Colts week discussion. Horrible matchup

[bobblehead]

We really shoulda had a Pick 'Em contest. You woulda stood out, Brandon. hahahahaha

I did pin him down on a "name the contenders"

San Francisco 4-6 last place in west
Tampa Bay 7-3 second in south...curb stomped by saints
New Orleans 7-3 Leading south. Lost to packers
Dallas 2-7 Last in NFC least
Philadelphia 3-5-1 Leading division!!!

Not serious contenders: GB 7-2....#1 seed
Seattle 6-3....3 way tie for West

[Upnorth]

I did pin him down on a "name the contenders"

San Francisco 4-6 last place in west
Tampa Bay 7-3 second in south...curb stomped by saints
New Orleans 7-3 Leading south. Lost to packers
Dallas 2-7 Last in NFC least
Philadelphia 3-5-1 Leading division!!!

Not serious contenders: GB 7-2....#1 seed
Seattle 6-3....3 way tie for West

Is that the big news that was to be revealed? Its like he has a crystal ball. With a few cracks

Those 5 teams you have on top were like reading espn pablum from August.

[RashanGary]

Word from the packers defense is they’re gonna be masking coverages on filthy Phil this week. In general, with such a young bunch, they didn’t do much of that last year. King, Alexander, Amos and Kirksey are veteran enough, you’d expect them to be able to hold their spot presnap to make filthy Phil have to adjust post snap and hopefully hold the ball while he goes to the next read. Preston, being a solid coverage OLB will also be a part of this cat and mouse game. He should be able to handle it.

Savage and Sullivan are a little sketchy in that department. Should be much improved from their rookie years, but second year status does not equal savvy vet status.

I see, usually, two types of highly effective secondaries.... you have the SF/Colts/Recent Chargers style where they do one or two things really well and plan on out executing you. And then you have the Titans/Patriots style where they’re veteran and and they constantly mix things up and mask things to take away that first read.

Our team, neither built for man or zone, but sort of decent at either when healthy almost has to fall into the latter category of highly effective secondary play. With King and Kirksey back, there is a really good chance they can start to develop that mix and mask identity that makes calling plays and counting on first reads a challenge for opposing offenses.


This is the first healthy game in a long time. This is a big test to see if this defense is going to take that next step or stay stuck in the spot of not having an identity.

[RashanGary]

Since they want to mix and mask defenses with their evolving and now healthy veteran bunch, I expect to see more Greene and less Barnes/Martin this game.

If that’s the case, and you end up going smaller but more experienced in the back, I would expect to see them go bigger up front on first and second down. Also, Preston is our only OLB that excels on coverage so i expect to see him on early downs to open up some of that flexibility to mask coverages.

Preston, having coverage abilities, would be a curious option at ILB next to Kirksey as well. Maybe you go a little smaller up front Z, Clark, Lowry, Gary and then overload one side with Preston blitzing from the ILB spot and one of the lineman zone dropping into the slant windows.

[RashanGary]

There are a few options to mix things up. I want to start seeing some of that creativity from Pettine.

[texaspackerbacker]

Has Preston even been playing ILB? If so, I haven't seen it.

I think our D will be ok. We weren't ready for Rivers the last time we faced them. If Pettine still ain't, there will be a lot more people jumping on the bandwagon to fire him.

[HarveyWallbangers]

Has Preston even been playing ILB?

No

[GB-Brandon]

I will reveal more later!!!

[run pMc]

I think our D will be ok. We weren't ready for Rivers the last time we faced them. If Pettine still ain't, there will be a lot more people jumping on the bandwagon to fire him.

I'm not optimistic about the D's chances. Rivers behind a very good OL playing dink and dunk. Pettine plays the outside CB's soft/off and that drives me crazy - it also plays right into Rivers' hands. Agree the "fire Pettine" bandwagon might get more crowded soon. I will be very interested to see how the offense plays against a solid Indy D. If the Packers bend-dont break defense holds their O to FGs and Rodgers gets off to a hot start the game could get very interesting. They gotta force Rivers to make some bad throws/decisions, and he won't do that with a lead.

[RashanGary]

I’m excited to see the defense healthy. I really don’t love or even like Kirksey that much, but for the Packers defense to be all it can be, we’re gonna need to be multiple and unpredictable back there. We just don’t have one thing we do best but a lot of things they can do fairly well. So mixing, masking and keeping filthy Phil off his game is gonna be paramount.

Kirksey and King both bring some veteran stability to that back end and make opening up the playbook possible. This is game 1 of what is hopefully a nice 10 game stretch of good health!

On a side note, I wouldn’t be surprised if Sullivan is the other corner in base defense and king comes in to play outside during nickel situations. One part time week before going full time seems smart for such a long lasting injury.

[RashanGary]

This Lafleur regime has been so ridiculously careful. Can’t imagine lizard is gonna play having not been a full participant in practice. He’s gonna need a full week of full go practice to play football for careful Lafleur. And even then, I imagine he’d be a part time player for the first week back.

[RashanGary]

On the plus side, we’re like all world as far as not sustaining season enders in the Lafleur era. Kinda disappointed to not have lizard back yet I’ll bet it’s the right move considering lafleurs health success so far.

[RashanGary]

Likely lizard timeline

Next week full go practice
November 29th part time player
December full time player
Post season lizard is 100% healthy and 100% acclimated to the offense

Careful Lafleur wins again. Championship

[Joemailman]

[Freak Out]

Turn up the heat on Rivers and he will make some mistakes and get sacked a couple times.