I spent most of the 1st half of the Colts/Dolphins game putting together a million piece (estimated) Lego Star Wars battle tank for Cole. Consequently, I listened a lot more than I watched. And what I heard most was “Wildcat!” The announcers were really taken with the Dolphins’ gimmick of snapping the ball directly to a running back. Oh, and with time of possession. The Dolphins absolutely dominated both the time of possession and the Wildcat! statistics. Time of possession was 45:07 Dolphins to 14:53 Colts. And, the Colts have a great quarterback and receivers, so they don’t mess around with the Wildcat!
For the Dolphins, the trouble was that the Colts averaged about 10 – 11 yards per play versus about 5 per play for the Dolphins. Hopefully the Colts can stiffen up on 3rd down and get the ball back for the offense, and hopefully our running game gets more consistent. In the meantime, if the only thing our team does better than the other team is score more points, I’ll have to find a way to live with that.
I was amazed how good our defense was, actually. The fact that they only allowed 23 points in 45 minutes of defending was impressive. However, the fact that they were still running as hard as their body would allow in the last Dolphins possession was most impressive. They just didn’t quit.
I’m still a fan of the “bend but don’t break” defense. It seems like a risk to most people, but the Colts have been pretty good about making it work over the years.
I read somewhere that the last time a team had possession for less than 15 minutes and still won an NFL game was in 1977. It’s hard to believe really. The Colts only had ran three plays in the third quarter. When you score two points per minute of possession, you have a good chance to win.
That whole Wildcat! thing is annoying, and I predict it’ll turn out to be a fad at the NFL level, though it seems a good strategy for high school. NFL defenses will adjust to it, and shut it down. Year after year, the top NFL teams feature a savvy QB who can react to defensive adjustments. A QB can’t work his magic without touching the ball.
Our running game will get better when Donald Brown starts. Addai just isn’t seeing the holes, and doesn’t break tackles well. I watched the Brown touchdown many times. I just loved seeing our guy high-stepping with two or three defenders draped on him, and end up standing alone in the end zone.
Marty, the ESPN crawl kept saying that after the game (when they had TOS wrong); the announcers later said “least TOS in a win since they started keeping the stat”, which, from what’s left of my memory and the fact that they never identified the earlier game, I’m guessing may have been in 1977.
And Jason, I’ve got no problem with Bend Don’t Break. I just don’t understand why it has to include Never Stop The Run or Prevent Third-and-Long Conversions.
Supposed to read “TOP” of course; you’d think by noon I’d have had enough coffee.
Freudian slip perhaps…for the Colts, Time Of Scoring…
Manning put on a QB clinic. Did you hear them talking about how bad statistically the Colts defense has been during the Manning years?Can you imagine what kind of numbers he’d have if he played on,say the Patriots? It boggles the mind how many wins this guy has, given how somewhat predictable the offense is. The opposing defenses know what he’s gonna do but yet he still does it. That’s the definition of good.