"If you take him [Peyton Manning] out the game, no disrespect to nobody else on the Colts, but you make them a very below average ball club."
Sigh.
Again, I stayed up until 4AM watching the Colts play against the Browns. I felt optimistic after the first few drives ("Wow, big improvement in one week!"), but that ultimately turned into "Here we go again..." when Special Teams (minus V-Money and Patty Mac) was "special" as usual and Colt McCoy carved up the secondary.
What I found most disconcerting was when the announcers quoted Larry Coyer saying something like (and I'm reciting from memory here), our defense was built to play with a lead and now we actually have to play defense to make the lead.
Excuse me, but.... WTF?
Why not build a defense to play good defense with or without a lead?
What is the Colts' front office doing? What are the coaches doing besides blinking quietly?
To be sure, there are other good players on the team, but defense and special teams has been a problem for many years now. And what does the Colts' front office do to address the problem in the off season? Blink.
Ugh.
Though the game successfully cast a darker cloud above Colts Nation and gave more fodder for freaking out, the game itself wasn't all bad.
Silver linings from the Browns beat down:
- Running game - OL (except Link), Addai, and Carter looked good (Is this the last we see of Brown?) Imagine what Peyton could do with this running game.
- Adam Vinatieri - V-Money's still got it. No doubt about it. Four for four on field goals and even nailed a 52-yarder.
- Pat McAfee = power leg. Stop calling for him to cut his hair. He's growing it out to donate to Locks of Love (like I'm doing).
- Pat Angerer - Dude's stepping up.
- Anthony Castanzo - He's really settling in at LT. Two false starts is okay. He's still a rookie and getting used to it. Remember all the false starts by Tarik Glenn? Those were all okay because he was awesome at what he did.
- Antoine Bethea - totally underrated
The opposite of silver linings (mercury fillings?):
- Coaching - for once I wish Caldwell would just go for it on 4 and 1. Special Team and Defensive Coordinators... o_O
- Kerry Collins - Did his best "I'm not a sloth, but I really am a sloth" impersonation. He was better in this game, even stepped up in the pocket a couple of times, but he's still a statue in the pocket, takes forever to throw the ball, takes forever to re-load, and then makes throws that make me go "WTF kind of throw was that?!"
- Special Teams - cannot give the other team such good field position all the time. Come on!
- Secondary - 'Nuf said.
- Officiating - Missing a bunch of holds, pass interference (Reggie Wayne was livid on that one), these zebras stank up the joint tonight.
And is Austin Collie's arm okay? 17 looked like a cyborg on the field today with his helmet and one black arm.
It pains me how much Manning does for the Colts. Look at him, flying to Europe to get a stem cell treatment just to increase the odds of a speedy recovery from his neck surgery. He is doing everything he can to help his team, but what is his team doing to help itself?
I really wonder.
Here are highlights from the Colts vs. Browns game:
Credit: NFLHiighlightsHD
Football gods, please show Manning some love. As much as I want to see him play, I think he needs to sit out this season and rest up.
Colts play the Steelers next week. It might be an even uglier game, but I will still cheer for Blue.
GO COLTS!
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