the Colts would have won the Washington game if Jim hadn’t stuck his nose in and forced Sam as the starter, so if I were him, I wouldn’t be crowing to much.

That’s dumb. Ya Sin is useless. He’ll either give up the play or commit a penalty every time.

Yannick hasn’t been great this year but he’s still way better than Ya Sin.

My theory, and I get that my disdain for him leads me to these type of hypothesis but.... My take- he watched the crap fest that was the offense against the titans the week prior. Meets with Frank and Ballard. He's frustrated as hell, demands they change things up (not calling for Ehlinger, just telling them to get things fixed offensively). Frank does Frank stuff and starts blaming it all on Ryan- basically repeating his mantra that Matt Wentz is really the problem. Jim seizes on the opportunity to corner his ass and says "okay, then from here on, Sam starts".

Frank sits there and has that welp look and has liquid poop seeping out of his rectum while Ballard does the "hey sorry, I gotta take this call" and walks out while Frank sits there by his lonesome realizing he just signed his death certificate.

Jim sees exactly what he expected with the Commanders, sees it even worse with the Pats and says "Hey Chris, that guy is a fraud, the problem with the team is him... and hey you remember that fake phone call, yeah you are fucked too, better make sure you're making real calls because in a few weeks you are out too. I am bringing in one of my own and ridding myself of all this bullshit you two have been peddling".

I don't think there's any chance in hell Ballard is brought back- not after the report that him and Ward were opposed to Saturday. Fuck them both. Saturday for GM, Manning as Pres, get a top of the line coach, and let's do this shit!

Even though I thanked your post, I agree with the Ehlinger analysis. I don't think that Irsay forced Reich to start Ehlinger. But I do think that he asked Reich his answer to fix this shit and maybe offered a few scenarios to consider. Guess what Frank chose the wrong one.

But I in know way agree with the Ballard comments. Ballard isn't perfect, but I could argue that he's not a lot different than Polian in his early Colts tenure.

Unless there is a home run candidate out there to replace Ballard, he's going nowhere.