No one wants to read a ‘glass half-empty’ report after beating the living hell out of a team, but waking up to hear that the Reds are thinking about offering a 22 year old pitcher for a 35 year old OF has soured my mood.
Let’s start by congratulating the Titans for their division win. It’s an accomplishment because they didn’t ‘Arizona it’. The Seahawks had won the NFC West for four straight years before the wheels came off. Arizona just happened to be averageish in a year the Seahawks (and everyone else) was awful. The Titans didn’t do this. Indy is going to win 11-12 games. They are still a legitimate (if flawed) power in the conference. The Titans are going to win 14 games this year. That means they went out and EARNED the title. I’m still cringing that the Colts had them down 14-6 in the third quarter before the defense utterly collapsed. Still, they won that game and took the crown. Good for them.
It would be silly to call Buster Davis a bust after one game, but he didn’t exactly announce his presence with authority either. I’m worried that Keiaho staying in on the passing downs is going to lead to more TE mismatches like the ones exploited by the Bears and Texans earlier this year. Fitzpatrick was a walking INT waiting to happen, and couldn’t exploit almost any mismatch, but a better QB will hunt for Freddy all day long.
Mike Pollack is my new whipping boy (sort of). He’s a rookie who missed games early, so obviously he gets a lot of slack. The bottom line is that he’s not making holes in the run game, and his holding penalty almost killed a drive yesterday. The Richard/Pollack combo is not working for the run at all. Saturday’s return will fix some of that, but ultimately Pollack is the weakest link (right now). That should be expected I suppose.
Gonzo…I thought we’d seen the last of those 1 yard short routes! Nice game anyway.
They have to fix the lighting issue at the Luke (aka The Stable). Polian said the WRs had been struggling with it earlier, but it showed up again yesterday on the deep ball to Reggie. That should have been a TD. I don’t know if the WRs can wear some kind of rayband like contact lenses or giant Dickerson goggles to help, but it’s getting ridiculous.
I do love the throws to Robinson; it seems to be an unusual wrinkle for the offense. They clearly saw something in their attack and decided they needed another threat in the two TE set. Robinson’s involvement adds one more wrinkle for teams that want to sit a spy on the RBs out of the backfield. Eventually, he’s going to pull a defender away from Addai or Rhodes which will lead to a big play. Robinson as Utech could work well.
Marvin’s burst through the zone was impressive. We’ll forgive him for running out of gas.
The pick by Hughes at the end was sweet. It was hilarious to see the Bengals in such a hurry to get out of there.
It would be wonderful to finally see one of the trailers in the WC race lose a game. I feel fine about our chances @Jacksonquit and with the Titans, but I’ll feel better about a punched postseason ticket.
Finally, here are Peyton’s projected stats:
| Comp | Att | % | Yards | YPA | TD | Int | Rating |
| 378 | 587 | 64.4 | 3969 | 6.8 | 27 | 15 | 88.8 |
They bear a remarkable similarity to his 2002 stats. This was the last year the Colts didn’t win the division. They went into New York in the playoffs with a better record than the division winning Jets. Never mind the rest.
Links:
I liked Kravitz’s piece today. See, I can be objective when it comes to Rex Kravitz.
CHFF said this week was a blast from the past
Clark Judge likes 18’s MVP campaign to gain speed. Yeah really? We said that weeks ago.
The Colts have a long history with great kickers from the Dakotas
Peyton is 2nd in Quick Reads. APete was the LEAST valuable RB yesterday. That’s a dent in the MVP credentials.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
