"The Stew" Poop Soup Edition: Colts vs. Saints - Week Seven
[caption id="attachment_1967" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="62-7. A score that will forever remain a part of Colts history."]
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“The Stew” illuminates the highlights and headaches from each week’s game. If someone is overlooked, whether positively or negatively, please feel free to discuss.
"Man, they scored so much, their fans got tired of cheering." -Robert Mathis
This is one of the most embarrassing losses you could ever suffer as a professional football team. If the pitchforks aren't out in Indy by now, they'll never be. There is no way that any fan can be okay with this. There is no way Jim Irsay can be okay with this. Something has got to give. Blaming everything on the loss of Peyton Manning seemed so easy before, but I'm afraid that excuse is no longer valid. Not after this loss.
It was like getting in a time machine and witnessing the RMS Titanic story unfold in plain sight. We saw just the tip of the iceberg via week one in Houston. As we made our way closer and closer, we tried to quickly navigate around it and were so blinded by what we thought was our ship's inability to fail. Fast forward to week seven, and we slammed into the iceberg full steam ahead. The ship is now sinking and there will be casualties. Am I being overly dramatic? If you think so, well, try this on for size: No Colts team has ever been humiliated like this and that's not an exaggeration. The previous largest margin for a loss was 57-0 to Chicago in 1962.
Staggering, disgusting, and depressing all wrapped into one.
Despite the recent destruction of what was once a team that every other team feared, the show must go on. I'm obviously not in the most stat-crunching or analytically motivated mood, but I'll do my best. "The Stew" will be taking on a different form this week though. I'm dubbing it, "Poop Soup", for lack of a better term.
Please forgive me if the flavor is a little bland. There is simply no way in hell that I'm watching this game, ever again.
Poop Soup Extractions:
Delone Carter: You could argue that Delone Carter ran himself into the spotlight (Donald Brown had another solid outing too), but when you're down by 4,000 points, it's hard to really embrace how effective you really were. Regardless, I'll go ahead and give Carter his props because I think a 9.8 AVG is too impressive to overlook. Some sloppy ball security gave way to a big fumble, which would be important in any other game, but not in this one. His 42-yard gash and eventual TD were setup by great blocks via Dallas Clark and Pierre Garcon. These guys didn't quit and were still playing to win, bless their souls. Quinn Ojinnaka also impressed with a huge block on this run.
Offensive line: I think Carter's performance was a testament to his own ability, but also to that of the o-line's will to be effective, despite our injuries and the irrelevance of this game. Pass protection was sound, giving up only one sack and two other separate QB hits. When a team is rushing 6+ practically every damn time, that's not a bad job. Not a bad job, at all. I'm not sure what happened with the Joe Reitz situation, but Painter obviously wasn't ready when Reitz tapped Jeff Saturday to snap the ball. This was a bonehead, amateur play a la Phil Costa that started the downpour of mayhem... Jeff Linkenbach, who switched to LT this game due to injuries, got lit up by Will Smith (while holding him) and had a false start penalty in garbage time. It is what it is.
Pierre Garcon: Garcon broke off two would-be deep TDs, but of course, Painter underthrew him on the first and over on the second. Garcon continues to put himself in positions to make big plays. If Painter hits these throws, Garcon has another huge day.
Secondary: A week after making the Bengals rookie Andy Dalton look like a Pro Bowler with an almost 80% completion rate, an actual Pro Bowler decided to throw more TD passes than incompletions this week. Drew Brees was just about perfect, going 31-35 for 325 yards and 5 TDs (9.3 AVG). If you watched the game, you obviously could see that the coverage was a joke. It was like watching a game of Madden unfold while playing the computer on Rookie. Marques Colston could do whatever he wanted and no one was going to bother him. Jimmy Graham, same story. Kevin Thomas got his first start but it's hard to judge his performance from this game. I think it's a little unfair of me to say this, but he didn't look any better than Jacob Lacey, despite almost picking up his first INT in the end zone. Oh well. I actually laughed when he got juked out of his socks by Lance Moore. I mean, what else is there to do? My tear ducts were already dried up by this point.
With this joke of a "scheme" and the constant giant cushion (getting super tired of writing this), you wouldn't be given the opportunity to see just how good Thomas is anyway. I understand that these guys are young and highly inexperienced (hard to press and not expect them to get torched anyway), but a 10-yard cushion is suicide against an offense of this caliber. Pretty sure Larry Coyer knows this, but maybe he just doesn't care. Even after being down 41-7, the cushion was still holding strong and no adjustments were made. If there was ever a time to let your guys go and see what they can do, this was now the time. David Caldwell trying to prevent a Jimmy Graham TD jump ball was hilarious. Good one, Mr. Coyer.
Larry Coyer: Speaking of Coyer, I'll give him a bag of Ruffles and an autographed Peyton Manning hat to resign. Sound good?
Front seven: Pass rush wasn't a factor whatsoever and the Saints' ball carriers enjoyed a 6.2 AVG for 236 yards and 2 TDs kind of night... Yeah... Let's just say that we made the elusive Darren Sproles turn into Michael Turner. He was busting up the gap and trucking over mentally defeated Colts. The Saints offensive line had a great performance, to say the least. Jamaal Anderson got his first sack after Drew Brees had to step up in the pocket (Brayton also had a sack), but other than that, the Colts got to Brees one other time. I saw some missed holding calls on Dwight Freeney, but that's routine stuff. I think we can all agree that Kavell Conner is a big hitter, but royally sucks in coverage. I catch him slipping into other zones and fumbling over his feet way more than acceptable. I guess Sproles kind of exacerbates that problem. On an attempt to create pressure, Angerer blitzed and the Saints just so happened to call a perfect screen. Once it broke into the secondary, Antoine Bethea looked like he had never tackled someone before in his life. This just added to the theme of the night.
Defensive turnovers: Another game without a defensive turnover. That makes this the fourth straight game which sets a new record. Awesome. Blowout on Bourbon Street or not, we have to take advantage of turnover opportunities. I complained about this last week and it's the same story this time around. Conner could have made a play on a tipped Brees pass early in the game but obviously didn't, David Caldwell had another tipped ball in the end zone, and Thomas had ANOTHER capable INT in the end zone. That's three missed opportunities.
Curtis Painter: I did like the play call to go down the field at the beginning of the game. If Curtis Painter puts more on this pass (if, if, and IF!), we go up 7-0 on the first play from scrimmage. I'm sure this would have scared the Saints a little bit, but no matter how you play it out, we lose this game 100 times out of 100. That's guaranteed. Painter played horrible for the rest of the night, often throwing passes to resident N'awlins worms instead of Colts receivers. The only sack of the night fell on his lack of judgement and he had a beautiful intentional grounding call in garbage time. He also overthrew Austin Collie and Pierre Garcon by about 40 yards. The Collie overthrow resulted in a 46-yard pick six (almost threw another pick on a slant to Reggie Wayne) for the Saints. I'll give him brownie points for checking out of a pass when he recognized the Saints blitzing. This resulted in Carter's first big run, right before he fumbled. Yay for Painter. After playing so well the last few weeks, Painter came out and laid a huge egg. I fear the lost, skittish, inaccurate Curtis Painter has returned.
Joseph Addai: What in the heck was going on with Addai? He looked like he was recovering from a massive hangover or something. He lined up incorrectly, moped around, and then left the game after re-aggravating his hammy. Not sure what kind of miscommunication was going on, but he was acting extremely weird and totally not like Addai.
Jim Caldwell: It's refreshing to know, according to Caldwell, that we essentially win this game if "get back to the basics" and "focus on the little things". I mean, that's what he said at half time... You're down 34-7 and that's all you can say? Might as well not say a word. I'm sorry, but I think we all realize that the time has come to find a serious replacement. I respect what Caldwell represents and he is certainly a very classy guy, but when Jeff Saturday, one of the leaders and classiest guys in your locker room calls out your staff by using the "out-coached" term, it's bad. Really bad. I also particularly loved his decision to punt on 4th and 2 after Painter gets an intentional grounding call/scrambles on 3rd down. We were only down by more points than I can score in Madden, so let's play conservative! I feel bad for the guy to some extent, but then I realize he's making a lot of money to coach a professional football team.
The Final Product:
Blame this ridiculous loss and 0-7 start on whomever you'd like, but no fan in the world deserves to watch their team get beat 62-7. This was a loss for the ages and it just so happened to be in front of a prime-time audience. How often do people switch to watch the World Series over a regular season NFL football game? Answer: Never. But tonight, it happened.
It's obvious that our team is completely demoralized and lost in the dark. One of the most upbeat and laid back guys on the planet of this universe, Pat McAfee, posted on Twitter after the loss that it's "tough to be positive after that..." No matter how obvious his statement is, you at least expect to see McAfee rip off a joke or something lighthearted, but even he can see the writing on the wall.
I'm still shocked hours later. I can't believe what I saw unfold tonight and I can only imagine what's going to happen within the locker room, especially after Saturday's comments.
Accountability has never been an easy word for this organization to understand. Let's see if they learn the definition this time around.
Thanks for enjoying some Poop Soup with me.
Seconds, anyone?
Joking!
09000d5d8236b9c8_gallery_600[/caption]
“The Stew” illuminates the highlights and headaches from each week’s game. If someone is overlooked, whether positively or negatively, please feel free to discuss.
"Man, they scored so much, their fans got tired of cheering." -Robert Mathis
This is one of the most embarrassing losses you could ever suffer as a professional football team. If the pitchforks aren't out in Indy by now, they'll never be. There is no way that any fan can be okay with this. There is no way Jim Irsay can be okay with this. Something has got to give. Blaming everything on the loss of Peyton Manning seemed so easy before, but I'm afraid that excuse is no longer valid. Not after this loss.
It was like getting in a time machine and witnessing the RMS Titanic story unfold in plain sight. We saw just the tip of the iceberg via week one in Houston. As we made our way closer and closer, we tried to quickly navigate around it and were so blinded by what we thought was our ship's inability to fail. Fast forward to week seven, and we slammed into the iceberg full steam ahead. The ship is now sinking and there will be casualties. Am I being overly dramatic? If you think so, well, try this on for size: No Colts team has ever been humiliated like this and that's not an exaggeration. The previous largest margin for a loss was 57-0 to Chicago in 1962.
Staggering, disgusting, and depressing all wrapped into one.
Despite the recent destruction of what was once a team that every other team feared, the show must go on. I'm obviously not in the most stat-crunching or analytically motivated mood, but I'll do my best. "The Stew" will be taking on a different form this week though. I'm dubbing it, "Poop Soup", for lack of a better term.
Please forgive me if the flavor is a little bland. There is simply no way in hell that I'm watching this game, ever again.
Poop Soup Extractions:
Delone Carter: You could argue that Delone Carter ran himself into the spotlight (Donald Brown had another solid outing too), but when you're down by 4,000 points, it's hard to really embrace how effective you really were. Regardless, I'll go ahead and give Carter his props because I think a 9.8 AVG is too impressive to overlook. Some sloppy ball security gave way to a big fumble, which would be important in any other game, but not in this one. His 42-yard gash and eventual TD were setup by great blocks via Dallas Clark and Pierre Garcon. These guys didn't quit and were still playing to win, bless their souls. Quinn Ojinnaka also impressed with a huge block on this run.
Offensive line: I think Carter's performance was a testament to his own ability, but also to that of the o-line's will to be effective, despite our injuries and the irrelevance of this game. Pass protection was sound, giving up only one sack and two other separate QB hits. When a team is rushing 6+ practically every damn time, that's not a bad job. Not a bad job, at all. I'm not sure what happened with the Joe Reitz situation, but Painter obviously wasn't ready when Reitz tapped Jeff Saturday to snap the ball. This was a bonehead, amateur play a la Phil Costa that started the downpour of mayhem... Jeff Linkenbach, who switched to LT this game due to injuries, got lit up by Will Smith (while holding him) and had a false start penalty in garbage time. It is what it is.
Pierre Garcon: Garcon broke off two would-be deep TDs, but of course, Painter underthrew him on the first and over on the second. Garcon continues to put himself in positions to make big plays. If Painter hits these throws, Garcon has another huge day.
Secondary: A week after making the Bengals rookie Andy Dalton look like a Pro Bowler with an almost 80% completion rate, an actual Pro Bowler decided to throw more TD passes than incompletions this week. Drew Brees was just about perfect, going 31-35 for 325 yards and 5 TDs (9.3 AVG). If you watched the game, you obviously could see that the coverage was a joke. It was like watching a game of Madden unfold while playing the computer on Rookie. Marques Colston could do whatever he wanted and no one was going to bother him. Jimmy Graham, same story. Kevin Thomas got his first start but it's hard to judge his performance from this game. I think it's a little unfair of me to say this, but he didn't look any better than Jacob Lacey, despite almost picking up his first INT in the end zone. Oh well. I actually laughed when he got juked out of his socks by Lance Moore. I mean, what else is there to do? My tear ducts were already dried up by this point.
With this joke of a "scheme" and the constant giant cushion (getting super tired of writing this), you wouldn't be given the opportunity to see just how good Thomas is anyway. I understand that these guys are young and highly inexperienced (hard to press and not expect them to get torched anyway), but a 10-yard cushion is suicide against an offense of this caliber. Pretty sure Larry Coyer knows this, but maybe he just doesn't care. Even after being down 41-7, the cushion was still holding strong and no adjustments were made. If there was ever a time to let your guys go and see what they can do, this was now the time. David Caldwell trying to prevent a Jimmy Graham TD jump ball was hilarious. Good one, Mr. Coyer.
Larry Coyer: Speaking of Coyer, I'll give him a bag of Ruffles and an autographed Peyton Manning hat to resign. Sound good?
Front seven: Pass rush wasn't a factor whatsoever and the Saints' ball carriers enjoyed a 6.2 AVG for 236 yards and 2 TDs kind of night... Yeah... Let's just say that we made the elusive Darren Sproles turn into Michael Turner. He was busting up the gap and trucking over mentally defeated Colts. The Saints offensive line had a great performance, to say the least. Jamaal Anderson got his first sack after Drew Brees had to step up in the pocket (Brayton also had a sack), but other than that, the Colts got to Brees one other time. I saw some missed holding calls on Dwight Freeney, but that's routine stuff. I think we can all agree that Kavell Conner is a big hitter, but royally sucks in coverage. I catch him slipping into other zones and fumbling over his feet way more than acceptable. I guess Sproles kind of exacerbates that problem. On an attempt to create pressure, Angerer blitzed and the Saints just so happened to call a perfect screen. Once it broke into the secondary, Antoine Bethea looked like he had never tackled someone before in his life. This just added to the theme of the night.
Defensive turnovers: Another game without a defensive turnover. That makes this the fourth straight game which sets a new record. Awesome. Blowout on Bourbon Street or not, we have to take advantage of turnover opportunities. I complained about this last week and it's the same story this time around. Conner could have made a play on a tipped Brees pass early in the game but obviously didn't, David Caldwell had another tipped ball in the end zone, and Thomas had ANOTHER capable INT in the end zone. That's three missed opportunities.
Curtis Painter: I did like the play call to go down the field at the beginning of the game. If Curtis Painter puts more on this pass (if, if, and IF!), we go up 7-0 on the first play from scrimmage. I'm sure this would have scared the Saints a little bit, but no matter how you play it out, we lose this game 100 times out of 100. That's guaranteed. Painter played horrible for the rest of the night, often throwing passes to resident N'awlins worms instead of Colts receivers. The only sack of the night fell on his lack of judgement and he had a beautiful intentional grounding call in garbage time. He also overthrew Austin Collie and Pierre Garcon by about 40 yards. The Collie overthrow resulted in a 46-yard pick six (almost threw another pick on a slant to Reggie Wayne) for the Saints. I'll give him brownie points for checking out of a pass when he recognized the Saints blitzing. This resulted in Carter's first big run, right before he fumbled. Yay for Painter. After playing so well the last few weeks, Painter came out and laid a huge egg. I fear the lost, skittish, inaccurate Curtis Painter has returned.
Joseph Addai: What in the heck was going on with Addai? He looked like he was recovering from a massive hangover or something. He lined up incorrectly, moped around, and then left the game after re-aggravating his hammy. Not sure what kind of miscommunication was going on, but he was acting extremely weird and totally not like Addai.
Jim Caldwell: It's refreshing to know, according to Caldwell, that we essentially win this game if "get back to the basics" and "focus on the little things". I mean, that's what he said at half time... You're down 34-7 and that's all you can say? Might as well not say a word. I'm sorry, but I think we all realize that the time has come to find a serious replacement. I respect what Caldwell represents and he is certainly a very classy guy, but when Jeff Saturday, one of the leaders and classiest guys in your locker room calls out your staff by using the "out-coached" term, it's bad. Really bad. I also particularly loved his decision to punt on 4th and 2 after Painter gets an intentional grounding call/scrambles on 3rd down. We were only down by more points than I can score in Madden, so let's play conservative! I feel bad for the guy to some extent, but then I realize he's making a lot of money to coach a professional football team.
The Final Product:
Blame this ridiculous loss and 0-7 start on whomever you'd like, but no fan in the world deserves to watch their team get beat 62-7. This was a loss for the ages and it just so happened to be in front of a prime-time audience. How often do people switch to watch the World Series over a regular season NFL football game? Answer: Never. But tonight, it happened.
It's obvious that our team is completely demoralized and lost in the dark. One of the most upbeat and laid back guys on the planet of this universe, Pat McAfee, posted on Twitter after the loss that it's "tough to be positive after that..." No matter how obvious his statement is, you at least expect to see McAfee rip off a joke or something lighthearted, but even he can see the writing on the wall.
I'm still shocked hours later. I can't believe what I saw unfold tonight and I can only imagine what's going to happen within the locker room, especially after Saturday's comments.
Accountability has never been an easy word for this organization to understand. Let's see if they learn the definition this time around.
Thanks for enjoying some Poop Soup with me.
Seconds, anyone?
Joking!
