2010 Film Review- Week One: @ Houston
[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="Arian Foster rips through the Colts' defense on September 12, 2010. Foster would go on to total 231 yards on the day."]
Colts Texans Week 1 2010[/caption]
Editor's Note: This is the first in a 17 part series that Coltsider will be doing in the coming month. Coltsider will review the tape of the 17 2010 games, and make observations now about how that game affected the rest of the season, and what we can take from it approaching the 2011 season.
Week One: @ Houston
Well, going through this game film was one of the least fun things I've ever had to do in terms of writing. This was just one of those games where everything just kind of fell apart, and it was painful to watch.
The game started out bad, got better, and then just barreled downhill faster than Rex Ryan going after a foot shaped steak.
In the first series, the Colts started out with a shaky kick return that barely got to the 20 yard line, due to Devin Moore's tentative running, and Mitch King completely whiffing his block. The offense proceeded to go three in out, largely because of the pressure allowed by Ryan Diem (who was absolutely abused by Mario Williams all game), Charlie Johnson (who played even worse than Diem), and Jamie Richard (who I can't even speak about at the moment, I'm still upset after nearly a year).
In their first series, the Texans scored a field goal, but the defense was still playing decent at this point. In fact, they played decently during the entire first half, although they allowed 13 points. The defensive line was getting a good amount of push, and the field position after a 39 yard punt return was what got the Texans their three points, not their offensive production.
This continued through the first half, with the Texans being able to move the ball, but being limited in moving the ball. The Colts defense was actually making it somewhat difficult for the Texans.
On offense, Manning was getting a lot of pressure in the first half, but not taking sacks (Manning is, after all, the master at this). Eventually, in the second quarter (being down 13-0), the Colts scored a touchdown on a beautiful 15 yard connection from Manning to Reggie Wayne.
This came after an interception by Melvin Bullitt put the offense in good field position, and Manning was able to overcome mistakes by Pierre Garcon (dropped pass and mis-communication) and Jamie Richards (false start).
The defense held the Texans to a three and out, thanks to a great stop in the backfield by Jerraud Powers and a sack by Robert Mathis on third down. The three and out resulted in the Colts gaining possession at their own 35, with 3:50 to go in the first half.
Despite Garcon failing in the previous drive, Manning went back to him, and Garcon responded with a nice catch on a 10 yard slant, and a deep pass down the sideline where Garcon snagged in with an outstretched right hand. This came after the Colts went for it on fourth down, a good call by Coach Caldwell.
In the end, the Colts couldn't punch it in, and settled for a 20 yard field goal to go into halftime down 10-13, but having all the momentum.
But when the teams came out of the tunnel, it seemed like Houston was the team with the momentum and confidence, as they began to run the ball right down the throats of the Indianapolis defense. The first drive consisted of 15 plays, only 2 of them being passes. The TD run at the end put the Texans up 20-10, and began a terrible half of football. On the next drive by Houston, Arian Foster ripped off two huge runs, and they were up by 17 points.
Eventually, the Colts would score again (twice), this time on a pass to Dallas Clark and a 73 yard pass to Austin Collie. But they didn't come till five minutes and one minute left in the fourth quarter, and both times the Colts were down by three scores.
The final score was 34 to 24, but the game wasn't as close as the score may have seemed.
After watching the game for a second time, I noticed a few things:
Colts Texans Week 1 2010[/caption]
Editor's Note: This is the first in a 17 part series that Coltsider will be doing in the coming month. Coltsider will review the tape of the 17 2010 games, and make observations now about how that game affected the rest of the season, and what we can take from it approaching the 2011 season.
Week One: @ Houston
Well, going through this game film was one of the least fun things I've ever had to do in terms of writing. This was just one of those games where everything just kind of fell apart, and it was painful to watch.
The game started out bad, got better, and then just barreled downhill faster than Rex Ryan going after a foot shaped steak.
In the first series, the Colts started out with a shaky kick return that barely got to the 20 yard line, due to Devin Moore's tentative running, and Mitch King completely whiffing his block. The offense proceeded to go three in out, largely because of the pressure allowed by Ryan Diem (who was absolutely abused by Mario Williams all game), Charlie Johnson (who played even worse than Diem), and Jamie Richard (who I can't even speak about at the moment, I'm still upset after nearly a year).
In their first series, the Texans scored a field goal, but the defense was still playing decent at this point. In fact, they played decently during the entire first half, although they allowed 13 points. The defensive line was getting a good amount of push, and the field position after a 39 yard punt return was what got the Texans their three points, not their offensive production.
This continued through the first half, with the Texans being able to move the ball, but being limited in moving the ball. The Colts defense was actually making it somewhat difficult for the Texans.
On offense, Manning was getting a lot of pressure in the first half, but not taking sacks (Manning is, after all, the master at this). Eventually, in the second quarter (being down 13-0), the Colts scored a touchdown on a beautiful 15 yard connection from Manning to Reggie Wayne.
This came after an interception by Melvin Bullitt put the offense in good field position, and Manning was able to overcome mistakes by Pierre Garcon (dropped pass and mis-communication) and Jamie Richards (false start).
The defense held the Texans to a three and out, thanks to a great stop in the backfield by Jerraud Powers and a sack by Robert Mathis on third down. The three and out resulted in the Colts gaining possession at their own 35, with 3:50 to go in the first half.
Despite Garcon failing in the previous drive, Manning went back to him, and Garcon responded with a nice catch on a 10 yard slant, and a deep pass down the sideline where Garcon snagged in with an outstretched right hand. This came after the Colts went for it on fourth down, a good call by Coach Caldwell.
In the end, the Colts couldn't punch it in, and settled for a 20 yard field goal to go into halftime down 10-13, but having all the momentum.
But when the teams came out of the tunnel, it seemed like Houston was the team with the momentum and confidence, as they began to run the ball right down the throats of the Indianapolis defense. The first drive consisted of 15 plays, only 2 of them being passes. The TD run at the end put the Texans up 20-10, and began a terrible half of football. On the next drive by Houston, Arian Foster ripped off two huge runs, and they were up by 17 points.
Eventually, the Colts would score again (twice), this time on a pass to Dallas Clark and a 73 yard pass to Austin Collie. But they didn't come till five minutes and one minute left in the fourth quarter, and both times the Colts were down by three scores.
The final score was 34 to 24, but the game wasn't as close as the score may have seemed.
After watching the game for a second time, I noticed a few things:
- Jamie Richards was terrible. That was the first thing that jumped out at me. No wonder he would lose his job later in the season. He was by far the worst linemen on the day, constantly allowing pressure, having a false start, and causing the Colts to waste a timeout (due to not understanding a Manning audible).
- After Richards, I'd have to say that Johnson was the second worst linemen on the day, with Ryan Diem being a close third. Both tackles were abused all day by the defensive ends, causing Manning to get hit far more than I'm comfortable with (of course, I'm uncomfortable with one time). Pollak and Saturday were respectable, on the whole.
- It was astounding how bad the running game was on the left side. Johnson and Richard were awful in run blocking, and the backs never had room to run on the left. On the right however, Pollak and Diem did a fairly good job of giving Addai lanes to run in.
- Early in the game, it wasn't our much maligned defensive tackles who were costing us in the run game. It was our linebackers. Late in the second half, everybody was playing bad, but before that the tackles were playing fairly decent. Moala and Muir were the most common pairing, getting good push on the line and making some good plays. The linebackers however were over pursuing and getting lost, so even if the linemen held their own, the backs were getting 4-6 yards a pop. Philip Wheeler and Clint Session were the main culprits.
- This game really was a foreshadowing of Austin Collie. He was the Colts best receiver on the day, and Peyton showed a lot of trust in him. At the same time, he showed a lot of trust in Garcon by continuing to go to him.
- Overall take: I think our defensive tackles for this year will be a huge upgrade from last year, and I think their quality (at least in this game) was downplayed a lot last year because the defense was getting gashed. However, I'd put more fault in the linebackers for this game than in the DL. After watching this game, I'm interested to see how the rest of the season turned out.
- Gonzo and Collie both had very good games. If both of them can stay healthy this season, Manning is going to have a heyday.
- Jamie Richards is terrible, and if he ever starts again, I will kill something. I don't know what, but something will cease to live. Mike Pollak actually played pretty well. I expected to see a lot of bad things coming from his side of the line, since I knew coming into the film that there was a huge OL fail. Johnson was bad. I'll say it again, he's a below average tackle, and I'm glad the Colts didn't shell out 10.5 mil over 3 years.
- Biggest effect on season: Bob Sanders injured in the first quarter. Although the team would be optimistic in his return, he eventually would be placed on injured reserve, wasting another year of his contract.
- Interesting point in the game: Late in the fourth quarter, the Colts were driving into Houston territory (after the game was far out of reach). Reggie Wayne caught a short out for a first down, and was run out of bounds by safety Bernard Pollard. After the two were both out of bounds, the microphones picked up Pollard clearly saying "Get your@*$ out of bounds!" Reggie responded with a just as clear "F#$% you motha#$%^@*!" The two then had a short jawing match on the sidelines. I hate Bernard Pollard. So glad we didn't sign him, like many suggested.
