My Take

[ChaosTheory]

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.

[IndyNorm]

Originally Posted by ChaosTheory

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.

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

[ColtBlue]

Originally Posted by IndyNorm

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

He can't find a Franchise QB IMO

[ukcolt]

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.

[Hoopsdoc]

Originally Posted by ukcolt

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.

[njcoltfan]

Eagles are a home game.

[Luck4Reich]

Originally Posted by ukcolt

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.

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.

[Oldcolt]

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.

[HoosierinFL]

Originally Posted by Luck4Reich

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.

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.

[ChaosTheory]

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.