Comments for What We Learned this Preseason at http://18to88.com , comment 1 to 26 out of 20 comments http://18to88.com Fri, 10 Sep 2010 17:05:18 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.3 http://18to88.com/2009-archives/september/what-we-learned-this-preseason.html#comment-692 I'm somewhat unsure about what will happen this season. Which means the Colts will probably dominate. One obvious point: In order to do anything of note this season they first have to beat the Titans and win the South. - DemondSanders Sat, 05 Sep 2009 03:38:41 +0100 http://18to88.com/2009-archives/september/what-we-learned-this-preseason.html#comment-689 Only four teams ran around Left end more than the Colts last year. The Colts were middle of the pack (14th-16th) in runs off left tackle. On average, the Colts run left more than most teams, not less. - DZ Sat, 05 Sep 2009 01:46:22 +0100 http://18to88.com/2009-archives/september/what-we-learned-this-preseason.html#comment-688 Maybe 18 is sacked 18-25 times this year versus 14-18 in years past. His release and internal clock are such that he won't end up sacked 40 times. His completion % will probably be 63-65 instead of 65 to 67 because it will be tough gettng the time for the deep ball to develop. I am worried sick about the camera panning back after a long incompletion and Manning buried into the turf with a season ending shoulder injury or something to that effect. Nothing to do about it at this point. The Texans have Mario and a pass rushing rookie. Jacksonwille is in year two of Harvey and Groves(?), The titans have KVB and others so it will be tough in the six division games. Out of division, You have Thomas and Mayo from NE, Miami has a physical D with Taylor rushing and the Bills have Maybin the rookie who has gotten into the backfield a few times in the preseason. Suggs with the Ravens is a concern - as far as the NFC West and the Broncos, no one really stands out. Plenty of reasons to hold the breath this year but at least no Steeler, Charger, or Vikings D to contend with this year. - kailes2872 Fri, 04 Sep 2009 21:34:39 +0100 http://18to88.com/2009-archives/september/what-we-learned-this-preseason.html#comment-687 that the Colts rarely run successfully over LT. I may be wrong, but weren't the stretch play usually over the right side? Forgive me for not doing really any research for those statements, DZ, you know I am usually better than that. My overall point is that, compared to other teams, LT is less important to the Colts. - dmstorm22 Fri, 04 Sep 2009 14:13:17 +0100 http://18to88.com/2009-archives/september/what-we-learned-this-preseason.html#comment-686 According to Banks, the Jets are a playoff team, the Colts are not: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/writers/don_banks/09/03/2009.predictions/index.html - JTBLA Fri, 04 Sep 2009 13:17:36 +0100 http://18to88.com/2009-archives/september/what-we-learned-this-preseason.html#comment-682 According to [url]http://footballoutsiders.com/stats/ol[/url] The Colts ran over Left end 15% of the time. That's pretty much in perfect harmony with the other slots. It goes 15% Left end, 14% LT, 47% middle, 10% RT, 14% RE. So they go left more than right, and more than 25% of the time. I wouldn't call that "rarely". - DZ Fri, 04 Sep 2009 11:31:32 +0100 http://18to88.com/2009-archives/september/what-we-learned-this-preseason.html#comment-681 Why would you say they rarely run over LT? Do you have any stats for that? - DZ Fri, 04 Sep 2009 11:21:29 +0100 http://18to88.com/2009-archives/september/what-we-learned-this-preseason.html#comment-680 the Colts rarely run over LT, Johnson should be adequate. He can keep Peyton Manning upright, and the Colts have good blocking TE depth. - dmstorm22 Fri, 04 Sep 2009 11:16:46 +0100 http://18to88.com/2009-archives/september/what-we-learned-this-preseason.html#comment-679 Oh, without question. I think this team is a year away to be honest. I know I "predicted" them to win it all, but what do you expect me to say? I think the O line isn't ready yet. Still, Pitt won it with a crap line (and a very different kind of QB), so anything is possible. Ultimately the playoffs are a crap shoot, so if you get in, you can win if the matchups break right. Still, gun to my head, I bet against the Oline being good enough. I can see a scenario where it is good enough, but I don't think it's the most likely outcome. - DZ Fri, 04 Sep 2009 09:17:07 +0100 http://18to88.com/2009-archives/september/what-we-learned-this-preseason.html#comment-678 Clearly we both have our own opinions and reasoning on what should or could have been done in the 2009 draft but we both agree that the line is THE biggest question mark on this team. I agree we should be better than last year but I'm not sure that's saying much as they were pretty awful last year. Any normal QB would have been horrible on this team last year. - Westside-Rob Fri, 04 Sep 2009 09:12:23 +0100 http://18to88.com/2009-archives/september/what-we-learned-this-preseason.html#comment-677 I think you're right. I think this team has to make major line improvements to actually be a SB team. Diem HAS to play to a 2006 level. Pollack HAS to improve. If those two things happen, then maybe...we'll see. This is why we were so crushed when it looked like Saturday was going to walk. My hope is that even with the line questions, the team will still rush the ball better (not great, just better). CJ did run block effectively last year, so while pass pro will be an issue all year, maybe they'll run better. It's a problem. It's probably a huge problem. The question is how much better is the team at other key spots than last year. This team has a very thin margin for error. - DZ Fri, 04 Sep 2009 08:42:26 +0100 http://18to88.com/2009-archives/september/what-we-learned-this-preseason.html#comment-676 I mean who on the line is good? Saturday: Definitely was elite but can he still be elite this late in his career? Lilja: Also was elite before he missed all of last year with injury. Can he return to form? Diem: Definitely Not in my book. I felt his play was more problematic last year than Ugoh's. Perhaps it was because he was playing next to rookie Pollack? Pollack: Well he is suppose to have the potential based on draft position but I'm skeptical so far. Johnson/Ugoh: Obviously not elite or good. The year we won the Super Bowl: Saturday, Lilja, Scott, and Glenn all Elite to above average. Diem was solid to above average when healthy. If your assessment is correct and I believe it is, then we should not have high expectations for this season, particularly in the playoffs. - Westside-Rob Fri, 04 Sep 2009 08:37:03 +0100 http://18to88.com/2009-archives/september/what-we-learned-this-preseason.html#comment-675 The Colts might not sit tight, but the answer to the LT problem is not going to found this weekend. CJ and Ugoh are both going to be better than whatever option the Colts pull off the wire. If working hard was all it took to be an NFL LT, Charlie Johnson would be an all-pro. It takes work and talent and intellect. I don't know that we have one player with all three. If the line can be four good guys and a mediocre LT, we can be successful. If it's one or two good guys, and three mediocre players, the Super Bowl simply won't be a realistic expectation. - DZ Fri, 04 Sep 2009 07:51:46 +0100 http://18to88.com/2009-archives/september/what-we-learned-this-preseason.html#comment-674 I am not convinced that CJ is the answer at Left Tackle. I am however convinced that Ugoh isn't. Who knows; maybe he is tired of all the rehab and that has affected his desire. I am also not convinced that the Colts are gonna sit tight after all teams cut rosters this week-end. Maybe the Colts will bring in a few offensive linemen to audition. With the number of players that got significant playing time last year on the O-Line; I wonder if the coaching staff was expecting some of the linemen to come to camp a little better prepared. The Colts have shown that they are not afraid of shifting people around .. . so maybe they just figured that one of these guys would decide they wanted to take the job and would work extra hard to accomplish it. - tjbindy Fri, 04 Sep 2009 07:06:10 +0100 http://18to88.com/2009-archives/september/what-we-learned-this-preseason.html#comment-673 Re: commenting...to my knowledge, there are no plans to go mobile. They just launched their main page two days ago... Re: the draft I think the Colts were better off getting an elite RB this year than they would trading up to draft another LT. The price of that trade up was likely at least next year's number one. That would be for a player who may or may not even solve the problem this year. Going into the draft, I didn't even have O line anywhere on my need board. That's because I still believed in Ugoh. Now I don't, but I also don't believe in CJ, but apparently the coaching staff does. FO has shown that over all line quality is a bigger factor in success than any one player on the O line. There simply was nothing the Colts could do this year to make this line better right now. The team is clearly in 'win now' mode based on the signing of Saturday. So, in my mind the question is: Would drafting a LT (and trading up to do it) over Brown help the team more right now than going with CJ/Ugoh? I can't say that it does. It might help the team more next year or in two years, but there might not even be football in two years, so who knows. I'd rather draft a truly elite skill player in the first round than a question mark. That's why I'd rather have Brown. - DZ Fri, 04 Sep 2009 06:35:17 +0100 http://18to88.com/2009-archives/september/what-we-learned-this-preseason.html#comment-672 and by the way I hate the comment "engine" on this site. It takes forever to post, and I've had at least 3 or 4 posts that seemed to go but then don't show up... Any chance they are going to offer a mobile view anytime soon? Load times on this site on the iPhone are brutal. - Westside-Rob Fri, 04 Sep 2009 06:22:18 +0100 http://18to88.com/2009-archives/september/what-we-learned-this-preseason.html#comment-671 is whether considering EJ's pending resigning whether the team really had glaring needs at DT and RB. You've been one of Addai's biggest supporters yet you'd say that we need another 1st round RB talent to work in tandem with him, even though it risks not having a decent LT which will limit how much any RB can contribute no matter what their talent level? I love that we have Brown. I think he has immense potential with the Colts. However without a decent LT his everyone else's potential on the offense is stymied. Having said all of that. I'm more optomistic about CJ than most. I don't think he'll ever be as good at Tarik or maybe even as good as Ugoh was his rookie year. But I think he'll be serviceable, and with a little assistance from TE's and RB's we'll be OK. We'd be a lot better with a top flight LT but we'll be better than we were last year from an O-Line standpoint. - Westside-Rob Fri, 04 Sep 2009 06:16:09 +0100 http://18to88.com/2009-archives/september/what-we-learned-this-preseason.html#comment-670 I'm not going to criticize Polian for taking Ugoh. In fact most of us felt after year 1 that he had been a great pick up. You can't look that deep into a man's heart to know that after a couple years he's going to start "mailing it in". I also agree it's going to take time to overcome the fact that Ugoh hasn't panned out. I'm just saying that we had to start that process this year not next. If the Colts already knew that this was inevitable which it seems they did. Then they had to address it somehow in the 2009 draft or Free Agency(unlikely I know but I mention it because it was in fact an option). Many of us (me being one of them) talked about our needs being DT and LT. Well we didn't know though the Colts must have known that they were going to re-sign Ed Johnson. So for me that would have elevated LT to 1A priority. Knowing what we seem to know now about Ugoh that 1A should have gone to SUPER 1A with a bullet. We could have either "reached" for Britton or traded up just a few picks for Oher (who I really liked). Still gotten a solid contributing RB in the 2nd or 3rd, and still taken everyone else that we got less whatever 2009 picks we'd have to give up to move up. Yes I also wanted a DT but once they resigned EJ and with the development of AJ and Muir. I don't think drafting Moala was as critical as we felt at the time because we didn't know everything the Colts had to have known at the time. That's where I think the mistake was truly made...Ugoh wasn't a mistake he was the right player taken at the right time for the right price that had the right skills but the wrong heart and he hasn't worked out. That's not a mistake that just something that didn't work out... - Westside-Rob Fri, 04 Sep 2009 06:10:39 +0100 http://18to88.com/2009-archives/september/what-we-learned-this-preseason.html#comment-669 I'm just saying that considering the other massive needs at DT and RB, trading up for an OT wouldn't have been the best move. They did trade up, BTW, to get Moala. And we all praised the move at the time. I said a few months ago that if Ugoh was our biggest problem on the line, that we'd be ok. It now looks like he's gone backwards. I hate rewriting history. He clearly made a mistake by drafting Ugoh. I'm not sure the fix for that mistake was in the cards this year. This team needed a lot of help. Don't forget that the 2008 team wasn't good. The only way out was to take the best available players at each opportunity and raise the overall talent level of the team. Polian did that. Did he make a mistake? Yeah, in 2007. It'll take time to undo that. - DZ Fri, 04 Sep 2009 05:17:17 +0100 http://18to88.com/2009-archives/september/what-we-learned-this-preseason.html#comment-668 I disagree that there wasn't much that they could do. They could have traded up or down. They traded up to get Ugoh? Britton may not pan out but there is no less certainty there than drafting someone next year. I agree they needed RB help and DT help. But they re-signed EJ and AJ, Muir look better now with an offseason with the Colts under their belts, so maybe DT wasn't as big of a need as we thought. It doesn't look like Moala is going to be a huge contributor anyway. There were quite a few decent RB's taken in taken in the 2nd round and later, and with an existing Addai we have the luxury of not having to spend a 1st round pick on a RB. So it wouldn't have to be Addai and Hart. It could have been Addai, Rashard Lewis(taken in round 4 or something), and Hart. I think overall the guys Polian picked will be OK. Brown will be good, Moala might be OK, Power's is probably a keeper, Taylor???, Painter is the future Sorgi, but I'm not convinced this was his best draft in terms of what the Colts needed to win over the next 2-3 years. As you keep saying, you can't win a Super Bowl without a decent LT. Well clearly they suspected that Ugoh was not that player late last year. They had to know CJ could not become that player either. They failed to address the issue in the draft or FA. What other conclusion can you come to but that Polian probably made a mistake...I'm not trying to indicte the guy. He's earned more than a few mulligans, I'm just saying this year even though he drafted contributors the decision to not make a move to find a true starting LT is troubling. It also usually takes LT's about 2-3 years to really thrive. So by not drafting one this year he's committing Peyton's blindside to at least 3-4 more seasons of uncertainty...considering he likely is only playing another 5-6 years that doesn't make me feel too good... - Westside-Rob Fri, 04 Sep 2009 05:09:57 +0100