Quick thoughts on Titans-Colts

[GoBigBlue88]

1. Pretty much my only negatives for this game would be Ryan Kelly's injury and the fact that Indy Special wasn't a TD. Wow. What a ballgame. Hats off to everyone in the org.

2. That Ryan Kelly injury scares the hell out of me. I don't know anything beyond "knee", but I've seen too many guys walk off the field with a knee injury, go to the locker room, and next day you hear it's ACL. Here's hoping Colts dodge that bullet.

3. One nitpick in the run game is that Marlon Mack goes down way too easily on ankle tackles. Glad someone finally pointed it out this week; we've seen it through his career. I still think Mack's overall game is perfect for this offense, but I wouldn't mind seeing Jordan Wilkins (who I might argue is a bit undervalued by the team) taking 3-5 touches that have traditionally been drawn up for Mack.

4. TY Hilton just embarrassed Adoree Jackson today. Not much to say: Hilton is still awesome and smart fans already knew this. Dontrelle Inman has really impressed me though. Great route runner with solid hands and an ability to extend on plays I don't think other non-TE Colts receivers have. He won't turn heads with speed or YAC, but he's a pretty long target.

5. I like that Titans thought they would throw off the Colts by coming out with an emphasis on base nickel and Colts basically said: OK, cool. Colts can go 11, 12, 13, whatever personnel on you. Reich will pick apart whatever your defense was; it's just on players to execute.

6. I don't mind the Indy Special call at all. Your offense has been BALLING for a long time now. You earn the slack to try that when you routinely make the high % plays. I'm glad they ran it, because they value having fun playing football. When you do that, you tend to roll.

7. I think Mariota is super overrated, but I thought Colts had a great rush plan in place for him. There was no outside escape, and their was Darius Leonard spying in the middle. Mariota panicked routinely. Colts schemed him into total irrelevance. Blew up those edges all day.

8. Al Woods had himself a day after really struggling for most of the season. Thought he was the DL who showed up most on a live watch.

9. Darius Leonard is obviously a DROY favorite and we're running out of good things to say about him, but nitpicking: going for the strip did cost him 2-3 tackles today. Fine to be aggressive, but just gotta know you're less likely to get that on Derrick Henry and still be able to make a tackle.

10. FWIW, much will be made of Dean Pees' illness (hope he's OK!) affecting Titans defense. But I honestly thought the Titans played well on individual plays; the Colts were just unbeatable on many. Example: on the Indy Special red zone drive, second down, Colts run a play that is a TD on 30 other NFL teams, I am confident. TY Hilton comes across formation, drawing attention at snap, and Doyle fakes a block to leak out of formation going the other way. Logan Ryan stays with it, and stops the pass to Doyle for zero gain. That, to me, doesn't speak to a defense that was just caught off guard. It speaks to a defense that couldn't individually handle TY Hilton when they loaded the box against the run.

11. Sucks that Chester Rogers PR TD got called back. Colts return unit has been so bad for so long, you'd like to see a little momentum fall in their favor.

12. No idea how Luck didn't throw an INT to Adoree Jackson on the early 3Q play that ended up being a completion to Hilton. Colts got a few kind bounces today.

13. If Kelly is out, I wonder if Haeg or Boehm gets the call at center. Haven't seen enough from Boehm yet to have any feel for his game.

14. Quincy Wilson had a standout game today after a real dud last week. Not just the gimme INT; he played nasty. If you play nasty as a CB in this system, you will succeed more often than not.

15. Last few games have shown how overrated the run game is, IMO. Colts have done nothing special on the ground since OAK, and they're still dominating on offense. They can run when they have to, rip off one long one per game, and run in enough DIFFERENT ways to keep defenses guessing and honest. Which I have to think is Reich's preference all along: run well enough to allow the offense to work.

16. Quenton Nelson and Ryan Kelly getting majority of OL accolades. They deserve accolades, but I'd argue Anthony Castonzo has the strongest All-Pro case of anyone on the OL...

17. Colts are doing enough things with jet sweep action this year to make defenses think. Just so fun to see wrinkles like this after years of Pagano ruining everything. Jesus, does this season illustrate how bad Pagano was.

18. Nitpick: Colts hurrying up to the line on 3rd down to execute a shotgun handoff up the middle was effective earlier this season, but enough teams have seen it now where it doesn't sururpise anyone. Need to get a little more creative with hurry-up snaps on 3rd down.

19. He hasn't had a huge box score impact this year, and still clearly isn't the same player as last year yet, but make no mistake: this team needs Malik Hooker.

20. I keep waiting for this team to run a fake punt, given who their coaches are.

[JAFF]

Pees is probalby at IU hospital next door to Riley Childrens. Best place to be.

[Pez]

Agree with you about the injury to Kelly, and I want him back next week with nothing serious.

It's hard to describe this, but I think TY's injury earlier in the year actually helped Luck, and I hop that if kelly is going to miss games that we will see where the depth is on our OL. It's obviously prefereranbe that Kelly will be back next week, but there is benefit if this line can be presented with adversity and overcome that diversity.

Just a fantastic game today, all 10 of the Titans points were garbage. This was more or less a shutout.

A statement. the Colts are a fu**ing pain in the ass.

[DrSpaceman]

Best game the Colts have played in a long time. Not just this year but in several years, start to finish

Luck missed one throw all game, had a wide open TE inside the 10 and missed him. Other than that, nothing better he could have done

But question is the Kelly injury and how serious it is

A great game with Reggie and Peyton watching.

Career game for TY Hilton. Needs more of that though, more consistently week to week.

Two weeks in a row, just crushed division opponents for one half to a whole game that are supposed to have good defenses.

On to Miami next week. Right in the thick of things in the playoff hunt, though Houston won today as well. Even without the division, still in the WC race with lots of other teams.

Stupid penalty at the end of the half to put them in closer FG range. Only dumb mistake all game

Give games without a sack.

Also Luck has thrown one red zone INT all year, and that one was on the very first drive of the season. Not a single one since all year.

[Hoopsdoc]

Originally Posted by DrSpaceman

Best game the Colts have played in a long time. Not just this year but in several years, start to finish

Luck missed one throw all game, had a wide open TE inside the 10 and missed him. Other than that, nothing better he could have done

But question is the Kelly injury and how serious it is

A great game with Reggie and Peyton watching.

Career game for TY Hilton. Needs more of that though, more consistently week to week.

Two weeks in a row, just crushed division opponents for one half to a whole game that are supposed to have good defenses.

On to Miami next week. Right in the thick of things in the playoff hunt, though Houston won today as well. Even without the division, still in the WC race with lots of other teams.

Stupid penalty at the end of the half to put them in closer FG range. Only dumb mistake all game

Give games without a sack.

Also Luck has thrown one red zone INT all year, and that one was on the very first drive of the season. Not a single one since all year.

I was thinking the same thing. Most complete game since blowing out the Broncos in the playoffs many years ago. That was the Marvin getting up untouched and scoring game.

The Titans had NO chance today. They were outplayed, out coached, and outclassed in every way.

[Maniac]

I know Wentz is still working his way back from an ACL, but I can't help but think we got the best offensive coach from that superbowl team when we got Reich.

[YDFL Commish]

Hopefully Kelly has a Dallas Clark like miraculous recovery, and once the swelling goes down, he misses just one week.

[Chromeburn]

Originally Posted by JesusChrist

I know Wentz is still working his way back from an ACL, but I can't help but think we got the best offensive coach from that superbowl team when we got Reich.

I think we found a good offensive innovator in that coordinator Sirianni that Reich brought in.

[Chromeburn]

Kelly was initially ruled out but played. I wonder if it has something to do with the original injury.

That fact Wilson made adjustments after last week makes me hopeful that he can still be a player for us. He is still young and mid second season. We’ve seen flashes just need consistency.

I haven’t been as impressed with Mack as I initially was. He is fast and dangerous if he gets in space. But he seems to have little wiggle in his game, hence the shoestring tackles taking him down. After watching replays of his runs, I feel like he doesn’t hit the hole as efficiently as he could. I also want to see more Wilkins, he isn’t as fast, but I feel he is more fluid and gets through the holes to the second level more smoothly. He has a good feel for the game. I want to see him in a year with a full NFL off season.

Castonzo has been solid, it really is amazing what it can do for your game if you don’t really have to worry about the guy beside you as much.

Really impressed with the defense this game. They took to the tacks. I can’t believe Leonard is a rookie, just a tremendous feel for the game. Turay looks like the light is coming on and is playing faster. Just a good defensive effort against a good offensive line.

Mariota is overrated. Been saying this since Oregon. He is so bland, like plain oatmeal. His accuracy comes and goes, and I don’t think he is clutch at all. Shows how easy it is to fall into the QB trap of pretty good but not great. They are locked into him for years. I would rather have bad or great. Because with bad at least you know to move on in a couple years.

[Butter]

Originally Posted by Chromeburn

Mariota is overrated. Been saying this since Oregon. He is so bland, like plain oatmeal. His accuracy comes and goes, and I don’t think he is clutch at all. Shows how easy it is to fall into the QB trap of pretty good but not great. They are locked into him for years. I would rather have bad or great. Because with bad at least you know to move on in a couple years.

So he sits at or near the Dalton line?