Dick Tanner tho

**** me then.

1-15 is infinitely better than 8-8 (which would be a miracle in and of itself). I mean, I really hoped the NFL went "WWE" for a week and after player introductions in Houston Peyton's music played and he ran out of the tunnel LOLing @ neck surgery. I'll take a year off and full recovery for Peyton and a great draft pick for the Colts though.

Just out of curiosity though, what do you see as this team's ceiling assuming Peyton takes the year off? How about if he's able to return week 13?

Edit: Oops, just read the "that start rooting for 1-15 when the Colts are 0-1." part. Do I still get to be a "real" Scotsman fan if I started rooting for 1-15 immediately after Peyton's most recent surgery?

It is pretty irresponsible of the organization to not groom a qb, compare this to the Brady injury and Cassel obv.

Hopefully we can never, ever again have to listen to the bull**** about Bill Polian being the GOAT GM.

I obviously don't disagree with your last sentence. But the bold part.. we're just debating two different things here. Whatever resources (time/energy/money) you throw into a backup basically gets taken away from resources thrown at a starter. My contention is that on this particular team, which is built very much around Peyton getting a cushion early, it might be a better strategy to sacrifice value of a backup for utility of a starter. The reason why I'm treating this so binarily (???) is because the elephant in the room here is binary: Peyton Manning. Without putting too much thought into it, I can't think of a single other team where I would declare this "correct" strategy. I just think their organization is unique.

I mean if you're a season ticket holder you should probably care, because you are going to value the present more than you value the future, but for anyone else what's the difference? Are Colts fans who are used to winning 12 games every year really gonna be like "Oh wow we're 8-8 I'm so glad we made due with Kerry Collins this year. Much excite!"

Yeah we've already compared it to the Pats' situation and they aren't very similar. So the processes of each organization aren't very similar either.

From what I can recall from the game due to the rage and natural vertigo I felt while watching led me to think that we played actually much better in the second half than the first. If we can get protection down and Collins a little more comfortable and timed we can be a contender. I agree that the COLTS team is built around offensive control so without it we are screwed. Our defense cannot be counted on to hold a decent team to < 17 points a game. If we can bench our defense a few times every quarter they'd play much better.

Well, if they were true "fans" they would.

One of two things is true here: Either the Colts really pulled their **** together at halftime, or the Texans weren't trying as hard in the 2nd half after totally annihilating the Colts in the first.

I suppose those two aren't really mutually exclusive, but I have a gut feeling as to which is a lot more likely.

PHB, the truth is that almost no team has any real chance of winning a SB without their starting QB being healthy for the playoffs

Top teams by futures odds are currently

Pats (Brady)
Packers (Rodgers)
Eagles (Vick)
Ravens (Flacco)
Chargers (Rivers)
Saints (Brees)
Jets (Sanchez)
Texans (Schaub)
Steelers (Roeth)

of those, the only that would have any real hope of winning the SB if their QB went down (in the playoffs) would be the Jets. obv. b/c they have an elite defense and Sanchez is not so good to begin with.

the next ones would be Flacco and Roeth, but while these teams could be good enough to beat mediocre opponents without their QB's, there is no way a Steelers team with Charlie Batch or a Ravens team w/ QB X is winning 3 or 4 games in a row against a gauntlet of Chargers/Pats/Packers etc

I think it's a bit of both. I think the Texans ended up calling 2x as many run plays for the game as they did pass plays. And I doubt O-linemen were rushing to go make a sick block at the 2nd level on a linebacker or whatever up 34 points. Also the Texans D seemed more vanilla after half-time. Part of this is probably not wanting to beat a dead horse, and part may have been Wade Phillips not wanting to play all his cards just yet.

But I'm willing to bet the Colts did play better in a vacuum in the 2nd half. I mean it would have been really hard to play worse or not improve at all.

Honestly I would have liked to have Schaub throw a bit more. He didn't look that good so as a HC I would have kept him in until I felt he was playing up to his capability. But Kubiak has always been a guy who seems more concerned with what people think of him rather than getting his processes right. What got buried in this game is that Schaub quite frankly looked pretty bad. I'm not exactly thrilled that they cut him off after 22 passes or whatever. You can still call 8 more pass plays and not have it look like running up the score. I would have liked to see him get into more of a groove.

KBZ, so with knowing that why are you adamant about wanting to put a strong #2 behind a guy who likely can use that tool elsewhere?

you are stating your opinion as fact here. none of the listed teams have fallen off a cliff when forced to go with their respective backups IRL.

Very impressed with Schaub in this game. Incredibly efficient and made great decision after great decision. If Andre doesn't make an uncharacteristic drop on the first drive, they score on every possession in the first half.

I can't remember the last time the Texans had 10 hits on the QB. Hapless Colts or not, my Wade Kool-Aid cup floweth over.

Might get body paint for week 9 vs the Browns if they can swing 5 wins out of the first half of this season. Schedule is pretty brutal.

I'm surprised you were pleased with Schaub. I thought it was a sub-par game for him, given the context of the game.

The Andre interception was uncharacteristic to fly off his hands like that, but it's not like it was a great throw, either.

Then, later, when up by 34 points in their zone, he just blindly threw up a dead duck right to an Indy defender. When you're up that much the entire playbook should be open and I just don't understand how or why he makes that throw there? He didn't play horribly, and it was only 1 game but I would have liked to see him get 5-8 more throws to see if he started looking better going into game 2.

largely b/c season ending injuries aren't the only ones that need planning for. particularly now with concussion testing, there is always the chance you need a fill in for just a couple games. the difference between Curtis Painter and someone capable could be the difference between making the playoffs or not.

Re: Schaub

The last pic did smack of complacency. The Andre drop was inexcusable in my estimation.

To nitpick, Schaub did look unusually stiff in the hips and shoulders rolling left after he looked great on the first play from scrimmage.

We'll have so much information by week 5, I won't sweat his balls too hard right now.

I can think of at least 2 playoff games in the last 10 years won by backup QBs after the starter went down.

Jan 2002 Pats win at Pittsburgh
Jan 2008 Chargers at Indianapolis

Having a capable backup is pretty valuable.

*Honorable mention to Caleb Hanie last year, great effort kid.

Indy's system is so 'Peyton dependant' that it is nearly impossible to have a relevant 2nd option. They really need to develop offensive talent on the coaching staff that can develop an offensive identity independent of @eyton, so that the post Manning world won't be so tumultuous.

For instance, Belichek intentionally developed a flexible strategy on offense (and d for that matter) so that the appropriate strategy can be implemented dynamically with the changes in roster composition or opponent for that matter.

Other teams have a rigid system that they tailor their roster to conveneince.

Indy has created a system that is completely player dependent, and that player needs to be generational.

The concussion stuff is a good point. I forgot about that newish rule. There's like no way Peyton sits out a game before that rule but now he would have to. Needing a backup for 2 games and having him go 1-1 is fairly valuable but it's hard to say if having a worse backup to go 0-2 but having a better receiver during 16 games doesn't negate it.

We're really not even disagreeing anymore. I just think that they chose to adopt a higher-risk, higher-reward strategy and personally I don't think I'm capable of deeming that a mistake at this point.

What's also weird is that his first injury isn't a ding up or a concussion, but a fluke one that is wiping out his entire season (for all intents and purposes), so I could still argue that they haven't been bitten yet by the strategy they've adapted, as their backup could be Matt Flynn (or whoever the 33rd best QB in the league might be) and it still wouldn't matter. If anything, I might argue they wasted money/resources on Collins but that opens up a whole other complex can of worms which has to do with keeping fans happy and trying to remain competetive, etc.

Calling the Andre drop "inexcusable" is a bit drastic. It was a very high throw and he was running sideways. Yeah we expect AJ to grab that pretty much every time but the throw could have been a lot better. And if you downgrade Andre for that drop then you should downgrade Schaub for his TD pass to AJ that was actually deflected by a defender in the endzone and AJ just beasted to save his ass.

Texans have underperformed for several years now. I do not give them any rope anymore. They lost that privilege. I'm not gonna sit here and wait for 5 weeks to nitpick our players. Every game is important and it shouldn't be lost that Schaub wasn't exactly stellar.

I think there is a non-zero chance that the Texans best expectation this season could be a super bowl win. It's in the realm of possibilities, albeit very very low. But in that case you gotta try to play better and get better at every opportunity. There's no time to wait and say "things will get better". Gotta manage your players in a way that puts them in positions to get better. It doesn't just happen.

/Matt Foley motivational rant.

The drop was totally inexcusable, bro.

Matt Schaub is not being afforded time to get better. Quite the contrary. He is, however, going to encounter very strong assessments in the first 5 weeks of this season (ravens, saints, pitt). After these contests, the waters will be stilled, and we will have a clear picture of what we have here with da Texans.

OK, bro. Calm down. Remember I'm just a mouthbreather here trying to breathe and type at the same time.

With games against the Ravens, Steelers, and Saints coming up that is more the reason why they should have had him throw a bit more and get into a better groove. But yeah, let's just say "who cares" and then re-evaluate after we're 2-3.

Matt Schaub looked great in game 1, ime. The elusive 'groove' was found. Tougher assessments are coming. I felt pretty calm typing the previous post (although it was from the DMV), just stating that the Andre drop on drive 1 was all 'DreDre.

You have positioned yourself as the Texans' 'Russian Judge' so to speak. Nothing wrong with that at all. I have become a Texans 'apologist', I assume in your POV.

That said, I will be side-by-side, pitchfork/torch in hand during the eventuality that this thing doesn't turn out a playoff appearance. We'll have tons of fodder after this string of games to sharpen our pitchforks with, and downplay their 'contender status'.

Or there will be hella reasons to be high-fiving, tailgaiting, and painting each other's bodys in BattleRed as I have 'Kubiak4Life' tattooed on my lower back.

PS. How's the internet down by the river, and has the river dried up yet?

You said it.

8-8 has a shot to win this division.

What kind of fan bails on the season after one game?
Are you actually a colts fan, or just a Peyton Manning fan?

Best case scenario, Collins gets acclimated and Indy beats Cleveland, Tampa, KC, Cincy, Tenn, Jax and Carolina.
That would be 7-4 with 5 games left.

You can call yourself a fan, but we all know there are varying levels of fandom.
Rooting for losses a week into the season puts you squarely in the crappy fan category.

There is a time when hoping your team gets a higher draft pick is justified, it just isn't in September.

All is not well in Colt Nation. Peyton goes down and the fanbase starts pointing fingers at eachother. lol.

Lighten up, Noodle. That team was built very much Peyton-centric, and with no Peyton, well, there isn't much of a team to root for (or against). They're just, kinda...there.

Did you miss where he asked what their ceiling was?

Did you miss the phrase "BEST CASE SCENARIO?"

Of course its going to be rosy.