So I've been thinking about it, and if the lockout drags on into what would be the season, who else is coming with me to the replacement tryouts? I think its a solid chance to take the field as a player for my favorite pro team, I mean would I make the final roster? I doubt it. I'm in pretty lousy shape and I was a mediocre player in high school but I've got a feeling this time around, things could be different.

We have a great model of how a team of replacements should work.

I for one vote that we actually get Gene Hackman as our head coach and I believe I can eat my way into being a white version of the guards by mid-season:

So what do you guys think? What replacement player will you be when tryouts roll around? And seriously if tryouts happen who's coming with me?

Is it just me or does anyone else find it ironic that when giving evaluations of players that have seen little to no game action (Jerry Hughes, Jacques meclendon, Jamie Thomas et. al.)  people often make statements that parallel the line of thought that "if you haven't seen him there's a reason" meaning that they believe that because they haven't played they aren't good enough to do so. 

Thats not the ironic part, the irony is that these are the same people that will turn around and criticize the coaching staff for one of a dozen things, but not, not playing these players. 

These are the same people that are declaring a 22 year old a "flop" after one NFL season.

So you say the coaching staff sucks? And the coaching staff decides who plays? And (insert player here) didn't get to play much, so clearly he sucks?

That just doesn't work for me. Now could it be that Jerry Hughes, Jacques, and Jamie just aren't the players that BP thought they would be? Yep. Completely possible. But to read what people write here its completely illogical. 

Personally I think that this coaching staff has greatly mismanaged games and situations, I have no reason to think that they wont mess up personal decisions also. That said I don't think Jacques is the second coming of Bruce Matthews, he could be, but I'm not sold. And I'm not sure if Jerry Hughes will ever be as good as Robert Mathis or Dwight but I believe he is far from a failure at 22 years old.

To hear some people talk around here you would think that we haven't won a playoff game in years. Bill Polian doesn't know what he's doing anymore, we need to scrap the entire roster and change philosophy because of a perceived failure to win, or "put together runs" in the playoffs.

I didn't look at NFC teams until the Superbowl... because well, lets face it, its just not the same. 7-9 Seahawks anybody?

Since 2001-02 the Colts have won 3 wild card round games while earning the bye 3 times and losing 3 times.

7 times the Pats have made it out of the 1st round, putting them as tops for the past decade. The Colts'6 divisional round games ties them with the Steelers for 2nd most since 01.

The Pats and Steelers(including this year) have played in 5 conference championship games(two times playing each other), The Colts have made it into the conference championship round three times in the past decade (playing the Pats twice going .500), which is good for third most. The Jets, have 2 showings, and the rest are one timers.

Consider this the only teams to go to the Super Bowl out of the AFC in the past decade are as follows: The Pats, The Steelers, The Colts and the Raiders. The Pats have gone 4 times, the Steelers have gone twice(I pray they dont go this year), our Colts have gone twice, and the Raiders had their last good year until Al Davis... well I'll just say it, you're already thinking it... dies.

In the Past 10 years there have been 6 different superbowl winners. As much as I hate to say it and as happy as I was today to see them lose today the Pats early dominance of the decade sets them apart (Since 05 they've made just one superbowl (that they lost)). The Steelers have gone twice andwon both times. Of the four, one time winners the Colts are the only team to make 2 appearances.
 
While I would rather have the 4 SB trips and 3 wins the Pats have, I dontknow how anyone can say that the Colts as a team have been bad in the playoffs... shoot if you take it down to the last 5 years the wins/loss ratio by comparison only improve for the Colts.

Do I want us to win every year? Yeah I do. But the fact is this is the NFL thats just not going to happen. For the people that want to criticize Polian and Manning for their playoff "failures" remember context is important. We've been one of 3 dominate playoff franchises in the past decade. We're pretty lucky. And quite obviously we're also a spoiled fan base.  

I'm thinking we probably haven't been as bad as you thought.

.5 I know there are going to be a hundred of these posts. Maybe I'm the first? :/

1. I was right... mostly.

2. Peyton Manning is not happy with his coaching staff.

3. That was the worst use of a timeout I've ever seen. When Caldwell misused his timeouts during the regular season, I didn't think it was a big deal. He's a new(er) head coach in the NFL he made a mistake, he'll take this lesson and grow as a coach.. Nope. Instead of letting the Jets run the ball one more time, and kick a 45-50 yarder he uses our last time out to give the Jets an opportunity to take a chance throwing the ball downfield against our awful secondary. I'm not saying he would have missed the 40-50 yarder but I can hit a 32 yarder (granted with no snap or rush, or any people around at all) and I coach gymnastics for a living.

4. Our secondary was awful... but we do have ten. 10. TEN. 9+1. 2x5. 20/2. DB's on IR. We dont need depth at DB we need to avoid the plague.

5. Bob Sanders should be cut, as much as I love Bob his $$ does not equal his one good half of football a year he can play.

6. Jim Caldwell should be fired.

7. The next several numbers will be dedicated to why I believe Jim Caldwell should be fired.

8. caldwell has to believe that using TO's like he does, could cause turnovers late in the game. Its a nice theory. And if it had worked... ever I would be much more willing to look past the obvious stupidity that this this line of thought. Bottom line giving the other team more time when the game is on the line is stupid.

9. The running into the kicker penalty was as much the fault of the coaching staff as it was Taj Smith. There should have been no rush on the punter. Why would you not simply stay in and block? What does rushing the punter there accomplish? How often are kicks blocked for $200... UM..... almost never. ding ding ding. We have Peyton Manning, he can drive 70 yards in 3 minutes.

10. Jim Caldwell ultimately controls special teams play calls. Our special teams coach needs to be fired as well. Our ST play has been abysmal

11. Jim Caldwell was a head coach before coaching the Colts. He coached Wake Forrest to a record of 26-63. I dont know that he knows how to win.

12. Jim Caldwell will most likely not be fired.

13. I actually really like Caldwell. I just dont think he's a head coach. 

14. Jeff Linkenbach can be our full time starting RT. I didn't watch Link the entire game so I could have missed a few big screw-ups by ole Jeffy but the times I thought to watch him he was making better plays than Deim made all year.

15. We need to improve our DT play. I understand our defensive philosophy, but we dont have a Warren Sapp and he's not giving up his NFL Network job to make a comeback. We are moved off the ball consistently and it needs to change. I thought overall our LB's flowed well when our DT's weren't in their laps. 

16. Our offense is fine with the exception of the offensive line.

17. I want Peyton Manning to do two things this offseason. Demand the coaching changes he wants before he signs. And then I want him to take every last dime he can get from the Colts organization.

18. All things considered, with the exception of the playoff game, this season was amazing. We lost amazingly vital parts of both our offense and defense and we found a way to win our division. And the entire reason we were able to do that was number 18. He put the entire team on his back, coaches and all. He found a way to make an undrafted rookie FA and a guy that had caught 6 passes in his two year career look like average to better than average players. He pulled out wins by making calls that no other QB would have been able to make.

I'm not calling for Jim Caldwell's head because I'm angry over the loss. I mean I'm angry but its the way he lost this game. I feel like its cliche around here but I honestly believe that with Peyton behind center we have a chance to win every game we play and Caldwell lost this game. When Mike Vanderjagt lost us a game, we upgraded and I promise there are a dozen other mediocre head coaches that would have won that playoff game tonight. A player like Peyton comes around once every twenty years or so and we happen to have him, coaches like caldwell come around every year, that why I want Peyton to demand what he wants in way of coaching changes.

We're not three minutes in and there's been a kick off returned for a TD, two fumbles for turnovers, a near INT and a huge fight... At this pace I fully expect this to be the most exciting game in NFL history.

I dont know what else to say about this... I just hope the game tonight isn't this sloppy. I need more words. Just a few more should do. holy crap.

I'm having a hard time understanding all the panic in this place. The Colts lost a game. I realize that most of the fans on this site have lived through maybe 30 total losses since they started following this team, so when we lose one you people lose your freaking minds.
Please don't try to rationalize your insane statements by making your 'case' it will fall on deaf ears, I have no desire to understand your stupidity.
Larry coyer does not need to be fired. We don't need to fire our OC to bring in a power run game, different oline coaches won't magically make anything better. Our players don't need to be replaced with guys from the ufl. And Peyton Manning should not and will not 'go to another team, so that he isn't killed by our bad oline.'
I've heard some doozies, but these were real head scratchers.
It was one game. We lost. This weekend we'll play again. We might win we might lose. Bottom line is we are the Colts. We have the best qb in the game, he has more weapons than he can literally fit on the field at once. Our defense(remember try not to rationalize your stupidity here)is a very very good d. The texans played the perfect game against the colts and our d planned for the leagues top passer from a year ago. We don't need drastic changes we need minor adjustments.
Am I concerned about the line? Idk how you couldn't be if you watched the game but I know one of three things will happen... some guy will step up we've never heard of, polian will trade for a stud at a need position (ala booger), or the most likely Peyton Manning will adjust and show why he should be awarded a 5th MVP. So you can keep panicing if you must but just know in week 12 when the panic has died I'll be here telling you that I told you so.

ps sorry if the formatting is off I'm typing on my phone.

Not that my opinion matters at all but I'm watching this thing develop and I've got to say its got me concerned.

Anthony Galea

Why am I worried about this?

Call me crazy, call me stupid, but if you can take off your homer hat for just a minute, you'll see that Dwight Freeny recovers from injuries, in season, faster than any human should.

I've never put a jump in but today I feel like it.

More after the jump

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Say what you will, Peyton's pick nailed it shut but Jennings was abused the entire game. If Brees needed  a comp. he found #23 wearing blue and threw it his way. IDK who will be available at the end of the first but CB has to be a priority.

Peyton shouldn't have had to make that drive to tie the game. If 1 or 2 of those first downs Jennings gave up weren't given up, who knows what would have happened.

hey Jets fans,

First I want to say that I have huge respect for your franchise, and the things you guys are doing. Honestly coming into this game I thought it was going to be over in the first 10 minutes. Boy was I wrong.

Your D confused the crap out of us... for 25 minutes. When Peyton started calling out who was blitzing and who was dropping, and he was right, I knew that he had figured out the protection schemes, and since Revis can only blanket one guy at a time I figured we would start to move the ball.

That said, during those 25 minutes I thought you guys had our number. I thought we were on pace for a long sad day. Revis, despite that one amazingly sick move from 87, really is as good as billed. I thought that Waynewould get free for a few more catches... wrong again. And Mark Sanchez.... seriously? Seriously. I laughed at the thought of our D taking shots at him, and then he murdered us. I mean the threat (much more so than the application) of your run game opened up shots down field, but even standing in the pocket facing sure hits he delivered hard, accurate passes. There was that one throw away, that for a second reminded me he was a rookie, but I remembered those 2 tds and the fact that he was a rookie playing better than most QB's we'd faced this season. And I was back to being very impressed.

From reading your comments in your open threads I had a couple observations, that are in no way meant to be a slight. Firstly a few of you guys were calling for your OC's head. As a Colts fan IDK what would have happened if after a bad season, a bad finish, or a bad call we would have fired Tom Moore... well I do know what would have happened, we wouldn't be going to our 2nd superbowl in 4 years. As Sanchez grows so will the playbook.

Another thing alot of you thought that had Green been in the game it would have turned out differently. But if you take out his 13 yardrun Green is only averaging 3.1 YPC. One thing I do agree with you on is that he is a much better back than T.Jones at this point. I dont feel that you guys are giving the Colts D much credit. I mean if SG doesn't get hurt, you give him back his 13 yardrun, and give him ten of T.Jones' carries and SG still only runs for 82 yards. T.Jones runs for 16 yards and the Jets as a team run for 101... the exact same as the Colts (who ranked last in rushing) with the Jets averaging 3.5 ypc and the Colts averaging 4.2. Granted with SG in the game it may have been completely different, but personally I was actually surprised at how well the Colts D flew to the ball and for the most part shut down the number 1 rush O in the league. At that point unless SG converted to corner and covered Garcon I dont believe it would have been much different.

With all of that said, I am very, very impressed by this Jets team. In Peyton's first year we were 3-13 and our D stayed terrible for the better part of the next decade. Your guys D is amazing, a couple pieces away from being a truly great D. And the O will only continue get better and more complex. Sanchez played very well in the AFC Championship game, the dude is going to be amazing for years to come. Combine his added confidence with what SG can do, and maybe another playmaker downfield and you guys wont be underdogs long.

I like what you guys are doing up there, for you guys to come this far and play with what really is the best Colts team I've ever seen play, for more than a half, I'm very impressed. I've liked Rex's swagger but his team I respect. And I cant say that about alot of teams we've played this year.

Congrats on a great year, and I hope we dont see you guys next year. 

-Shep

After a recent fanpost on Field Guls which called out Robert Mathis as being less than elite, I did some digging. The post comments mentioned 8 DE's that were claimed to be better than Mathis

Those 8:

Osi Umenyiora
Trent Cole
Justin Tuck
Julius Peppers
Richard Seymour
Mario Williams
Jared Allen
Dwight Freeney

Looking at these players stats over their careers leads me to one conclusion, if these 8 are elite, Robert Mathis belongs in the discussion. 

Continue reading this post »

lukenukem brought up the fact that after next season we're going to have 4 monster contracts coming off the books, and while one may think about the FA market, we all know this is Indiana and there aren't too many big name FA's that ever stop by.

So it got me thinking, who would the pacers be interested in? Clearly they would have to be under contract for a few more years, they would need to be young, and most importantly they would need to be good.

Coming off the books that summer are:

Murphy     12mil
Dunleavy  10.5mil
Ford           8.5mil
Foster        6.6mil

With those guys as bait, there isn't anyone in the NBA that we couldn't trade for. Obviously there are guys some teams wouldn't trade, and there are a lot of guys that we wouldn't want even though their contracts would suggest that they were elite players (Barron Davis, Gilbert A.). With this in mind I started looking for guys that might be options. I probably missed a few, so fill in as needed.

N.O.
Chris Paul           15mil
Utah
Deron Williams  15mil
Mil
Andrew Bogut      11mill
GS
Andris Biedrins     9mil
Char
Gerald Wallace     9.8mil (eh)
Min
Al Jefferson           13mil
LAC
Chris Kaman        11.3mil
DET
Richard Hamilton 12.6mil (old)
Tor
Jose Calderon      9mil
Andrea Bargnani   8mil
Atl
Josh Smith           11.6mil
Orl
Jameer Nelson     6.7mil  

What I need you to do is tell me why none of these could possibly work. haha Seriously which do you see as possible trade options and why?

I attended last nights game with my younger brother. our third this season. I've read this blog for a long time now and I just wanted to post my opinions.

1. Roy Hibbert needs to start. Every game from here on out 55 needs to be down low. In our first two games Hibbs played a total of 3 minutes last night with Foster out Hibbs started and gave us 20 solid minutes, 14 points, 5 boards, and a block or two that were credited to someone else. Everyone says it, Larry Bird agrees that we need a low post scoring presence. Sure he was playing against sam dalembert and better centers around the league will be able to handle him... So. I understand planning around matchups, I understand that Jeff plays better D, and is a better rebounder, but hibbs is a 7'2" 270lb+ first round draft pick rookie that shows promise in the post with quick moves (he killed dalembert twice), footwork that is decent but still has room to improve, and size that cant be taught. He needs to add muscle, something that I believe he can do, while still fitting into the O. All of that and the fact that he's 22, his cieling is very, very high. Meanwhile we start Jeff Foster. I love Jeff. I do. But he's 32. He's topped out talent wise, he should be the one that comes off the bench when hibbs is struggling or in foul trouble. Hibbert could be a future allstar, but right now he just needs to get in there and mix it up with everyone he can no more DNP's and no more 3 minutes of action. hibbs needs to start and play from here on.

2. We dont really need to move anyone. But if we did I would love to see us move Rasho and Daniels. I like rasho, he works hard, doesn't complain smooth midrange jumper not often seen, but he struggles to get up and down the court with the O. I know Hibbert does too but Rasho is just a special kind of slow. And Daniels well I just dont like him. Dude looks like he's stoned 24/7, he plays lethargically, he's got a good shot but his D sucks and his selection leaves something to be desired. Both are expirers and could draw alot of attention.

3. No one in thier right mind would trade for Jamal Tinsley. And his asking price at this point in time is way too high. I would be happy with jerome james and a 2nd rounder. But teams know that we aren't going to just going to keep him in ATL paying him to do nothing for the next three years. Bird will eventually buy him out meaning that any team that wants him right now, can have him for next to nothing if they can just wait a few more months.

4. I've seen the posts and JOB really doesn't need to be let go. Talent goes along way into a teams success and JOB has done alot with a little.

5. Making the playoffs this year is going to do nothing other than make the pacers a little more money, and as I'm finding out they need it badly. If they could afford it it would be better if they would have a top ten pick instead of attempting to make the playoffs where they will play in one series and be done.

6. This years draft is going to determine alot for the future of the team, if they can have two solid drafts in a row building around danny I see great things in the next 3-5 years. Between this draft and the FA's we could bring in, we could be alright.  

7. Amanda who waits in section 107 was amazing... I do wish that I would have thought to ask for ketchup on my burger though.

 Nothing world changing in here just my $0.02.

 PS. I almost forgot I've seen people posting about signing a big name guy in the LeBron-lottery summer and I want to remind you of one thing, this is Indiana. As much as you may love it, there is nothing that screams I want to go there because its amazing. In fact compared to LA, NY, Miami, Phoenix... anywhere warm there isn't anything great about Indy. And even if we are able to offer a max contract so are 10 other teams, so unless coming here with a desire to farm after their playing days is in the cards we're going to have to overpay to get anyone even decent to come.
Look at our allstars in the past 20 years, (off the top I'm not going to actually look it up) Reggie (draft),  smits (draft), oneal (trade) Artest (trade) we've never had a big name guy sign here, our best bet to finding our next superstar is the draft. Something Donnie towards the end seemed to miss on more than he hit.