Stillers-Colts Postgame Analysis and Grades

Colts 24, Stillers 20 ���. Nov 9, 2008 ����Game # 9

 

Stillers-Colts Postgame Analysis and Grades

 

The Stillers jumped out on top of Indy with a TD on their 1st drive, but lazily lost focus and did so throughout the game, literally snatching defeat� from victory by handing the Dolts a cheesy 24-20 victory in embarrassingly lethargic fashion.� I�ll put as much effort into this report as the team collectively did.�

 

Grades:

 

QB:� Ben followed up last week�s stinker with another yet another one, �throwing 2 assaholic, miserable INTs to help lead the march to defeat.� Both were tentative, weak-kneed passes more befitting a college freshman seeing his 1st varsity action.� The 1st pick was on a 3d & 2 on his own 16, on a medium in to Holmes that was short, weak, and off target.� This killer INT, with 90 ticks left in the half, gave Indy a freebie TD to close the half down by 3 rather than 10.� The 2nd pick occurred in the 4Q, on a 3d & 4 with the Stillers up by 3.� Again, a weak, timid pass was jumped on and picked, although Holmes was also weak on this play.� Indy scored the winning TD 4 plays later.�� Ben also had a host of other misfired and timid sack-takes, and he failed miserably to get the offense mobilized and up to the LOS in a timely manner on the late 4Q drive.� I realize Roth has the ailing shoulder, but it may very well be time, NOW, to give the man 1-2 weeks of rest and recuperation and then get healed for the playoff stretch, because efforts like today�s won�t get it done.� �D+

 

RB:� Moore started and had a solid game.� He rush numbers weren�t gaudy, but he ran the ball with authority and was huge in the passing game with good RAC work.� He did drop 1 pass in the 3Q.� He had 2 good TD plunges, but then ran far too upright on the fateful 2d & 3d down plunges in the 4Q that were stopped stone cold.�� �B

 

FB: Davis played a little bit at FB.� He had a good block on Moore�s longest run of the game, a 9-yard run in the 4Q.��� Inc

 

WR:� Ward had a big game, snaring 9 balls for 116 yards.� He made a great adjustment on the underthrown flea-flicker and had a good RAC, good for 41 yards.� He also had several other good grabs on low passes in traffic.�

 

Nate had a great pluck along the s-lines for a 16-yard gain, and had a good block on Moore�s 9-yard run.� �He was not thrown a deep ball all game.�

 

Baker looked lost and clueless on a pass in the 4Q, allowing the ball to go right thru his hands on a short crosser.� Sweed played some, but was non-existent in the passing game.

 

�B+

 

TE:� Miller did not dress.� Spaeth had a career day, grabbing 6 passes for 53 yards, and showing decent hands.� Of course, once Miller returns, Spaeth will resume his role as the neglected leper.� Spaeth failed to sustain his block on Tonio�s end around, causing a 1-yard loss.� He dropped a low pass on the 2nd series.� McHugh had a poor block on a Moore 1-yard loss in the 1Q.���� B

 

OL: The line played okay when examined overall.� Ben wasn�t harassed like he was in the Philly loss; not even close.�� Freeney had his way with Starks, who was flagged for holding once and probably had a couple others that were overlooked.�� Colon was ok against Mathis.� The run blocking was marginal. It started off superbly, but then quickly went downhill, especially when the Colts were emboldened by the lack of a downfield passing game.� The big play, of course, as the 3d & G plunge from the 1, in which Starks and Kemo lazily let up on a DOUBLE team and allowed their man to stack and rack Moore for no gain� This was more so Kemo�s fault, as Starks was moved on to the ILB on this play and Kemo essentially whiffed with his dick in the dirt.� Hartwig was also stood up rather badly on this play.� �B-

 

DL:� Hampton started and gave way to some injury.� Hoke and Eason got a lot of PT and played solidly.� Eason had a strong stuff of Adai on 3d & 2 in the 3Q that somehow was marked as a 1st down.� Aaron Smith had another very strong game.� Keisel had good coverage and a tackle on a 6-yard crosser to Gonzales while dropped in coverage.� Kirschke had good hustle on a WR screen in the 4Q and stopped the WR for 4-yards.� They played a weak-running football team with a weak O-line, but they played solid football.� B+

 

LB:� Leading the way, as a man among boys, was James Harrison, one of the few Stillers who played tenacious football from beginning to end.� Harrison was all over the field, blowing up running plays, harassing Manning, and stopping receivers in their RAC.� His only mistake was the poor play-recognition on the Rhodes draw play late in the 2Q, which gained 7 yards and set up the short TD pass on the next play.

 

Timmons started for the injured Woodley and did ok.� Lacking Woodley�s brawn and power, Timmons was not able to collapse the pocket.� He did have superb, super-tight coverage on Clark in the 1Q on an inc pass. �

 

After about 13 articles in other publications -- certainly not here at Stillers.com -- fawned all over James Farrior, he went out and had an utterly awful ballgame, doing extremely little despite being on the field for EVERY play.� He finished with a piss-ant total of 3 solos.� He did put a nice lick on Addai on a toss sweep that was strung wide, but that�s about it.� Supposedly �THE Winged God of LB Coverage�, he put on a clinic of exactly how NOT to cover a TD on a 3d & goal from the 2-yard line.� At the snap, Farrior, like a complete pansy, actually BACKS OFF, despite there being no room in the end zone to �go deep� anyways.� Clark did a 2-step route and then curled, and was wide open while Farrior was feverishly backpedaling as though he were trying to keep up with Usain Bolt.� What a turd.� In the 3Q, on a 2d & 11, Farrior was totally tooled by Addai for an easy 12 yard gain and a 1st down.� Tom Moore must have been laughing his ass off as he exploited this blatant mismatch.� Not satisfied with assaholic coverage efforts, Farrior put forth a simply wretched effort on the key 3d & short-2 plunge late in the 4Q.�� For no reason whatsoever, Farrior over-ran this play like a rabid drunkard, going waaaay to his left on a ROUTINE, BASIC dive play up the gut that Rhodes gained 6 yards on.� The next play, Manning hit Rhodes for the game-winning TD pass on BOTCHED coverage by THE Winged God of LB Coverage himself, James Farrior.�� Not a bad day�s work from the �team captain� -- 2 TOUCHDOWNS given away, plus a host of weak-assed plays.�

 

Larry Foote did almost nothing the entire game.�

 

Harrison:� A+���� Timmons:� B-��� ��Foote:� C������ Farrior:� D-

 

DB:� lke Taylor had a solid overall game.� However, his batting of the ball UP into the air, as though he were trying to make the US Volleyball squad, helped cost his team a win.� On the deep ball in the 1Q, after the Stillers had just taken the 7-0 lead, Taylor should have had an EASY INTERCEPTION.�� Worst case, he slaps the ball into the group.� Instead, he mis-times his leap, and then� slaps the ball UPWARD, and Wayne hauled in the pass and ran in for the TD. �This happened again on a 1-handed stab by Ike in the 3Q, which Wayne then grabbed for 16 yards.� (That drive stalled, so this wasn�t too costly.)�� It�s a shame, though, because otherwise Ike was busting up passes left and right.� Ike was beaten deep by Wayne midway thru the 4Q but the pass was too long.�

 

Pola had an okay game, making a couple bustups and helping to blow up a couple running plays.� 2 poor gaffes were extremely costly, though.� Late in the 2Q, Pola had an INT right in his gut, and dropped it.� This would have been a sure 6-points and would have stuck a severe dagger into the Colts with the Stillers going to the locker room up by 24-7 rather than 17-14.� (Of course, with the way Indy receivers were roaming free and wild, no lead was safe.)�� Pola also mis-read the wheel route and the lob pass on the winning TD.� It appeared to be a botched coverage, but Pola was in a decent position and simply mis-timed his leap.� Very poor.�����

 

Ryan Clark -- then supposed God of Free Safety -- returned to the lineup and did little.� He had a free, clean, EASY shot at Wayne after Wayne hauled in the deflected bomb that Ike botched, but instead, as is his nature, Clark whiffed in pathetic fashion.� Very, very sophomoric and piss poor.��

 

Townsend had some struggles, committing 2 holds, including 1 on a throw-away late in the 2Q that was very costly.� He also did little on the Clark TD.� He was also badly abused by Harrison on a post in the 2Q, in which Harrison was WIDE open for an easy TD, but the QB was unable to get the ball there.�

 

Ty Carter saw a lot of PT.�� He had a good hit on Gonzo, who was WIDE open on a 3d & 11 in the 3Q, and the ball was jarred loose. �Gay was beaten for a TD by Harrison but Marv dropped the ball.�

 

C

 

Spec teams:� A decent game from the spec teams.�� No disasters, which was a relief.� Enrster punted ok in his 1st outing.� Holmes had a good 23-yard PR late in the 3Q.� Russell had a nice 39-yard KO return in the #Q, and would have had more had he not slipped on the shitty turf of Heinz Field.� Reed booted a chippie FG.�� Bailey and Taylor each had a good solo stop in KO cover, and Harrison a good solo in punt coverage.� Not sure what happened, but the Stillers had to waste a TO in the 2Q when a player was late coming off the field.� �B+

 

OC:� Arians had a nice initial drive, mixing runs and passes and exploiting weaknesses that are prevalent ALL OVER the Indy defense.� After that, Arians did little, allowing the Colts to dictate the game when they brought 8 men into the box and Arians HELPED them out with a plethora of piss-ant little crossers and dumpers.� Aside from the flea-flicker, the entire passing game was within 15 yards of the LOS.� Then there was the fiasco on the 1st & goal at the 5 in the 4Q.� First, the offense had to WASTE a TO due to apparent indecision and slowness in getting the play called.� I could live with the run on 1st down, which netted about 4 yards.� Neanderthal playcalling on the 2nd and 3rd down plays was reprehensible.� Moore isn�t the biggest guy, PLUS Indy had already been scored upon by 2 Moore plunges.� On 2nd down, the time was RIPE for a play-action fake, and then a pop-pass to Spaeth, who was largely6 involved all evening, or Ward, who was tooling any D-back the Colts threw at him.� Instead, Arians, with a mind as nimble and clever as a pre-school toddler, called for 2 vanilla plunges, both of which were stone walled, and the team has to settle for a pussyfied FG and a 3-point lead.�� ��

 

Overall, Arians faced a weak-assed defense that had been exposed by numerous opponents thus far this season, yet after the initial drive, all Arians could score was a piddly 13 points.�� The lumbering, slow-as-whaleshit offense on the game�s final drive was a chapter from a circus act.� On play after play, when any average NFL offense could snap off the next play within 15 seconds, Arian�s glacial offense was taking an eternity to jog down the field, stumble about in a stipor, take forever to get lined up, and then finally get the snap off.��

 

All of the Arians lovers out there, please step forward.� ����F

 

DC:� Dick has feasted ALL season long, in 8 straight game, against either weak offenses or decent offenses that were crippled by injuries to key skill players.� The glowing adulation this guy has received in the mainstream media is enough to make Elvis jealous.� Tonight, Dick finally faced a decent, healthy offense, and he was grossly tooled and outcoached by Tom Moore.� Don�t let the final score and final stats deceive you.� Only a plethora of misfires to WIDE OPEN receivers (see the DB grade, above) prevented the Colts from tacking on another 200 yards passing and 2-3 more touchdowns.� Wild cheetahs in the open prairie have more to contend with than the Indy receivers did tonite, as they roamed free as a bird all game long.

 

Dick also re-introduced a popular oldie of his, the Velcro Blitz, in which every rusher attaches himself to a blocker and plays pom-pom pull-away while the QB stands back in the pocket, totally unfettered.� Indy�s O-line has been reduced to a pile of shit, yet Dick was only RARELY able to get quick pressure and harassment on Manning, and much of that was due to the singular efforts of James Harrison.� All of the supposedly �exotic blitzes� didn�t do jack shit against Manning and the Colts.�

�

The Rhodes TD appeared to be a botched coverage by Farrior.� A forced FG there obviously means the game could have gone into OT.� Let�s face facts, though.�� By that point of the game, after Indy WRs had roamed freely all game long and Manning was getting EONS of time and space in the pocket, there wasn�t a single rational person, anywhere, who felt strongly that the Stillers would stop the Colts from scoring the winning TD.�� The height of Dick�s Follies was on the 3d & 11 late in the 3Q, when Manning, under some rare pressure, threw a lollipop lob to Gonzales, who was so WIDE OPEN that, had he detonated a hand grenade, it would have injured no one.� �It�s always easy to feast on the crippled and incompetent, but the real test is scheming against a capable, competent, relatively healthy offense, and Dick failed miserably. D

 

HC:� After the initial Stiller TD, the entire team went into a funk, and lost their focus and attention to detail.�� The team ate big and drank big after the win over the Skins last week, and reviled in their press clippings all week long.� And then they allowed a vastly inferior team to visit their house and pull off a win they had no business of getting.� Very, very poor.�� The overall intensity from the club was sparse and marginal the entire game.� Tomlin deserves the appropriate blame for failing to maintain focus during the week and for failing to get the team in-focus as they slathered around during the game in a stupor.��� D

 

Synopsis:� Not much more needs be said.� The Stillers wallowed around in a haughty funk, and paid the price for it by allowing an inferior but dangerous club to hang around and then squeak by late in the 4Q.� Very, very disappointing.� �All the glow and pride after the win over the Skins has now been flushed down the commode.� A loss in the conference is never good for tiebreakers and the Stillers pissed away what should have been a win.�� This is a team that faltered badly down the stretch last season, and it�ll be interesting to see if the team sputters down the stretch again or rises to the occasion.�

 

(Still Mill and Stillers.com -- when it comes to the analysis of the Pittsburgh Stillers, no one else comes close�.)