Ask BigBlueShoe: Week Ten

I think you will see more contest play from Peyton. He is healthy. His o-line is healthy. His RBs are healthy.

1) If you are starting a backup LT with troubles against speed rushers, Freeney will kill your QBs. Freeney’s play has been very good. Stats do not tell the story. Teams employ more three step drops andh ave run the ball more, minimizing long yardage passing situations. The best defense against Freeney (and Mathis) is to employ a 2 TE set, like New England did last week. The drawback with that is those TEs must stay in to block, limiting the big play element. NE only scored 15 points last Sunday.

2) About 3. Leftwich stinks. Roethlisberger has developed into a fine QB, and as a football fan I’d much rather see him. Indy has a long track record of kicking Fatty’s butt. Roethlisberger? Not so much.

The OL is definitely getting better, and the Giants game was almost all on Ben, if you ask me. He’s never been great at getting the ball out, but he’s locking onto receievers that never get open and pumping the ball 2-3 times every dropback. I wasn’t surprised to see the pressure settle down when Byron came in.

We talked about this in another thread, but Leftwich’s long delivery is better against man defenses like the ‘skins because the CB’s have their backs to the QB. It will be tougher against a good zone secondary like the Colts, but he has played pretty well against them, despite what you’ll hear from their site. Here are his numbers in 6 games against the Colts:

2-4 record, 100-155, 64.5%, 1134y, 7.31ypa, 6 tds, 3 ints, 91.2 rating, 11 sacks, 4 fumbles, 0 lost.

For a running team with a good defense, I’d hardly blame him for the record with that stat line. He did play pretty poorly in his last 2 games against them (47.8 and 76.5 ratings), though.

I think if the defense has a good game plan and we can run the ball at all, Leftwich will manage the game well enough for us to win.

he’s faced a brutal schedule of pass Ds with a shaky line.

P.S. Peyton is a little less than 6 years older

Too much news / crap to talk about this week.

Ed Johnson (who was on zero tolerance after off the field issues in college) smoked his way out, and the Colts other big DT Quinn Pitcock retired after one season while driving to training camp. They are starting DTs that weigh 265 and 254. That puts a ton of pressure on the LBs and SS to stop the run. When the LBs play well they can stop the run (held the 3 opponents before NE under 3.5 YPC). When the LBs don’t play well and when they can’t bring safety help they struggle with the run.

Yes, and good observation. Polamalu may have to shadow Clark, and that is a great matchup. Yes, I think the Colts have the best WR corps in football, talent-wise. However, for whatever reason they haven’t played consistently. Marvin Harrison has not lost a step. Everyone keeps saying that, but after watching him on tape he is still fast as hell. I think he and Manning are still working on timing. I think the advantage is Colrs against Steelers secondary, but the key is how the Colts o-line holds up against the Steelers pass rush.

We (shake n bake and I) have been doing this all season, answering questions from rival fans. As you can see, shake n bake is a little more rational than I am. ;)

They didn’t run the Colts signature run play, the stretch, for the first two weeks because it’s hard on Peyton physically (he has to get the snap and sprint to where the handoff will be), but they’ve taken that limitation off him almost two months ago. The only possible issue is him missing on more deep balls than usual and I’d attribute that to the OL just starting to get a consistent starting caliber lineup set.

Hamstring is still bothering him. He is maybe running at 80-85 %.