So the Colts dropped special-teams coach Russ Purnell (left). I hate to see anyone lose a job, but he wasn’t really doing his. The Colts teams associated with him are always near the bottom in most special-teams categories despite have a lot of speed and youth on the roster. If you subtract the work of some highly paid specialists (like Adam Vinatieri, Hunter Smith, Justin Snow and, though I hate to admit it, Mike Vanderjagt), his teams have been woeful. Last season, the Colts were 32nd in punt return average, 28th in kick return average, 15th in punt coverage average and 24th in kick coverage average.
I’m not sure how difficult coaching returns and coverage is. I mean, what do you do after you tell your players “stay in your lanes, break on a full-step cut”? Maybe it’s all about intensity. Maybe it has to be “STAY IN YOUR LANES! BREAK ON THE FULL-STEP CUT!” I wonder what Steve Tasker is doing for a living these days.
• Perhaps the Colts will address the gunner position in the draft. Roy Hall could probably do it if he could remain healthy, but that doesn’t seem like something to rely on. I don’t really see any other viable candidates for the position on the roster, except perhaps Brannon Condren (an unrestricted free agent).
• You know what else the Colts were dead last in? Rushing average. Yep, a mere 3.44 yards a carry. And they were 31st in total rushing yardage. That astounds me, especially when you consider that they were 12-4 — winning teams run the ball more often to retain control, rest their defense and run out the clock. The Colts just didn’t have that option. But we’ll discuss that in another post.
• Is the Darrell Reid as fullback experiment over? I sure hope so. I thought the madness stopped when they got rid of Dan Klecko.
• Does Peyton Manning really have trouble with 3-4 defenses? I don’t know. Although I’m on board with those who say the offense lost the San Diego game, I wouldn’t pin it entirely on Manning. The lack of a running game was the real problem. Not only did it hinder the offense, but it left the defense chasing that little waterbug around for 37 minutes and 9 seconds. In overtime, they were tired, frustrated and sloppy.
But I digress. In the regular season, Manning was 5-0 (1.000) against 3-4 defenses in 2008 and 8-2 (0.800) over the last three years. Compare that with 4-3 defenses: 8-4 (0.667) in 2008 and 29-9 (0.763) over the past three years. If anything, he’s proven slightly better against 3-4s, despite the fact that the 3-4 teams he has played against most often (New England, Pittsburgh, San Diego and Baltimore) are considered to have elite defenses.
Note:
Tasker provides color commentary for Buffalo Bills games for CBS.
1 comment:
Everybody lost the game for Indy. Not in the "the team lost so everyone lost" sense. As in none of the units played well enough. The O had awful, awful, awful field position all game, because of the D and special teams not playing well, but we expect the O to be able to overcome that.
The Colts best starting field position was their own 33. 12 drives, 3 started outside their own 20. 2 on the 20, 3 between the 10 and 19 and 4 inside their own 10.
They started more drives inside their 10 than outside their 20. The D didn't break and give up points, but it bent so much that, when combined with the massive special teams gap, it crippled the offense.
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