Maybe it was the expectations that people have for them or maybe they just underestimated the Buffalo Bills, but the Indianapolis Colts looked completely unprepared this afternoon. So much went wrong with the team today that it’s almost too difficult to remember everything, however, I will try my best.
First off I want to say that Kendall Langford showed today why he was a good free agent signing. He had multiple tackles for losses and was a beast at stopping the run. That’s why they brought him here isn’t it? I feel he did this job for the most part and was one of the few high points of the afternoon. In fact, I think the defense did a pretty damn good job of stopping the run, except for those long touchdown runs. You could really tell they prepared for LeSean McCoy in a big way, but didn’t prepare for Williams who did his fair share of damage today. The weakest link on the defense today was the defensive backfield which is a shock to me and I’m sure to many of you. Mike Adams showed his age, Darius Butler couldn’t cover Percy Harvin at all, and they let first time starter Tyrod Taylor make them look weak.
Now, before anyone says that I’m letting the defense off lightly you should just hold on to that thought. They didn’t play well altogether or the Bills wouldn’t have scored so many points, obviosuly. There was very little pass rush and when there was, Taylor was able to roll out and do his thing whenever he wanted. All around performance of the defense I would give a C-.
On the other side of the ball there weren’t many bright spots. Frank Gore ran hard which is what we would expect from him. T.Y. Hilton hauled in his fair share of catches before going down with a knee injury. Dwayne Allen had a solid game snatching his catches as well as his first touchdown of the season. Rookie running back Tyler Varga even showed everyone watching what made the Colts keep him instead of Daniel “Boom” Herron.
I said in the pre-game breakdown that this was going to be a true test for the Colts’ offensive line and that is exactly what it was. The Bills defense ran so many crazy fronts you could literally see when they were all confused. Let’s play a little game shall we? We have all watched Rex Ryan’s defenses do one thing. What is that? BLITZ!! I lost count of how many jailbreak blitzes I saw from the Bills today. Luck had very little time which, more than likely, played a large part in why he was throwing so high and early. So, if you’re preparing an offensive line for a big time defensive front, don’t you think you should work on picking up those blitzes? I do have to say one thing though, Jack Mewhort seemed much more settled at right tackle than he had all preseason. No one heard Mario Williams’ name called much at all today and for as good as he is that is a wonderful thing. However, the middle of the offensive line is still very suspect. They are going to have to really prepare much better for next week because the New York Jets have just as good of a defensive front as Buffalo and secondary that is just as strong.
As I said before, Luck was off all day. He was throwing high and then you would see him toss one in the dirt at the receivers feet. His first interception was on both him and Hilton. Luck under-threw the ball, but Hilton didn’t make any adjustments on it and just gave up on the play once it was picked off by the impressive rookie Ronald Darby. Could Hilton have cut his route to at least breakup the interception? Yes, he definitely could have. The second of Luck’s interceptions was all on him. Another under-thrown ball that really sealed the game for Buffalo. Obviously, this isn’t the Luck we all know and I feel that we won’t see a repeat performance like this one.
Andre Johnson under-performed in a big way today and only made himself look worse by dropping a sure fire two point conversion late in the 4th quarter. Like Luck, I don’t think this is the kind of game we will see from Andre again and with Hilton likely out for a few games with a knee injury, he will need to step up. There was one offensive “weapon” that I do feel really hurt himself today and that is first round pick Phillip Dorsett. Didn’t really see much of him in the first half other than a fair catch punt. Then, in the second half, he muffed back-to-back punts and lost one of them. Thankfully it only resulted in three points for Buffalo, but it could’ve been much worse. I tweeted something out in the heat of the moment, but I will not delete it or hide from it.
Dumb comment, I’m aware, but I do feel that Dorsett didn’t help this team. Yes, he had a couple of good catches, but like I had said to someone who commented on that tweet: If he is such a playmaker then he should have taken his chances when he had them. I know he is a rookie and he will make mistakes. I’m sure he will do everything he can to not repeat those mistakes, but man did he bomb today.
I will not end this without giving props to someone who deserves them. Donte Moncrief played a hell of a game today. He caught almost everything thrown at him and caught his first touchdown of the season. The catch that wasn’t a catch on the sideline could happen to anyone. He was trying to make a play, but alas it didn’t happen. Though, it could’ve been a momentum builder at a dire time if he had gotten his feet down.
This team has some serious work to do to prepare for the Jets. No one should have expected this to be an easy game, nor should they for the Colts’ defensively minded AFC East opponent. On the other side of that I don’t think there is one person who can say with a straight face that they thought this was going to happen either. I know I thought it was going to be a tough game, but I thought the Colts would be victorious and I definitely thought we would run the ball more than 17 times (4 of which were scrambles by Luck). Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case. I do have faith in this coaching staff and expect that they will prepare this team better and the team will execute better come next Monday in front of their home crowd and the night that Jeff Saturday is deservedly placed in the ring of honor.
