Mechem's Recap of the Colts Game

I've decided to add another regular bit to my posting. I provide you with hate in our weekly hate guide. But now I'd like to offer my thoughtages about our weekly performances. And just some of my observations in general. And of course, what I hated and stank.

Lets first off look at some of what I loved. Remember, everything good in moderation, even HATE. I'm really all about the love. Its the Yin to my Yang, the Cheech to my Chong, the Judas to my Jesus, and the Beer to my Glass.

This week there were only 3 things I loved:

1. Mike Wallace

Seriously, MW is just basically manbearpig in a football uniform. I'm super serial. He's insane. The man made some good catches, and the long ball was a beauty. The Colts responded with more tight coverage in the second half but he still put a couple good first downs in there. He's definitely our now #1 whether or not it's official. And we should treat him as such.

2. The Defense

People might think our D did poorly. But when you consider the situation, they played very well. Twice the Colts had possessions at or inside our 50 from turnovers. Our D tightened the screws in both cases and kept the Colts to field goals. This is pretty solid considering that Vinateiri in the dome can probably nail those from the 35 yard line consistantly.

Besides that, you have one TD drive. That's it. The pass defense was quite solid, and got lucky in a couple cases. The Run D was suspect, but I would say that it made a lot of good stops and some tackles for losses. A lot of the big runs came when I think the D was expecting pass late in the game. The Colts like to run out of some pass looking formations and switched sides several times, keeping their run calls clever.

In the end, our D did what it always does: It gave us a chance to win. No other D would have kept a team to 20 points with a pick 6 and 2 other turnovers in prime position. And how many D's would have gone and made the key pick six to give our team a real chance at a win?

3. Big Ben

If Paul Bunyon and Wonder Woman had a baby, and Hercules and Catwoman had a baby, and somehow those two babies had a baby, that'd be Ben Roethlisberger. The dude played ball today. He threw for a pile, was mostly very accurate, and took a beating and never missed a beat. Ben wasn't afraid to run a bit and pick up some tough yards. In most cases he didn't even think about going down, and took hard hits in and out of the pocket. As usual he did his amazing sandlot stuff a few times down the stretch and showed he's a tough guy to bring down. After a while I thought about it, and he only got ''sacked'' once aside from the strips. He does need to work on protecting the ball when passing a little. And maybe he should have ran more because in one strip he could have probably come close to the first. But live by the sword die by it, today he let us live.

Now here's what I hated and what stanked (possible profanitation present)

1. The Oh-line.

Oh shit is more like it. Dear god that may have been one of the worst days for the O-line since the Eagles game in 2008. And that was basically a completely different group. This was by far the worst game for these linemen. Scott was about as useful as sandpaper when you're on the crapper. I also noticed that Kemo and Scott seemed to be constantly turned around by the spin moves. They were literally facing the wrong way several times. I don't understand how anybody could be so badly faked out that they end up looking at their own endzone. 

The run blocking was weak and timid and nobody really seemed to find a guy and take him out. Many people missed guys, although I didn't see anybody mandhandled too hard. It just seemed uncoordinated.

Gilbert had a long day, but I think did pretty well. The Ben fumble from Gilberts side really wasn't all Gilberts fault. The Ben had about 5-6 seconds and still had the ball.

Scott was also a gaping moron and basically just watched the Colts return that fumble for a TD. He could have possibly got to the ball. It's amazing considering the events in the 2010 AFC playoff game.

The injuries weren't good either. The only good I can say is that they didn't fumble a snap and there were only a couple penalties. A sad day here. Something must be done.

2. Manny Sanders

I love this guy but god today I hated him and he stanked. The dude seemed like he was back in college or something. Honestly just an all around lack of performance here. Considering the drop early on the first drive that possibly could have led to 7 points, the failure to touch the interceptor in the 2nd, and lack of blitz recognition, he really didn't do anything to help us at all today. He didn't seem very focused which is strange considering he's said to be great with the playbook and a stellar route runner. He needs to get his head in the game and step it up or he won't be able to keep up. Brown should definitely pass him on the depth chart.

3. Play calling on offense

We should have had a lot more points today. We frankly got pretty lucky with a long Wallace bomb and a great defensive TD. First off, the run game wasn't workin much and they refused to change it up. Mendenhall was dancing all day and nearly fumbled another ball. No Redman for miles. Moore played well on his two carries, again showing it's good to change backs up at times. But worse yet was the pass calling. Ben had a great day and made a lot of lemonade out of a hell of a lot of piss today.  But numerous play calls showed almost no adjustment to the blitz schemes. Any screens were really just improv dump offs, despite the fact that if they had been planned they may have been really successful. No hot routes to counter-act the blitzing at all. Not a single bubble screen or end around or designed roll out, just vanilla style all day.

When your O line is getting beat like Charlie Sheens girlfriend, you need to start getting creative to make the defense back off a bit. We basically gave the D line a red carpet reception to blitz the bejeeballs out of us.

4. Ball spotting

Ok here's one more thing. I don't normally like to hate on the refs and I feel they called a very fair game and we even got away with a couple. But what the hell was up with those ball spots during the game? The Colts on their tying TD drive DEFINITELY got a freebie first down. And it was no wonder they hurried up and ran it. On another occasion earlier I remember a very questionable one being given also with no measurement at all. I never saw the chain gang the entire game. And a couple of ours seemed to be a little short.

You're on notice ball spotter. Spot the ball right or James Harrison will spot your balls on the correct line leaving you balless.

Those are some of the things that have plagued us for a long time, and yet somehow we pulled it off. This game was eerily reminiscent of the week 4 Baltimore game in 2008. In that game we suffered from some early mistakes, had trouble on offense, but in the end the D made a play and we won it in a gritty game. I'm hoping that's what this was. And hopefully we can continue to put it together. Really this season kinda reminds me of 2008 again. At least these first weeks. A solid win, an ugly ugly loss, and a gritty win. Add a budding fast deep threat WR, a vicious defense saving games, and an O-line that couldn't block a geriatric cripple, and you can see the similarities.

I'm hoping we can get it together sooner rather than later. But a W is a W, and we kept pace with the Purple Browns and Brown Browns. The fact we're all 2-1 is probably indicative of the end of the world in 2012, but nonetheless it's good to be on top. Even if the top in this case is a 3-some with the worlds two ugliest women.

Until next week. Please feel free to comment on the issues here, anybody you Loved or Hated? Lets hear it!