By tough, I mean a game where I think one team is better than the other. Yes, the Colts are a team that is capable of beating the Dolphins, however I see the game as even.
What a difference a week makes. Last week the Browns were favored against the Dolphins by 2 points. This week they're 7 point underdogs to the Ravens. Yet the power ratings on Miami haven't moved. The Colts are favored by 3 points. That's about what they would have been favored by in advance of the Browns game. Suggests that the oddsmakers revised their power ratings on the Browns as a result of the game this Sunday but not necessarily the Dolphins. "There were (not) who we thought they were!"
Ah gotcha...I consider a tough game any where the team will have to actually battle and not make mistakes to win. So it could be against an evenly matched team or a superior team. So the only games that would not be tough games, to me, would be games against teams that have noticeably inferior talent. I didn't imagine the Raiders game to be a tough game. Any given Sunday though. lol That was really a one-man show though. The Colts vastly underestimated Pryor's speed, elusiveness and especially his passing ability which wasn't great, but was better than I expected it to be.
One clarification...Conner isn't a starter. He's listed as the primary backup behind Pat Angerer, who is supposed to be the starter. Haven't seen any updates on Angerer since he was showing concussion symptoms shortly after the Raiders game. To be honest though I think that Conner should be the starter. As for Allen, I think the expectations currently are that he'll start practicing Thursday and I believe they're anticipating him being ready for the game. Could be wrong on that though.
Agreed. Luck isn't himself outside of Indy, so it is annoying that we are on the road again. How'd they get two home games and we get two road games to start the season? Lame!
Personally I believe that 7 points is too many. Despite three extra days and being at home I think Cleveland is a very very good defense. Now the offense will need to feed Trent more often, they abandon the running game too early from where I was sitting. Once they went into "pass mode" our DL put an *** whooping on them.
I think part of the reason for that 7 point spread is that last weeks game showed how much they miss Josh Gordon.
True, missing him is HUGE. I thought they were doing a great job running to set up the pass, then they seemed to just wanna wing it?? Bad coaching. You put pressure on Brandon Weeden and he becomes Blaine Gabbert.
Well - not Blaine Gabbert but it is hard to miss your meaning. True True - I'm with you guys that thought Cleveland abandoned the run to quickly.
Not that I'm surprised (I'm actually kinda glad) 6 of 8 of the CBS "experts" pick the Colts. But their "Prediction Machine" picked the Dolphins.
Jim Isray is such an attention whore... Just tweeted that he DEMANDS better protection for Luck, who was sacked 4 times by that vaunted Raider defense. Is he right?? Yes, but tweeting it in public is just plain being a douch bag.
I'm not sure douchebag is the word I'd use but I do agree with you. There's a several page thread on the colts forum with a lot of varying opinions. Personally I have no problem with a comment like "we have to do a better job of protecting the QB" or something like that, but the "I DEMAND better" was way over the top imo. Personally, if he's going to keep tweeting, I'd prefer to see him stick to song lyrics and giveaways. He is the owner and can demand whatever he wants, but something like that is better kept behind closed doors imo. Especially considering that's what he was preaching (keeping stuff in house, behind closed doors) during the whole Manning situation.
I'm guessing more players are shaking their head than actually receiving the message. I agree, he worded it completely wrong.
I agree it will be a close game, should come down to the 4th quarter. I also believe the Dolphins **** the bed last year in Indy and I don't see how they can make as many mistakes again. I doubt Luck has another game in his career where he converts as many 3rd and longs as he did last year. Whoever gets to 24 points first will win imho.
All the games are important, but knowing the schedule after this week........gotta find a way to win this game.
After the Browns, I was thinking this game could well come down to how Miami's OL performs. And while admittedly I am not overly familiar with Indy's OL, after doing some reading here and a bit of research it seems that might be their undoing as well. So I think it might be fair to say that's what I think this game will come down to- each respective team's OL. There are so many intangibles, but if I had to pinpoint one area I think I might lean to that. Thus, the fact the Colts are at home (for a second year in a row...) makes my brain want to give them the slight edge...but my heart can't really go along with that. I'll say Miami by five, because...why not?!
If we win this game we can relax a bit during the Falcons & Saints games. I'm not really expecting wins there, hope they play well at least. Especially in primetime, which has been the case every primetime game this decade. Of course the only worrisome thing about them is Luck and some solid receivers, much better than Weeden and the Browns. And is Vonate Davis likely to be on Mike Wallace?
I don't know if it's already been pointed out and if it has, my apologies in advance, but Luck is going to have a bad day. He didn't face a defense like we're fielding. I pointed it out in the Dolphins Defense is Ranked 4th thread. Weedon was hurried 28 times, knocked down 17 and sacked 6 times with 3 interceptions. Oakland's defense got ZERO pressure on Luck and he was able to have a high completion percentage. Miami's defense is going to win this game for us. I see a relatively low scoring game, 26-17. We'll move the ball and move it well but will continue to struggle getting the ball into the endzone. Indoor game with no weather elements, Sturgis will kick 4 field goals, we'll score one offensive touchdown and the defense will return either a fumble or an interception for 6.
I think they can keep it close against the Ravens. I wouldn't even be that shocked if they pulled off the upset though I definitely don't expect that.
F*** the Saints and F*** the Falcons too. I watched them both last week and they're the ones who shouldn't be expecting a win when we play them.
Is that right??? See post #87 http://www.thephins.com/forums/showthread.php?77909-2013-nfl-betting-thread&p=2145392#post2145392
In the first half, Oakland didn't get much pressure on Luck. The 2nd half was a very different story though. They sent a lot of different blitzes at Luck that the offense as a whole did a very poor job of picking up. Luck did a poor job of reading the blitzes pre-snap and he and the receivers were not able to make any adjustments to hot routes or anything like that. The OC did a poor job of utilizing blitz beater type plays like WR or RB screens or draws. The OL itself kinda broke down as the game went on and blitz pickups by the backs were inconsistent. Our OL is improved from last year, but by how much remains to be seen. They definitely need time to gel together, and we really need to get McGlynn out of the starting line up. Hopefully our 3rd round pick, Hugh Thornton will be ready to move into the starting position soon. As a whole though, the offense needs to do a much better job at recognizing and picking up blitzes.
They should be tested this week. IMO Miami was built to pressure the QB. Our DL is easily the strength of our team. They're fast and physical. And our the LBs (two of them anyways), are among the best pass rushing LBs in the league. If the Colts pick up the blitz or Luck is able to escape, then there could be some holes as our LBs are not nearly as adept in coverage. And even though I really like our secondary, Luck and those receivers are the strength of your team.
Dolphins RB's get over 100yds combined we have a chance. If they dont show up then we won't win. Keep Luck off the field. I don't want to see our D gassed in the 4th Qtr defending a slim lead.
Yea, I did miss that but being the "irrational fan" that I am, I think Oakland's defense is pure garbage compared to ours and if those scrubs can get 4 sacks on Luck... It's a good thing Indy plays indoors otherwise, the back of Luck's jersey would be grass stained. Who knows, maybe it'll end up blood stained! I really foresee us beating Indy. I can't be convinced otherwise.
That's my primary concern going into the game...the short middle stuff. Will be exciting to see Will Davis in the game if he plays, but man is he gonna be a blood-pressure raiser...he's GOING to give up some plays...but if the flipside potential shows, could be a long day for Luck.
what if I told you that Batman wants the Colts to win? lol Honestly the Raiders' front 4 wasn't really that great. The colts OL handled them pretty well for the most part when it was only the front 4 rushing. It was in the 2nd half when the Raiders started bringing all different types of blitzes that the 4 sacks came. Like I said in an earlier post, the Colts offense as a whole, from the OC to Luck to the skill players, did a very poor job reading and adjusting to the different blitzes that the Raiders were sending. And the sad thing is that they weren't all disguised blitzes either. Some of them were pretty obvious that they were coming but still no presnap adjustments were made. Hopefully that gets heavily addressed this week because if not then I definitely agree that Luck will be in for a long day. If the Dolphins only rush their front 4 then I think the Colts OL can do a decent job of handling them so long as they use a back or TE to chip or double Wake on every play.
Pretty fair there. I'd really hate to be an O coordinator prepping for this line...then again a chipping RB/TE can be a nice safety valve on a dump-off too.
BTW I must say I'm a little surprised by how many here are picking Miami to win. You're probably not surprised since you probably expected a Dolphin forum to do exactly that. But if you had been here this off-season you would have seen many predicting gloom and doom. There were some who were predicting a 5 win season. The most common prediction was probably 8-8. Those who predicted 9-7 or 10-6 were called blind homers. And relative to the Colts, there were a ton who said they expected us to go 1-4 or 0-5 over a first 5 games with that lone chance for a win being Cleveland.
Well our secondary gave Luck the record for most yards in a single game by a rookie last year. Seeing what happens this year against him will be a nice way to compare. The Browns passing game can make any secondary look good. This week will give a real test.
yeah forum expectations can be all over the place. Predictions for the colts season on the colts board ranged mostly somewhere between 11-5 to 13-3 with a conference championship or even SB appearance. Then after the Bills preseason game, predictions sunk down saying we'd be lucky to win 4 games. lol and yeah I'm not surprised at all that people here are predicting the Dolphins to win, I'd be more surprised if most people were picking them to lose. Of course everyone at the colts board is predicting a colts win, several are even predicting a big blow-out. and those of us who counter that saying that this will be a hard-fought game are sometimes told "well y'all jus dun hav no fathe in yur teem!" lol
i went through some colts boards, all those blow out predictions come mainly from guys who really haven't watched miami's offseason moves or the defense, they should be better informed, you stole that game on your homecourt last year from us, all those yards from luck barely ended in a win...miami 24 colts 13