Colts are finally adjusting their game
They're pounding the ball with Edgerrin James. Edge has never rushed for 100 yds vs the Jags, but has 98 yds on 20 carries now.Manning is overthrowing receivers and throwing into double coverage on out routes, stuff he doesn't normally do (unless he's playing the Pats). Looks like Jack Del Rio did a great job helping his defense analyze film on these Colts.
posted by Publius @ 12:12 PM
3 Comments:
I completely disagree that Manning doesn't normally do that unless it's against the Pats--he doesn't normally do it because he's normally easily rolling up 400 yards. One of the big problems with Manning is that he's not capable of effectively managing a low-scoring game (like Brady does) so when things aren't going well, rather than play it safe and make the smart plays, he forces the ball into double coverage and into spaces where there's nothing. It's the exact same way Martz starts throwing every single play when he falls behind 3-0 in the first quarter. They become flustered and lose all of their football sensibilities.
I haven't yet watched this game but if I'm a Colts fan, having seen the Ravens game last week and seen the score of this week's game, I would be THRILLED with the Colts right now. Winning these two games the way they had to is a far greater indicator of potential January success than rolling up 45 points and 480 yards is. These two wins are their most impressive two wins since the ridiculous comeback against Tampa Bay in Oct. 2003.
Ok, give me examples of when he's done that in the past.
Feel free to go to ESPN's player page, which has his game logs going back to 2000. Point out the low-scoring games in which he failed his team (i.e. lost) in trying to manage a low scoring game against any team other than the Pats. Extra points for ability to point out games in which the "Manning face" appeared. Discuss.
(2004: examples would be both games vs Jax, only one of which they lost, the home game vs Baltimore, and at Houston. I know stats don't say everything, but it's as close as we can come to proving/disproving your point. As you can guess, I completely disagree with you.)
One more thing: if your theory were correct, then I *think* the relevant stats would be 1) completion percentage, 2) interceptions, and to a much lesser extent 3) actual attempts (i.e. maybe he just didn't actually turn it over but only managed a 3 and out, which isn't a whole lot better).
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