Kasey Klipsch is back with his weekly piece
For some reason, while attending this game, I never got nervous or worried. It could be that by the time it was obvious that the Titans had come to play, the Texans had already started pounding on the Jags. In any case, during the game I was loose and able to enjoy myself. When I came back to watch it again I couldn’t believe how much urgency I should have felt. I decided to chart the Chris Johnson scoring drive, as I believe this drive highlights the critical flaw of the Colts defense: they cannot stop the intermediate pass! As per usual the drive starts after a good return by the Titans.
1-10-TEN-30
Play: Johnson right end run for 12 yards. Tackled by Connor & Francisco
Titans Formation: 2 WR (1 close left, 1 wide right) / 1 TE (right) / 1 FB (offset I left)
Colts Formation: 4-3 standard
– Hughes goes inside on a double by TE and pulling LG.
– Moala also inside, blocked to the ground behind LOS by the RG.
– Mookie pushed a yard back by the C.
– Freeney handled by LT.
– Angerer takes the wrong line and is outrun by Johnson.
– LT blocks Brackett enough to spring Johnson for the big gain.
– Bethea misses the tackle for a 7 yard gain, but slows him enough for the remaining Colts to catch up.
1-10-TEN-42
Play: Short right pass to Johnson for 7 yards. Tackled by Angerer
Titans Formation: 2 WR / 2TE
Colts Formation: 4-3 standard
– Hughes doubled by RT/RG, causes the dump off pass.
– Mookie stunts all the way to the outside left, and is stopped by Chris Johnson, he then goes inside leaving Johnson available for the dump off pass.
– Mathews doubled by C/LG
– Freeney easily handled by LT.
– LB follow TE into coverage.
2-3-TEN-49
Play: Johnson run right tackle 4 yards. Tackled by Tryon
Titans Formation: 2 WR (both right) / 1 TE (left) / 1 FB (offset I right)
Colts Formation: 4-3 (LB crowding the line and Francisco in the box)
– Hughes and RT go wide right (I’m unable to tell if Hughes wanted to go there, or was forced there). RT is pushed into FB, causing him to go inside.
– Brackett plugs the hole but is blocked by the FB. This causes Johnson to cut back the opposite direction.
– Mookie moved 4 yards off the LOS by RG/C double.
– Mathews sheds down the LOS against the LG/LT knocking into Johnson. Johnson pinballs backwards around him.
– Dawson blocked 6 yards off the LOS by the TE.
– Tryon takes the outside line on Johnson to make sure he doesn’t get outside. He goes inside where Francisco is unable to prevent the first down.
1-10-IND-47
Play: Deep left pass to Moss for 18 yards. Tackled by Tryon
Titans Formation: 2 WR (1 close L) / 1 TE (right) / 1 FB (offset I left)
Colts Formation: 4-3 (Francisco in the box) / Tryon gives Moss 9 yards of cushion.
– Mathis gets around TE, RT is meant to be helping but does a terrible job. Mathis is 3 steps too slow for the sack.
– Mathews is easily handled by the RG.
– Foster is stoned by C/LG double.
– Freeney chipped by the FB, then blocked by the LT.
1-10-IND-29
Play: Johnson run up the middle for 5 yards. Tackled by Connor
Titans Formation: Unable to see as they cut back too late.
Colts Formation: 4-3 standard
– Mathis uses an inside move on RT and pulling LG. Johnson goes outside of this move.
– Foster knocked to the ground by the C.
– RG takes Brackett out of the play.
– Unable to see any more, other than Johnson with a good run and his lineman in front of him blocking LB.
2-5-IND-24
Play: Johnson run left end for no gain. Tackled by Foster and Connor
Titans Formation: 2 WR / 2 TE
Colts Formation: 4-3 standard
– Mathis run away from, and chipped by RT and blocked by RTE (Mathis still hustles there to make the tackle!).
– Foster run away from, blocked a yard off the LOS by the RG, the LT then also helps.
– Moala blows the LG up, gets 4 yards into the backfield, causing Johnson to go outside and breaking up this play.
– Freeney doubled to the ground by LT and LTE.
– Angerer tries for the tackle but is tripped (accidentally) by the LTE.
– Tryon breaks on the run and gets around the WR breaking up the play again allowing Brackett to get there (Brackett takes a good angle and is not faked out by a spin move).
3-5-IND-24
Play: (Shotgun) short pass to Williams for 6 yards. Tackled by Hagler.
Titans Formation: 4 WR (3 to the right)
Colts Formation: Nickle (Dawson standing up on LOS, Hagler and Brackett showing blitz)
– Mathis blocked wide outside by RT.
– Dawson gets a good bull rush on RG, almost gets to Collins in time.
– Foster goes outside as does Brackett, those 2 are blocked by C/LG/LT
– Freeney stunts inside, way too slow to make a difference on the play.
– Hagler drops into coverage on Williams; decent coverage but an easy catch for a WR vs. an LB 1-on-1.
1-10-IND-18
Play: Johnson run right end for 3 yards. Tackled by Hughes.
Titans Formation: 3 WR (2 left) / 1 TE (right)
Colts Formation: 4-2 (Connor lined up in coverage on WR)
– Hughes holds LOS but is pushed inside by RTE/RT
– Moala gets 1 yard into the backfield past RG, but Johnson runs around him.
– Mookie blocked at LOS by C
– Freeney run away from and blocked by LT.
– LG pulls and along with WR block Bethea.
– Angerer takes inside gap, and chooses incorrectly.
– Brackett & Connor each take the gap away from the play.
– Tryon sheds his block to help with the tackle.
2-7-IND-15
Play: (Shotgun) short pass middle to Johnson for 15 yards and a Touchdown.
Titans Formation: 2 WR (close on each side)/ 2 TE
Colts Formation: 4-3 standard)
– Hughes is doubled by RTE/RT.
– Moala doubled by RG/C
– Mookie gets penetration against LG, but it is too little too late.
– Freeney doubled by LTE/LT (the TE puts a great block on him)
– Great play design, WR takes Bracket to the right of his zone, TE takes Connor to the left of his, Johnson comes out on a route into the space they vacated. Johnson is too fast for them to make up for.
– Francisco whiffs the open field tackle to save the TD.
Impressions:
Freeney is stopped cold on this drive by the Titans’ LT. Yes he frequently got help but for the most part he easily silenced Freeney. At one point Freeney is blocked well out of the play by a TE! On any drive, when Freeney is made this much of a non-factor, I expect the Colts are going to get scored on. More concerning to me was once again the use of long developing stunts. On the one play with a blitz, Freeney stunts so far outside he is never blocked. What is the point of bringing Brackett out of coverage, only to invalidate Freeney’s presence? On another stunt, Mookie Johnson is stopped absolutely in his tracks by Chris Johnson. That is embarrassing enough, then Chris Johnson proceeds to shed the block, catch a dump off pass and gain yardage. In general Mookie continues to disa
ppointment me, I absolutely do not buy his current hype. Angerer also had some pretty bad reads. On a positive note, Moala, Hughes, and Tryon all played quite well on this drive. I will forgive Francisco and Bethea their open field misses on Johnson, he is talented enough to do that some times.
About The Author:
Kasey Klipsch ([email protected]) has no football experience above the grade school level. He grew up in Indianapolis rooting for the Colts and is a season ticket holder. He comments around the Colts blogosphere as kasey_junk. He also writes a weekly picks column for The Fantasy Ninjas (www.thefantasyninjas.com) under the nickname “The Real KC”.
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