Quick thoughts - Texans
 

1. For as messed up as the Colts are -- and they are messed up -- imagine rooting for a team that willingly started Tom Savage over Deshaun Watson at one point. Wow. Savage is 1,000x worse than DeShone Kizer.

2. I was probably too hard on Jacoby Brissett in the game thread, but his inability to read the field is really tough to watch. I get that he's new, he's still learning the scheme and he's young on top of that. And I get that coaches don't help him much. But Brissett just can't read the field. He sees his primary and can't really progress from there. Holds the ball way too long. Again, coaches do him no favors with this scheme, but I'm sure his receivers hate it.

3. Make no mistake, as a result, today's passing game was 150 percent TY Hilton and Jack Doyle. Imagine wanting to ever trade Hilton...

4. I'm glad Jack Doyle has rebounded here. The Colts need him for the next 2-3 years at least. Hopefully longer, but a pretty key window for him, especially if/when Luck returns.

5. Props to the OL. Anthony Castonzo played great and really stuffed Clowney on multiple occasions. Don't understand the hate he gets. The rookie playing over Clark looked OK. Not a long-term answer, but better than Clark.

6. Jabaal Sheard had a monster game today. Really impressed. He was a nightmare for the Texans all day.

7. I both notice Grover Stewart playing more, and notice nothing about Grover Stewart when he's in the game.

8. In a way, I'm glad Pierre Desir got to play over Vontae Davis. He isn't the better player when both healthy, but it's more useful to learn how Desir plays against DeAndre Hopkins than Davis. IMO, I think Desir looks a lot like Rashaan Melvin did last year: reserve boundary CB you don't mind having, that can play solid when called up to start for a game or two, and maybe manages to up his game mor eover time.

9. Darius Butler has really lost a step athletically, which is a shame because he's one of the few DBs who seems to be on the right page most of the time.

10. I like Barkevious Mingo. Not as a starter, and probably not playing much on a contending team. But he's an active player who inserts himself in the game.

11. No surprise, but the more I see Jeremiah George, the more I think "no thanks". Not that I expected anything of him.

12. WTF is Chud's 3rd or 4th-and-less-than-5-and-gotta-make-it playbook? All plays 15 yards downfield?

13. Kamar Aiken started today, which tells you everything you need to know about this coaching staff and accountability.

14. Dear Quan Bray: nothing good comes from you returning. That's not even a slight on you. This special teams unit can't block or keep clean to save their lives.

15. I don't like Antonio Morrison, but he played well in the role asked today.

16. Thought it was dumb that the Colts totally went away from Marlon Mack in the second half. He really needs to start out-touching Gore.

17. And it wouldn't kill the Colts to actually draw up a few plays a game for Mack...

18. I have no idea where this team will draft, but I can't imagine they can go wrong picking up OL and OLB or ILB in the first 2 rounds.

Every time I see a screen play to Gore, and there were at least a couple today if not more, I wonder why on earth they don't have Mack in for the play instead. He I much faster, younger and just last week broke the play for a TD.

Brissett played well today, though most all was Doyle and Hilton. Still has not convinced me he is anything more than a back up. Every game he is giving the other team 7 points or more, literally. Pick 6s, Fumbles, typically on plays he just has to get rid of the ball.

Team won, but still has not convinced me they an really close out games. Almost gave up a 13 point lead to Tom Savage in half a quarter.

Linebackers are still the weakness of this defense.

You just cannot trade TY Hilton, today's game showed us why. Without him the team loses this game.

Will mean nothing in the larger scheme other than a bit of a lower draft pick but I still always like to see the team winning

#17 - 9 carries today and no targets in the passing game. Evidence once again that recognition of talent and how best to use it is non existent on this coaching staff.

Yeah at this point there is zero reason why Bray should be returning any kick that goes into the end zone. Nothing good ever comes of it. Usually they end up with 10+ yards worse starting field position than taking a knee would give them.

The coaching staff are just morons that they can't see that they need to get Mack the ball in space in addition to more touches in the run game. Draw up some damn quick slants or something to give him a chance to make plays.

i will just add some things here that i thought about the game.

1) on the hopkins td. both corners are playing for an inside release. meaning they are forcing the play inside. we have butler as a single high safety. how is that an ideal situation? i am not a brilliant football dude but you would think you would roll coverage to hopkins side and leave melvin on his own. allow him to play inside leverage and use the sideline. just seemed to put a lot of stress on butler.

2) we consistently play 9 or 10 on 11 with our defense. and offense as well but lets look at the d. we fake blitz with 1 or 2 of our ilbers and after they fake, they just sit there. 2 yards behind the line of scrimmage doing absolutely nothing. spying savage maybe? yeah right

3) any other qb and we lose. we all knew they were going to come back. we all knew the colts were going to give up a td and then give the ball back. this is the pagano effect. it is his legacy. the absolute worst coach that has ever stepped on a sideline.

4) anderson really has started playing better but let me just say that al woods has been fucking awesome.

5) why does aiken play? the dude does nothing. please just play moncrief and rogers. they won't because pagano

6) this vontae davis thing really bothers me if it is anything other than davis being a bitch

7) 1st down run for no yards. giving away downs for 6 years now. oh shit. frank gore up the A gap on first down? what a fucking surprise.

8) AC haters need to apologize.

9) i like farley. not as a starter but just in general as a football player.

3) Any other QB, we lose for sure. Watson would have destroyed us.
5) Why does Aiken play? Pagano is a dumb ass.
8) Personally never understood the AC haters. He's may not be the best, but he sure as hell if far from the worst. I get a kick out of the idiots who think we should cut AC, like it is easy to find a competent LT.

Mack should be playing more, but our coaching staff is too dumb to create plays for him.

I actually thought Brissett played well. On that fumble for a TD, he only had 2 seconds before he was hit and was in the process of throwing the ball. Hell, he is basically a rookie playing for one of the worst coaching staffs in the NFL.

Lastly, I hate fucking Pagano. He was damn lucky they were facing that piece of shit Savage today.

#5 -you would think we were still in Grigson regime where the playing of an acquisition is forced to justify the acquisition. Rogers and/or Moncrief > Aiken any day of the week.

To their credit at least Tom Savage won't be parlaying a performance against the Colts into some type of highlight reel. Admit it ColtFreaks.......we were all expecting some HOF worthy performance by Savage today.

19. I achieve a perfect 10-0 record of Colts victories when I attend a road game. :D

Who's is actually to blame for Aiken getting more playing time or Mack not getting enough? Wouldn't this be on the OC not the HC?

Think of what Watson would have done to this defense. :shudder:

You still think that happened?

How do people buy into the pagano bs he constantly leaked to the media?

Both.

If it didn't then Pagano is a horrible judge of talent/performance. Obviously none of us are the proverbial fly on the wall when they discussed roster decisions but I have not seen or heard anything from Pagano that tells me he had the spine to say no to Grigson if told to do something he disagreed with.

Do you think pagano is a good judge of talent/performance?

Look at just this year with tolzein and green "winning" their competition. Grigson didn't make that happen. He had no idea who to play on the oline and never has. Aiken always starts

I can't believe that people still believe the leaks pagano put out against grigson.

I’d like to know the genius that thought I hat Freeny was done, he’s played 2 games with the Seahawks and has two and a half sacks!!

Not insinuating he is at all and also not getting into that pissing contest over Grigson and Pagano and who is worse. Neither one deserved to be there as long as they were but it's always interesting what 3 consecutive playoff appearances does to blind your owner.

My initial comment was half in jest due to how frequently Aiken is getting to play and was an acquisition brought on board by a GM. Somewhat similar to ones Grigson brought on board.

Grigson sucked and Pagano does as well.

I don't want to discuss it either. But you brought that bullshit falsehood up. Pagano plays guys. He always has.

Like I said in 2012, if your defense doesn't fit elite pass rushers like freeney, you don't have a defense

Build your Offense and Defense to the players you have, that has been a large part of Belichick's success.

Yep, just watched the Seahawks vs. Redskins and Freeney was a beast. Pagano can't get the fuck out of here soon enough for me.

Watching the Cowboys just for a short time, I see two things immediately :

A pitch play to Elliot so he can quickly get outside. Why can the Colts not do that with Mack?

A fake handoff to Elliot and then Prescott keeping it and going outside. Again, why can the Colts not run such a play? And I don't mean to a fake hand off and then he keeps it. Prescott holds the ball in there until the last second and then pulls it out and runs.

Look man, these cats are still trying to learn the fundamentals of special teams- stop talking all this fancy pantsy run option shit ok!

That's because some clueless coaches decided the Colts should be a 3-4 defense. Not a good idea when your LBs suck.

Antonio Morrison sucks, as do all of our ILB's. Bostic is ok...but he's just a jag, who wouldn't start for most teams.

Aiken seeing the field over Rogers and Moncrief is a travesty.

Mack won't see more playing time until Pagano is gone.

Also run your offense to match the players you have.... fuck you Chud

the Pagano era has always been a square peg round hole shit show

Good game Brisket, but the 7 points you gave them made this game close.

Gotta cut that shit out

He was throwing the ball within 2 seconds and got demolished. He has made some bad decisions, but that fumble, he never had a chance.

Maybe I'm a lone wolf here t I think with the proper coaches and an OC with a good philosophy that Brissett would be a pretty good QB.

He has all the tools he just needs to learn the system.... well not this one because it's retarded but when we get a new coaching staff I could see him being able to be a winning QB

Totally agree!

I think he could be ok. He is big, strong, has a good arm, and is accurate enough for sure.

All depends on if he can process the field fast enough.

He just needs more experience ...he's the best damn backup the Colts have ever had. Poached from the Pats 3rd string for a failed 1st round pick ...geeezus, how did it take 2 decades to find a decent QB2?

I guess Stanton was decent. But: Rypien, Sorgi, Painter, Collins ...who else?

Matt Hasslebeck and Josh Freeman are the two best QB2s in recent Colts history. Until Brisket anyway.

I just don't think there's evidence he sees the field well enough.

I look at Brissett as having a QB1 arm, insane toughness, good poise, decent pocket presence (needs to climb more but that's improved as the season has gone on) and a lot of really good intangible traits.

But I think he has QB2 level vision and understanding. He stays with his primary and doesn't come off that enough. Some of that is newness to scheme and some of it is youth, and hell, Luck has games where he's entirely guilty of that too.

With Brissett, though, it seems more ingrained in his game; in other words, I'd need him to prove to me that he can see the field at a QB1 level.

I'm in that camp - actually a bit more aggressive on it as I put up the post saying F-it roll with this dude.

Hate to say it, hate it, but man if we don't have Luck anymore (and I do not in ANY FUCKING WAY have faith that come early spring if this medical staff is still here that this fucking incompetent staff of nitwits will have properly solved that equation) I think we could roll with this dude instead of trying to land one of the top QB's in the draft (ironically Jacoby may end up being the reason we can't get one of them!). I see things here that say you have a QB that could lead you vs one of these guys that just fills a void. Couple him with a good QB guy and I think we have something really promising. I agree with GBB that he is not going through progressions as fast as needed but part of that is also a line that is often terrifying (the sack fumble was a good D call against the right O set- he had no time to look to check) and a scheme that as far as I can tell, has never really even contemplated the need for progressions. At times it literally seems like the play design is this simple- "30 yard drag / post to TY- this is gonna take a long time to develop so if he's not open you are pretty much fucked, just fucking do something like run around or something...".

Fucking draft a DE or LB with the first pick- period end of discussion. From there, get either the DE or LB next, and after that nothing but OL!

Presumably they should be dropping into coverage. I have no idea if it's just supposed to be a shallow zone or whether they are supposed to pick up a TE or RB, but they clearly can't do it. I'm reminded of the Vic Fangio era defense. Like that time, we need better coaches and better LBs.

He could have just swallowed it and taken the sack.

No he did not have a chance to throw it, but that is what he needs to recognize to prevent the D from getting an easy TD

I think some of you are overrating Brissett. He had done the best he could and yes maybe he would be decent as a starter with better coaches, but I think Hasselback and Sorgi were decent back ups as well.

He is giving the other teams points week after week.

I mean, you'd kinda have to roll with Brissett. Colts probably end up picking 10-15 this year when the dust is settled. I just doubt they'd find a better skillset to work with than what Brissett presents in that range, given the anticipated run on QBs you see in top 10 (especially this year).

They'd probably be looking at a Josh Allen type in that range, which brings the exact same question marks as Brissett anyway.

FWIW, I can't emphasize enough that I like Brissett's skillset a lot. It's the between-the-ears stuff that I have questions about. And I have no confidence this current coaching staff has answers for those questions.

I remember when Big Ben was a rookie. They purposely cut the field in have and limited his reads so he didn't have to think as hard going through all the progressions. I am wondering if that is chuds gameplay also to let him learn but at an easier pace

Just a thought. Not saying that is whats happening

He didn't have time to breath, let alone just swallow that ball. Like I said, he has made mistakes, that fumble was not one of them. We will just have to agree to disagree.