I thought Wentz looked pretty good. He was harassed constantly but seemed to make largely solid decisions under pressure. No boneheaded near-interceptions that I recall, but lots of short passes. Disappointed we didn’t throw down the field a little more, but that’s probably just a function of the fact that the OL was not performing up to par and Wentz just didn’t have time. Good things did seem to happen when Wentz threw to Strachen though, two tough first downs and a PI penalty – all on third down – so very nice to see Strachen’s training camp momentum carry forward into the season.
Reich’s fourth down gambles all failed on Sunday, highlighting the downside of that strategy. I didn’t quite get the reasoning when Reich had the opportunity to bring the Colts to within one score, particularly in a game where we were having obvious OL issues. It has to be demoralizing to the players to be unable to get closer even after the defense tightened up a bit in the second half. Also curious in retrospect was Reich’s much more conservative decision in the first Colts drive to kick a FG from the 2.
Week 1 is always a crapshoot, particularly these days when many starters play very little or not at all during the preseason. While it certainly wasn’t an impressive performance, I wouldn’t place too much weight in it at this point. Remember that the Colts lost to the Jags in Week 1 last season (their one and only victory all season), and still recovered nicely and went to the playoffs.
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09-13-2021, 05:48 PM
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