Football IndyStar The Colts have no idea what they're doing - Page 2

oaklandhater · 09-10-2017, 09:23 PM

http://www.indystar.com/story/sports...ing/645793001/

The Colts have no idea what they're doing by Gregg Doyel,

LOS ANGELES – The Indianapolis Colts stink, and not just the players on the field for that 46-9 loss Sunday to the Los Angeles Rams in their 2017 NFL opener. The whole damn franchise stinks, starting with the owner and oozing downhill, as this sort of excrement tends to do.

The front office stinks. The coaching staff. The scouting department. The players? Bless their hearts, yes. The players stink, too.

A loss like this, it goes looking for people to blame and it does not go wanting. The difficulty is deciding where to start. Quarterback Scott Tolzien was terrible, but you don’t start there. Tolzien has been something less than an NFL quarterback for years, and he stayed in character Sunday from his first pass of the game: an interception the Rams returned for a touchdown. He threw a second pick-six, and flirted with a third and a fourth, before being benched for Jacoby Brissett.

Tolzien’s amateurish play Sunday – quarterback rating: 33.8 – was as predictable, if not as uncommon, as a lunar eclipse. Where were General Manager Chris Ballard and coach Chuck Pagano looking this summer when they chose Tolzien over Stephen Morris? Directly into the sun.

OK, that’s not the real answer. The real answer is even dumber.

While Morris was fabulous for a second consecutive year of preseason games, Ballard said last week that the job went to Tolzien because he was better than Morris in offseason OTAs and again in the early practices of training camp. And Pagano on Sunday said he “would never second-guess” that decision, because Chuck Pagano is nothing if not reliably prone to say things that sound blatantly untrue.

No, this loss wasn’t Tolzien’s fault, though he did try to take the blame for it. To his credit, he acknowledged that football “is a team effort, but I certainly want to own this” defeat. To Pagano’s credit, he accepted blame for this loss on multiple occasions, even as he referred to the Rams as "the 49ers." To the credit of star receiver T.Y. Hilton, who fumbled his first catch of the season as he was diving to avoid contact – read that again – he tried to take the blame as well, saying: “I fumbled. It started with me.”

Tolzien’s amateurish play Sunday – quarterback rating: 33.8 – was as predictable, if not as uncommon, as a lunar eclipse. Where were General Manager Chris Ballard and coach Chuck Pagano looking this summer when they chose Tolzien over Stephen Morris? Directly into the sun.

OK, that’s not the real answer. The real answer is even dumber.

While Morris was fabulous for a second consecutive year of preseason games, Ballard said last week that the job went to Tolzien because he was better than Morris in offseason OTAs and again in the early practices of training camp. And Pagano on Sunday said he “would never second-guess” that decision, because Chuck Pagano is nothing if not reliably prone to say things that sound blatantly untrue.

No, this loss wasn’t Tolzien’s fault, though he did try to take the blame for it. To his credit, he acknowledged that football “is a team effort, but I certainly want to own this” defeat. To Pagano’s credit, he accepted blame for this loss on multiple occasions, even as he referred to the Rams as "the 49ers." To the credit of star receiver T.Y. Hilton, who fumbled his first catch of the season as he was diving to avoid contact – read that again – he tried to take the blame as well, saying: “I fumbled. It started with me.”

Colts QBs Scott Tolzien and Jacoby Brissett talk to the media after the team's 46-9 loss to the Rams. Matt Kryger/IndyStar

Who’s right? They’re all right. A loss like this, a loss in need of a mercy rule given that one team belonged in Little League, it’s too heavy for any single set of shoulders. It falls on offensive coordinator Rob Chudzinski, who called two goal-line rushes, power running plays, with his power back – Robert Turbin – on the sideline. And after those two carries by home-run threat Marlon Mack resulted in a loss of 1 yard, Chud put in Turbin … and called for Tolzien to throw it. Rams cornerback Trumaine Johnson, who delivered the pick-six on the Colts’ first pass of the game, might’ve had another had he hung onto this amateurish toss by Tolzien.

This loss also falls on defensive coordinator Ted Monachino, who either chose converted safety T.J. Green to start and play most of the game at cornerback – or yielded that decision to Pagano, when what Monachino should have done was offer to resign before letting someone as lousy as T.J. Green undermine his defense.

And make no mistake: T.J. Green is lousy. Moved from safety midway through the preseason because all he'd consistently done there since last season was miss tackles and deliver cheap shots, Green missed a tackle early in the second quarter when Rams running back Todd Gurley was fighting for extra yardage near the goal line. With Gurley’s entire body as a target, Green went for a cheap shot – he targeted Gurley’s head – but glanced off Gurley’s helmet, allowing the Rams running back to fall forward, into the end zone for a touchdown.

Oh, and Green was in coverage on Rams receiver Cooper Kupp’s 18-yard TD catch that gave the Rams a 24-3 lead. At the NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis, Kupp ran the 40-yard dash in 4.62 seconds. Green ran it in 4.34 seconds. On the touchdown in question, Kupp was wide open because he was running away from Green.

Don’t ask me to explain that. Still can’t believe I saw it.

Can’t believe what happened on the Colts’ second series, either, after Tolzien completed a short pass to Marlon Mack and Mack sprinted toward the end zone. When 5-8, 190-pound Rams safety Lamarcus Joyner approached near the goal line, he nudged the 5-11, 210-pound Mack pushed out of bounds. It was a soft play by Mack, a play the Colts have become famous for in recent years as their blowout losses have mounted – and then it became something much worse.

Because Chuck Pagano didn’t challenge the official ruling that Mack was pushed out of bounds before reaching the end zone.

No, Pagano was too busy hurrying his next play onto the field – a power rush that Chudzinski gave to speed back Marlon Mack, who had just demonstrated that power is not his thing. With the Rams unable to substitute, Pagano was looking for a personnel mismatch, and he found one: His personnel was outmatched.

Pagano outsmarted himself, the only NFL coach I’ve ever seen him outsmart, and afterward said that whole sequence was on him.

And it was. But other sequences were on the defense, which put almost no pressure on Rams quarterback Jared Goff (career-best 117.9 quarterback rating) and allowed multiple Rams receivers to run wide open. The defense has been completely remade from the Colts’ 2016 opener, literally 11 new starters, which means that’s on the general manger who put the unit together. And his name isn’t Ryan Grigson.

The Colts offensive line, meanwhile, allowed four sacks and nine quarterback hits in a game where they attempted just 21 passes. It was this past week when Pagano had decided “I’ve never felt better about an offensive line,” but again, that’s what he does: He says things that simply don’t sound honest. Pushed on that piece of Pollyanna a few days ago, Pagano doubled down:

“Never felt better,” he said again. “You guys can write it. You can put it on the record and hold it to me.”

Done. And now let's move on and remember what Colts owner Jim Irsay had said this summer about the biggest problem of the Andrew Luck era: his lack of protection.

“I’m telling you,” Irsay said in June, “the offensive line is fixed.”

I'm telling you something else: The people who run this team, from the owner on down, have no idea what they’re seeing, saying or doing.

**Buehler445** · 09-10-2017, 09:39 PM

There were some pretty scathing articles at the end of the Pioli era outlining how ****ing bat shit crazy ol Franchise Killer was.

CaliforniaChief · 09-10-2017, 09:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bugeater

And on the topic, there is literally nothing bad enough that could happen to that team that would ever make me feel sorry for them. Nothing.

Yep!

**Kyle DeLexus** · 09-10-2017, 09:45 PM

Not challenging the Mack TD could have been the worst piece of coaching I've ever witnessed. There is no excuse for that.

oaklandhater · 09-10-2017, 09:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kyle DeLexus

Not challenging the Mack TD could have been the worst piece of coaching I've ever witnessed. There is no excuse for that.

FYP

CaliforniaChief · 09-10-2017, 09:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kyle DeLexus

Not challenging the Mack TD could have been the worst piece of coaching I've ever witnessed. There is no excuse for that.

I wouldn't believe it if I didn't see it with my own eyes.

**TimBone** · 09-10-2017, 10:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by oaklandhater

Holyshit I don't remember KC media ever ripping in to the chiefs during the Dark time like this.

I know we've had some awful losses, but I don't think I've seen any thing from the Chiefs that was as embarrassing as what we saw from the Colts today.

**DaneMcCloud** · 09-10-2017, 10:30 PM

I don't need a newspaper to tell me the obvious

**DaneMcCloud** · 09-10-2017, 10:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ModBone

I know we've had some awful losses, but I don't think I've seen any thing from the Chiefs that was as embarrassing as what we saw from the Colts today.

I've been saying it since 2012 but Ryan Grigson may be the worst NFL General Manager of All Time.

So, he drafted Luck. Big whoop.

He had FIVE YEARS to build at competitive team around him, yet they peaked and became worse and worse with each successive year.

They also let the wrong coach get away.

oaklandhater · 09-10-2017, 10:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaneMcCloud

I've been saying it since 2012 but Ryan Grigson may be the worst NFL General Manager of All Time.

So, he drafted Luck. Big whoop.

He had FIVE YEARS to build at competitive team around him, yet they peaked and became worse and worse with each successive year.

They also let the wrong coach get away.

This the only good thing Grigson ever did was Draft luck which was a no brainer and Ty Hilton.

Hoopsdoc · 09-11-2017, 06:21 AM

Ballard must be thinking wtf did I get myself into? Is it too late to turn this job down?

What an unmitigated disaster that was. From starting a safety at corner whom they just converted this preseason, to starting Tool-zien over Morris, who clearly and completely outplayed him, to the unbelievable decision not to challenge the Mack touchdown, it was a steaming pile of maggoty shit from start to finish.

If Irsay would have sobered up, he would have left Chuck "shtick to the proshesh" Pagano at LAX.

**wazu** · 09-11-2017, 06:54 AM

They look ready to implode. And given the level of organizational incompetence on display I don't believe Luck will be back on any timeline that justifies him not being on the PUP list.

**notorious** · 09-11-2017, 06:57 AM

They fully deserve this.

**notorious** · 09-11-2017, 07:00 AM

This is like a person winning Powerball twice and ending up millions in debt.

**** them, I hope Luck leave, forces a trade, or never fully recovers. They need to eat shit for a long time.

Red Dawg · 09-11-2017, 07:04 AM

Luck hasn't practiced yet. He may sit all year because they will get housed against his wee by AZ. Their season is done.

stevieray · 09-11-2017, 07:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by notorious

This is like a person winning Powerball twice and ending up millions in debt.

**** them, I hope Luck leave, forces a trade, or never fully recovers. They need to eat shit for a long time.

Especially their fans. They sre the worst.

09-10-2017, 09:23 PM
oaklandhater future chiefs fans Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: oakland california Casino cash: $7598993	IndyStar The Colts have no idea what they're doing http://www.indystar.com/story/sports...ing/645793001/ The Colts have no idea what they're doing by Gregg Doyel, LOS ANGELES – The Indianapolis Colts stink, and not just the players on the field for that 46-9 loss Sunday to the Los Angeles Rams in their 2017 NFL opener. The whole damn franchise stinks, starting with the owner and oozing downhill, as this sort of excrement tends to do. The front office stinks. The coaching staff. The scouting department. The players? Bless their hearts, yes. The players stink, too. A loss like this, it goes looking for people to blame and it does not go wanting. The difficulty is deciding where to start. Quarterback Scott Tolzien was terrible, but you don’t start there. Tolzien has been something less than an NFL quarterback for years, and he stayed in character Sunday from his first pass of the game: an interception the Rams returned for a touchdown. He threw a second pick-six, and flirted with a third and a fourth, before being benched for Jacoby Brissett. Tolzien’s amateurish play Sunday – quarterback rating: 33.8 – was as predictable, if not as uncommon, as a lunar eclipse. Where were General Manager Chris Ballard and coach Chuck Pagano looking this summer when they chose Tolzien over Stephen Morris? Directly into the sun. OK, that’s not the real answer. The real answer is even dumber. While Morris was fabulous for a second consecutive year of preseason games, Ballard said last week that the job went to Tolzien because he was better than Morris in offseason OTAs and again in the early practices of training camp. And Pagano on Sunday said he “would never second-guess” that decision, because Chuck Pagano is nothing if not reliably prone to say things that sound blatantly untrue. No, this loss wasn’t Tolzien’s fault, though he did try to take the blame for it. To his credit, he acknowledged that football “is a team effort, but I certainly want to own this” defeat. To Pagano’s credit, he accepted blame for this loss on multiple occasions, even as he referred to the Rams as "the 49ers." To the credit of star receiver T.Y. Hilton, who fumbled his first catch of the season as he was diving to avoid contact – read that again – he tried to take the blame as well, saying: “I fumbled. It started with me.” Tolzien’s amateurish play Sunday – quarterback rating: 33.8 – was as predictable, if not as uncommon, as a lunar eclipse. Where were General Manager Chris Ballard and coach Chuck Pagano looking this summer when they chose Tolzien over Stephen Morris? Directly into the sun. OK, that’s not the real answer. The real answer is even dumber. While Morris was fabulous for a second consecutive year of preseason games, Ballard said last week that the job went to Tolzien because he was better than Morris in offseason OTAs and again in the early practices of training camp. And Pagano on Sunday said he “would never second-guess” that decision, because Chuck Pagano is nothing if not reliably prone to say things that sound blatantly untrue. No, this loss wasn’t Tolzien’s fault, though he did try to take the blame for it. To his credit, he acknowledged that football “is a team effort, but I certainly want to own this” defeat. To Pagano’s credit, he accepted blame for this loss on multiple occasions, even as he referred to the Rams as "the 49ers." To the credit of star receiver T.Y. Hilton, who fumbled his first catch of the season as he was diving to avoid contact – read that again – he tried to take the blame as well, saying: “I fumbled. It started with me.” Colts QBs Scott Tolzien and Jacoby Brissett talk to the media after the team's 46-9 loss to the Rams. Matt Kryger/IndyStar Who’s right? They’re all right. A loss like this, a loss in need of a mercy rule given that one team belonged in Little League, it’s too heavy for any single set of shoulders. It falls on offensive coordinator Rob Chudzinski, who called two goal-line rushes, power running plays, with his power back – Robert Turbin – on the sideline. And after those two carries by home-run threat Marlon Mack resulted in a loss of 1 yard, Chud put in Turbin … and called for Tolzien to throw it. Rams cornerback Trumaine Johnson, who delivered the pick-six on the Colts’ first pass of the game, might’ve had another had he hung onto this amateurish toss by Tolzien. This loss also falls on defensive coordinator Ted Monachino, who either chose converted safety T.J. Green to start and play most of the game at cornerback – or yielded that decision to Pagano, when what Monachino should have done was offer to resign before letting someone as lousy as T.J. Green undermine his defense. And make no mistake: T.J. Green is lousy. Moved from safety midway through the preseason because all he'd consistently done there since last season was miss tackles and deliver cheap shots, Green missed a tackle early in the second quarter when Rams running back Todd Gurley was fighting for extra yardage near the goal line. With Gurley’s entire body as a target, Green went for a cheap shot – he targeted Gurley’s head – but glanced off Gurley’s helmet, allowing the Rams running back to fall forward, into the end zone for a touchdown. Oh, and Green was in coverage on Rams receiver Cooper Kupp’s 18-yard TD catch that gave the Rams a 24-3 lead. At the NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis, Kupp ran the 40-yard dash in 4.62 seconds. Green ran it in 4.34 seconds. On the touchdown in question, Kupp was wide open because he was running away from Green. Don’t ask me to explain that. Still can’t believe I saw it. Can’t believe what happened on the Colts’ second series, either, after Tolzien completed a short pass to Marlon Mack and Mack sprinted toward the end zone. When 5-8, 190-pound Rams safety Lamarcus Joyner approached near the goal line, he nudged the 5-11, 210-pound Mack pushed out of bounds. It was a soft play by Mack, a play the Colts have become famous for in recent years as their blowout losses have mounted – and then it became something much worse. Because Chuck Pagano didn’t challenge the official ruling that Mack was pushed out of bounds before reaching the end zone. No, Pagano was too busy hurrying his next play onto the field – a power rush that Chudzinski gave to speed back Marlon Mack, who had just demonstrated that power is not his thing. With the Rams unable to substitute, Pagano was looking for a personnel mismatch, and he found one: His personnel was outmatched. Pagano outsmarted himself, the only NFL coach I’ve ever seen him outsmart, and afterward said that whole sequence was on him. And it was. But other sequences were on the defense, which put almost no pressure on Rams quarterback Jared Goff (career-best 117.9 quarterback rating) and allowed multiple Rams receivers to run wide open. The defense has been completely remade from the Colts’ 2016 opener, literally 11 new starters, which means that’s on the general manger who put the unit together. And his name isn’t Ryan Grigson. The Colts offensive line, meanwhile, allowed four sacks and nine quarterback hits in a game where they attempted just 21 passes. It was this past week when Pagano had decided “I’ve never felt better about an offensive line,” but again, that’s what he does: He says things that simply don’t sound honest. Pushed on that piece of Pollyanna a few days ago, Pagano doubled down: “Never felt better,” he said again. “You guys can write it. You can put it on the record and hold it to me.” Done. And now let's move on and remember what Colts owner Jim Irsay had said this summer about the biggest problem of the Andrew Luck era: his lack of protection. “I’m telling you,” Irsay said in June, “the offensive line is fixed.” I'm telling you something else: The people who run this team, from the owner on down, have no idea what they’re seeing, saying or doing.
Posts: 23,762

09-10-2017, 09:39 PM	#16
Buehler445 Supporter Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: Scott City KS Casino cash: $2324734	There were some pretty scathing articles at the end of the Pioli era outlining how ****ing bat shit crazy ol Franchise Killer was.
Posts: 56,777

09-10-2017, 09:45 PM	#18
Kyle DeLexus Opie and Anthony XM 105 Join Date: Nov 2008 Casino cash: $10002400	Not challenging the Mack TD could have been the worst piece of coaching I've ever witnessed. There is no excuse for that.
Posts: 7,910

09-10-2017, 10:30 PM	#22
DaneMcCloud Supporter Join Date: Sep 2000 Location: Hollywood, CA Casino cash: $10053648	I don't need a newspaper to tell me the obvious
Posts: 88,960

09-11-2017, 06:54 AM	#26
wazu ... Join Date: May 2002 Location: Kansas City, MO Casino cash: $2212295 VARSITY	They look ready to implode. And given the level of organizational incompetence on display I don't believe Luck will be back on any timeline that justifies him not being on the PUP list.
Posts: 27,763

09-11-2017, 06:57 AM	#27
notorious Supporter Join Date: May 2005 Location: Who knows? Casino cash: $2935884	They fully deserve this.
Posts: 83,362

09-11-2017, 07:00 AM	#28
notorious Supporter Join Date: May 2005 Location: Who knows? Casino cash: $2935884	This is like a person winning Powerball twice and ending up millions in debt. **** them, I hope Luck leave, forces a trade, or never fully recovers. They need to eat shit for a long time.
Posts: 83,362

09-11-2017, 07:04 AM	#29
Red Dawg Going home eventually Join Date: Dec 2002 Casino cash: $4762858	Luck hasn't practiced yet. He may sit all year because they will get housed against his wee by AZ. Their season is done. __________________ If you're not first you're last!
Posts: 30,424