Adam Schefter @AdamSchefter 9m Colts RB Vick Ballard is out for season after injuring knee during practice Thursday (@MikeWellsNFL contributed to report). This is somewhat good news for us... feel bad for Ballard.
wow, thats bad for him, but i wasn't worried about the colts running game anyways, so ahmad bradshaw is the man now
Well fortunately for them they have a very capable backup, like CK hinted it might hurt with the game just 48 hours away and they will have to scramble some with the game plan but it could be a non-issue game time. In the longterm its a terrible blow for them.
ballard was a good pass protector, i know bradshaw has that same rep for it, but is he in condition and mentally ready for a whole workload
Wow! That was unexpected. IMO that hurts their run game. He was their run game in week 1. Not that I think Bradshaw isn't a capable back, but I thought their run game was less explosive when he subbed in. And I have no idea who they will use when Bradshaw needs a breather. I guess this could mean a more pass based approach from Indy. That could be bad (for us) b/c I think that's where their personnel strength lies (although it isn't their OC's forte), but it could also be good b/c anything that makes a team one dimensional could make them easier to defend.
I think if he was a 100% he would be a starting RB somewhere, his talent and running ability is never an issue, it's always been his health.
Bradshaw has been dinged a few times last couple of seasons and when he was a Giant he shared the workload. Big ask imo.
That's too bad. Hate to hear that for anyone... ...well, maybe not Tom Brady. (Just kidding. Don't want that for anyone.)
Donald brown is still there to backup Bradshaw, Bradshaw is very tough and likes to be a leader, this is the kind of situation he prefers..good luck against our frothing defense.
I don't think it will affect the protection. As you say, Bradshaw is an excellent pass protector as well.
While I'm not convinced of this, the effect from this injury could honestly go either way. This injury likely forced Pep Hamilton to do exactly what I thought he should do anyway, which is to open up the passing game and run the football against Miami's nickel defense instead of trying to go jumbo package and running the ball straight into the teeth of a very good run defense.
pagano said, according to a colts message board that he will be a GTD, thats a big blow for them imo, bigger than Ballard, if he misses the game
Pretty much set it up exactly right. It's a difficult one to figure out. If they get one-dimensional that's usually going to be a bad thing especially against our pass rush. But on the other hand if they make Miami one-dimensional then it's hard to imagine the Dolphins winning a one-dimensional shooting battle considering their superior weapons and chemistry, and their being at home where crowd noise will not be a factor for them but will be for the Dolphins. I felt the Colts engaged some self-inflicted wounds a week ago by trying to shorten the game up and establish the power ground game. They could have lost the game trying to do that.
I think this hurts the Colts in a big way. I don't think they have any interest in getting pass happy and exposing Luck to the kind of pressure that Weeden faced last week. The Colts were fairly conservative on offense last week and yet Oakland was able to generate 4 sacks vs Luck's 23 attempts. The numbers would have been much worse if not for Luck's individual ability to evade pressure and as we know Oakland's pass rush is not even in the same zip code as Miami's. After seeing virtually no action in training camp or the preseason I have a hard time believing Bradshaw will be able to handle a full load, especially against a team that plays the run as well as Miami does. That'll force Donald Brown into a quasi-starter role and limit Indy's ability run the ball and keep Miami's front off of Luck even further.
Similar to the Browns game, this could encourage us to blitz more given that the Colts are using tight ends and running backs that aren't fully up to speed with their blitz protection packages. I believe we blitzed more than any other team in the NFL last Sunday. By blitz I'm saying sending more than four rushers. Although I think we'll tread lightly here given how Luck IIRC torched our blitz. Going to be an interesting chess game on Sunday.
Maybe the Colts coaches went conservative b/c they weren't confident in their ability to protect the QB.
See what happens when teams practice on Thursday? Once again Philbin is ahead of the curve Take that Fassel!
I think they just figured they were playing a team that was vulnerable to the run, not fundamentally sound, and if they just play fundamentally sound basic football they'll have the game in the bag at home. And ultimately, they did. But they suffered an unnecessary scare, IMO.
I'm leaning this way as well. I don't think it's in their OC's DNA to really go pass happy. I don't agree that their offense against Oakland was an anomaly. I think that's what we should expect from them this year, a run based offense that only sporadically does a pass heavy drive. And I'm not really sure it's a bad approach. I think their OL is bad at pass pro. I think that compared to ours we look like an OL made up of all-pro pass blockers. If that were Weedon back there he would have been sacked a dozen times. I do think they're a better run blocking unit than us, but I'm not sure I give them the run game advantage anymore without Ballard. In the passing they still have some scary weapons. If Allen is out that hurts them and I'm not sure where Fleener is in his recovery. But Wayne will certainly get a few and I don't think there's anything we can do about it. Hilton is scary b/c of his homerun potential, but I do think he's controllable. And of course I see Luck as a magician back there. However, the playing field isn't even. Their offense has to play against our D and that's a world of difference. I think that's like the difference between going from all-pro to all-madden. Mathis could have an impact against Martin. I would probably help him out a bit. And I think their decent at stopping runs up the middle, but other than that there's not much there that scares me. I'd take RT, Wallace, Hartline, Gibson against their D over Luck, Wayne, Hilton and injured Allen and/or Fleener against our D. And in particular if neither team has an effective run game to fall back on.
Do you feel Andy Cohen is correct when he states that Wallace shouldn't be unhappy because mike Sherman scaled the offense back purposely because the coaches knew they had the better team and didn't want to empty the play book?
No. I don't think the coaches thought of it that way at all. They game plan what they think has the best chance of success. They don't look to hold stuff back for certain opponents, IMO. That's not what Pep Hamilton was doing against the Raiders, IMO. I mean hell the Browns entered the game favored to win and the Dolphins were on the road. The idea of Sherman holding something back seems ludicrous to me. I'd consider firing him if it were true.
Luck last year against us: 433 yards, 2 TD, 0 INT, 105.6 Rating. I don't think they were going to run much anyway. Could hurt them with blocking, though I don't know much about Ballard's blocking. (I do know this made my fantasy bench weaker ) Good measuring stick to see how Luck does against the Defense this year, in the same building as last year. Such an important early game, a loss isn't what you want after watching the sloppy Jets-Patriots game which would basically make everyone say the AFC East is the worst division in football. At least if we beat Indy it keeps us level with NE who are lucky to be 2-0 and makes people take the Dolphins seriously.
OK. But I don't think that explains away the fact that Indy struggled protecting the passer. Oakland had 4 sacks and a sh*t load of near misses, Houston and Hunter had 12 pressures by themselves. That's pretty hard to do when the opposing team is playing with a lead for virtually the entire game and only attempts 23 passes. Let's assume Indy isn't able to score 14 quick ones and then sit on the lead for 40+ minutes. They're going to have to expose Luck a lot more than they did last week and not having their #1 RB is only going to exacerbate the problem IMO.
I agree, I don't understand this concept when you have the pressure to win, but sure enough, he Insinuated it loud and clear.. Why then did we see no misdirection, no moving pockets, and no read option?
They did actually execute at least one read-option play and it was blown up. I think that pretty much was that, for the read-option in that game. I think misdirection was there in some ways but one thing about some of your classic misdirection plays is the backside guy is always a threat and the Browns had two potential backside guys in Jabaal Sheard and Paul Kruger that had wide alignments due to the 3-4 defense and could have been placed to blow up bootlegs and whatnot. As for moving pockets, those aren't some unqualified great thing. They shut down half the field.
Pertaining to Wallace I don't think it was not wanting to empty the playbook as much as it was Sherman wanting to go after Buster Skrine and Chris Owens instead of Joe Haden. As dangerous as Wallace may be it's tough to argue going to him in bulk when Hartline and Gibson's match-ups more so much more in our favor. I think in a more general sense, yeah, Sherman didn't exactly go deep into the playbook. I don't think he was bothered by the pressure Tanehill was under nearly as much as some may think b/c he made only token efforts to go the screen/draw game, didn't move the pocket or shorten the pass routes, etc.
Just finished up the colt raider game.. Great game.. Raiders are completely underrated.. Pryor is a legit Qb, outstanding playmaking traits, and that team can make betters some money..Raider fan should be happy as hell. Ballard is better than Bradshaw, they gonna take a hit on that. Luck is a freakin animal..would take him over anyone in the NFL right now. The only way we stop him is if Coyle uses Dion as a spy..it's the perfect matchup of what each players strengths are, Luck is constantly in a moving pocket, he knows how to cut a defense from all angles with his running ability, we need a player to plant themselves in the middle of the field and track him N.S.E.W..with great explosion...exactly, Dion freakin Jordan.
