Quick Thoughts - Week 2
 

Not the greatest litmus test in the Texans, but they did what they were supposed to do, so good game.


-Obviously AR is the story. Two weeks in, two injuries, two early exits. Beyond the progress he needs to make as a player... this was always the concern with drafting and building around a running QB. Strong start because of his running. Left the game because of his running. But that's what makes him scary for defenses.

-Minshew's floor as a passer is higher than AR's. He didn't light it up, but he was very efficient. Short-term, we probably have a better chance of winning some games. Long-term, this is not the QB ceiling we want. Good game.

-Zack Moss is a good football player. He's a bowling ball and his vision was a giant improvement. He played more impressive than the 88yds he finished with. He was at 5.5ypc before we told the Texans we were running the clock.

-Offensive line did what they were supposed to. 0 sacks, 0 tfl, 1 QB hit, 126 rush yards, 5.5ypc. Was curious what Will Anderson would do today: glad it was nothing.

-Again hard to grade the receivers because it was such a short-pass, efficiency gameplan outside of the 43yd Mallory catch-and-run. Some drops (like Granson's early) have got to stop.

-Blue tent of death has claimed three offensive contributors in the first two weeks. Concussion protocol annoys me sometimes.

-Front 7 also did what they were supposed to. Again, not the greatest opponent, but if they didn't look great, that would be concerning. 6 sacks, 10tfl, and 9 QB hits is great. So well done.

-DB's aren't there. This is our Achilles' heel. Moore is good, other CB's are not. Need Brents to catch up. Need to rewatch the safeties, but I don't think they were good today, either.

-Stroud showed he could be a pain in our ass going forward. Got a lot of yards when our D softened up with a lead, so not as good as his stat line... but he is a pretty passer.


What else?

DBs can't tackle for shit. Wrap the guy up instead of trying to knock him around.

good post

i didn't think the dline was that impressive. the should have dominated more imo.

flowers wasn't bad

anderson was giving smith fits at times. not liking that

Secondary was hot garbage.

i will add some things from what i saw

1) really sucks about AR. have to say that is a bit concerning

2) steichen has impressed me with is playcalling

3) stroud looked good. texicans look to have a guy

4) bad day from dayo. a lot of hype on that guy but no production

5) leonard is just a guy. we need to get out of that contract.

6) the oline was a bright spot as well as moss. good hard running. thought he was struggling at the start but really picked it up.

7) ebukam looks like a great pickup. really solid day. was not happy with the dline overall though. they should have destroyed these guys. and they did somewhat but i was expecting more dominance

8) baker has to go. dude was trash

9) jt will feast in this offense

I know a few of us on the board (including myself) have been critical of Alec Pierce, but as soon as Minshew came in he immediately passed to Pierce and found him again for a good gain later in the game....so it may be that Alec is getting open, but AR just may be overlooking him.

I had high hopes for Pierce and have so far been disappointed, I had just assumed he was not getting separation, but in fairness to him, that may not be the case.

Excellent game points and summary!

Dayo was the one who punched out the first fumble.

I really agree on the Baker comment. Dude cant cover anybody.

I'll have to pay attention to Flowers and Smith on rewatch. I only remember the Texans' one QB hit was from Anderson.

Another thing I wanted to point out...

-The first drive of the game with AR was the best looking Colts drive I remember from the past several games. Very encouraging. The fact that Steichen was able to adjust the calls for Minshew was impressive.

was he? thats all he did

Just watching the game now. Had family stuff all day. Just made it to the Texans first td.

My initial impression is that Stroud is gonna be really good and that the Texans offensive line is just brutal. They might be worse than the Colts were last year.

When I heard that AR got injured I was worried but that seemed more like a freak type of thing. Hope it’s not to serious.

A freak accident? Like 2 freaks in a volkswagon hit 3 freaks in a van. (G. Carlin)

Minshew is a mediocre starting quarterback but maybe the best backup in the league.

Good to see Mo Cox get involved.

Moss is no JT but he’s worlds better than anything else we have.

AR is also not giving him time to get open. While no doubt deliberate, everything is very short and sharp with AR-5 in the passing game.

- Much better week from the coaches imo.

- Steichen is intense. I don't think I remember Pagano nor Reich ever being that animated with referees. I'm not sure how productive that is, but part of me appreciates the sense of urgency from Steichen vs. what always looked like a mixture of helplessness/indifference from the previous guys in similar scenarios.

After last week I was miffed with the failed 4th down conversions but when he was asked to comment on that I appreciated how unapologetic he was. As frustrated as I was, he was right in advising that is just something we HAVE to do. It just is what it is. I can live with that.

- I've liked the new HB #21 better than I liked the old HB #21. I'm glad we got rid of that guy.

- Richardson is 0-2 in finishing games. Not cool and the hit he took there was his fault. They tell us all when we start playing weight ball, "keep your head on a swivel".

- I get Leonard needs some time but if he doesn't start showing something before the end of the year, I'm with Omaha. Right now it looks like Speed may offer more, at least at first glance. Franklin has grown a lot...

- Did Grover Stewart gain weight? Am I trippin'? He looks bigger to me.

- I'm glad Paye is 2/2. Keep it up and get paid

- Pitt put in some work today too. Same deal; Keep it up, get paid.

- Happy to see Granson continue to produce. I was a little surprised MAC made the team but it was fun watching him send that dude off the field.

- I can't tell if Baker is getting toasted or if that is just what our defense was okay with giving up. To me it looked like they were hitting behind Speed/Leonard and just hitting the soft spot. When are we going to see Jones or Brents?

Fun game to watch. I appreciate Minshew.

I liked the dline rotation, certainly on rushing downs, didn't really notice any drop off between any of the personnel groupings, which is a great sign. And hopefully when we come to play the Titans, the freshness will mean Henry isn't going to take over games in the 4th quarter against us.

I am not going to be complaining too much about our corners, they are young and incredibly inexperienced, besides Kenny Moore, who has played well through my eyes in both games. I am not sure what anyone was expecting to happen with the guys we were/are going to be using this season. Baker, Flowers, Jones, Brents have 4 combined starts between them, one of them has yet to even play a game yet. 3 of those have been from the first 2 games of the year!

The safeties haven't done much this year though, again I realise Rodney Thomas II is only in his second season, but Blackmon doesn't feel like the same player he was before his injury. I am not saying he has played badly....just nothing of note. I was surprised when i looked at the snap counts from last week that Nick Cross didn't have a single defensive snap. Not sure that i saw him yesterday either.

Snap Counts on Defense:

Blackmon - 100% (84 snaps)
Moore - 100% (84)
Thomas - 100% (84)
Franklin - 100% (84)
Flowers - 100% (84)

Baker - 74% (62)
Buckner - 73% (61)
Leonard - 71% (60)
Paye - 65% (55)
Ebukam - 62% (52)
Speed - 54% (45)
Stewart - 50% (42)
Odeyingbo - 49% (41)
Lewis - 29% (24)
Bryan - 27% (23)
Martin - 21% (18)
Johnson - 20% (17)
Cross - 5% (4)
Stuard - 1% (1)

o


Last week, the Jaguars had 14 possessions.

Yesterday, the Texans had 9 possessions when it counted, and a 10th possession after the game had already been decided in which the clock ran out.


http://www.coltfreaks.com/forum/showthread.php?t=167347


When the offense is proficient in terms of long, sustained drives, it gives the defense a chance to rest ...... and even though the statistics show that the Texans ran far more plays from scrimmage than the Colts did yesterday (79 to 56), it was actually 69 to 56 when it mattered because the Texans' final 10 plays of the 4th quarter occurred after the game had essentially already been decided.

A further look into this dichotomy shows that the Colts had 3 long drives of 10 plays, 14 plays, and 9 plays respectively throughout the game yesterday against the Texans ...... last week against the Jaguars, the Colts only had 1 long drive of 11 yards. They also had possessions of (3 Plays - Punt, 3 Plays - Punt, 4 Plays - TO on Downs, 4 Plays - TO on Downs, 3 Plays - Fumble, 3 Plays - Punt, 4 Plays - Fumble, 3 Plays -Punt, 1 Play - Interception) ...... that computes to 9 Possessions, 28 Plays. And on those 9 possessions they had 4 Punts, 2 Turnovers on Downs, 2 Turnovers on Fumbles, and 1 Turnover on an INT.

o

Rookie QB, they are having him throw short a lot and he doesn't see the whole field yet. Plus it's easier to throw short against zone with Downs and Graysen working there. Minshew has been in the system for two years and can look deeper into the field.

With the camp Cross had I'm surprised they haven't been able to get him on the field in some way.

I figured you’d be giving Dammy a harder time about Stroud losing.

Stroud looked good, no one can really deny that. It's unfortunate, but it appears the Texans are on their way to having a franchise QB. Hopefully the Colts are as well. They appear to be, but Richardson has also left both games injured.

He left both games injured, but he could have returned to the Jags game if the Colts had a chance to win. The Houston game, the doctors kept him out!! Every body is making to much of him not being on the field for the last plays of the Jags game !!

Sure, he could've returned. However, when the big concern about him (and all running QBs) is that they are more subject to injury... it doesn't make anybody feel any better when he gets hurt on one of the very first plays of his NFL career.

And then gets hurt/re-hurt at the end of that same game to they point where they have to call time-out and get him off the field and then decide it's not worth it to have him run a couple more plays.

And then he gets knocked out 18 plays into his second game. The doctors kept him out because he went to them and told them he was messed up.

Maybe (hopefully) he never sustains another significant injury for the rest of his career. But you can't deny this is a bad early trend.

He ran out of gas at the end of the first game. It wasnt an injury, he gave all he had. He needs to learn to pace himself.

Second game he did the right thing by self reporting. He may be cleared for this weeks game, but you want these players to be truthful about getting a head injury. If you have not seen the movie “Concussion”, I recommend it. Its heart breaking. Richardson is so young. He showed good judgement being honest with the medical staff, which is the first step to have a long career.

When in doubt Richardson, RUN OUT OF BOUNDS!

On Gransen’s first TD.

https://x.com/rob_c16/status/1704184...L8ardaxv32vrGQ

no he didn't


shut the fuck up with this stupidity

If they don't get him killed first. Their number one priority should be over hauling that oline.

Rewatch AR's last play against JAX. He wasn't out of gas...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1VmRbLF8Yo


He got the piss knocked out of him, rolls over grimacing in pain, stays on the ground for a full minute with the whole staff around him. Gets up and limps off the field. In bad enough shape that they don't want him to finish the last :59 of the game even though it's 2nd and goal from the 2-yard-line.

It is what it is. Running QB's have much more opportunity to get hurt.

An O-Line that is one one of the top performing units in the NFL? AR is injuring himself. Gotta be smarter, this isn't the SEC, it's big boy football.

Think he meant Stroud and the Texans' O-line.

Agree the first game was a nothing burger. If it had happened in the middle of the game AR would probably missed a series at most. Players get concussed all the time in the NFL, at every position. I used to think running QBs were more prone to injury but have become convinced that that just isn’t true, at least statistically. Several studies show no correlation between running QBs and injury

I have said this for years! Running into a player does not constitute a tackle. Wrap up damnit!