If teams focus on Reggie Wayne, they are going to get burned: Then
again, we learned in Week 1 that Wayne can carry more than his fair share of the
load if the opponent only puts one man on him.
Dallas Clark had a career
night — as Eric Hartz told me, one thing he learned is that you look like a fool if
you try to cover Clark with a linebacker — and Pierre Garcon and Austin Collie
both made solid contributions.
Peyton Manning once again proved that he is
the guy that makes the Colts offense go, but the weapons around him also proved
that they can do a lot of damage with the ball in their hands, as most of
Manning's long completions didn't travel half their total gain in the air.
Defenses can pick their poison at this point: Let Wayne shred them, or let
Clark, Collie, Garcon, and Wayne shred them. The former option lead to
Indianapolis scoring 14 total points and the latter lead to them scoring 27, so
opponents may just let Wayne run wild — within reason — for the rest of the
season, whether Anthony Gonzalez comes back soon or not.
Miami's backs left the Colts in the dust for most of the night
Doug Benc/Getty Images |
Be glad Manning plays for the Colts: The Monday night crew talked
about how Chad Pennington must have had difficulty getting into a rhythm given
that he needed to take plays off for the Dolphins to run their Wildcat offense.
But, the fact that Manning established a rhythm at all, given the fact that he
had long stretches on the bench is remarkable.
The fact that he was able
to lead the offense to five scores on eight possessions is simply incredible,
especially since two of those eight possessions were three-and-outs. Most
quarterbacks can't "fall out of bed" and lead two touchdown drives in the fourth
quarter. Colts fans should be happy that No. 18 is the exception in that
scenario.
Still, this is not the formula for success: Considering that the last
time a team lost the time of possession battle this badly and won was 1977, it's
safe to say that victories like the one on Monday night will be few and far
between for Indianapolis.
They ran only 35 plays, had only 11 rushing
plays — although they posted a very respectable 58 yards rushing — and needed
a couple of titanic collapses in the secondary (Clark touchdown, Garcon
touchdown) to win.
They can enjoy it while it lasts, but they cannot expect to win many games —
or any more games — playing like this.
Wildcat or not, that was a poor defensive showing:nbsp; Miami averaged 4.9
yards per rush, gained 239 yards rushing, ran 84 total plays, held the ball for
45 minutes, and converted an astonishing 15 of 21 third down chances — and they
also were one for one on fourth down.
Just looking at those stats, you'd
have to assume the Colts lost the game.
It's true that the Dolphins did
gain a lot of yards with misdirection out of the Wildcat formation. It's
true that a number of defenders — Dwight Freeney and Robert Mathis in
particular — were way out of position on a number of plays. But, it's
also true that Miami took the fight to the Colts defense and the Colts defense
yielded.
When the Dolphins were able to run their base offense — not the six-minute
version of the two-minute drill they ran at the end of each half — they were
able to line up across from the Indianapolis defense and do whatever they liked,
especially in the running game.
Even when misdirection wasn't involved,
the Miami blockers were able to put a hat on a hat and blow the Colts defenders
off the ball.
With the return of Ed Johnson, the development of Dan Muir and Antonio Johnson, and the draft selection of Fili Moala, not to
mention replacing the conservative Ron Meeks at defensive coordinator with the
more aggressive Larry Coyer, the inability of the Colts to stop the run —
especially up the middle — was supposed to be a thing of the past.
Well,
it's very much a thing of the present and something that they need to work on a
great deal in practice this week.
Speaking of practice: Jim Caldwell needs to put a great deal of
emphasis on discipline this week. The Colts were called for six pre-snap
penalties — five offsides and one illegal formation — and that's far too many.
Two of the offsides penalties were declined, true, but pre-snap errors such as
these lead to third-and-long situations for the offense and third-and-short
situations for the defense. Take another look at third down efficiency and
time of possession in this game.
Yes, the Colts won, but I think we've established that their most successful
endeavor on Monday night was to showcase how not to win a football game — which makes the fact that they did win all the more remarkable.
Indianapolis has always had a high-flying offense, a defense that bent but
didn't break, and was never a team that had a reputation for stopping the run.
But, they have always had a reputation for playing sound, fundamental,
disciplined football, which is not what they played on Monday.
Against a
more accomplished team, those penalties would have come back to bite them.
And, in a more significant game later in the season, there may have been more
roughing and late hit penalties called on the Colts defense, as Eric Foster and
Gary Brackett in particular seemed to "pile on" a number of times just after the
whistle blew.
If they were a tad bit later, there surely would have been a
personal foul called — and, in a couple of instances, I was surprised that
there wasn't.
Again, it comes down to playing aggressive and being physical, but still
being in control. It's entirely possible that the Colts were too
controlled under Tony Dungy, especially on defense, but it's definitely true
that Indianapolis, in general, needs to turn down the volume a little bit in
order to conform to the rules in play.
Still...: A win is a win.
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