Posted on 09/26/2005 12:38:04 PM PDT by mainepatsfan
Just heard on WEEI that Pats safety Rodney Harrison has torn his ACL and will miss the remainder this season.
Then again, the entire NFC is not that good. This year is shaping up to be the Colts to lose. The Pats, Steelers, and Bengals being the next tier.
Patriots have a deep bench and a management system that put them at the top. Loss of a key player is important, but their system should be able to compensate.
The Colts and Bengals need to beat the Pats and Steelers before they can be considered equals.
I think the NFC East and South have a lot more talent than the rest of that conference.
They've been able to manage so far.
Yeah, they get by. LOL
I'm not ready to annoit the Colts yet. Sure their defense is improved, but they haven't faced a real offense yet. If they hold down a team with a proven track record of scoring more than 20 points I'll be impressed, as it is they're not allowing underpowered offenses to overplay their skill, which is a dramatic improvement over the last 6 years, but full judgement can't be passed until then face St Louis (a game they should still win but it'll test their defense).
This isn't last year or the year before or the year before. The Colts defense is vastly improved and the Pats are hurting. The road to the Super Bowl is going through Indy, whether it will be Cincinatti, Pittsburg, or New England trying to knock them off is the question.
Marc Bulger already has 15 sacks and i think the Colts are leading the league in sacks...
I don't care who they played. You hold three teams to a total of 16 points, you have a great defense. And really, Cleveland, Jacksonville, and Baltimore ain't that bad. No, they have not played one of the elite teams, but 16 points in 3 games?
Against the Ravens, Jags and Browns.
The Rams give up a lot of sacks because Martz is pass whacky, QBs that drop back 80% of the time will get sacked a lot. But they're still going to be a much harder offense to stop than anything the Colts have faced thus far.
Really? Manning only got sacked 13 times last year.
You should care who they play, because that's the determiner of if holding them to 16 points means you have a great defense. Really the Browns are indeed that bad, the Baltimore offense has always been that bad (remember the year they won the SB they had 5 games in a row without an offensive TD) and the Jags are good at eating clock but not good at putting points on the board.
They haven't faced any elite teams, that's the simple reality of it. I don't jump on any bandwagon until a team is proven against the elite. The good news for the Colts is that as far as elite offenses is concerned they only face two all season (Rams and Chargers) and two more against solid clutch offenses that aren't barn burners (Pats, Steelers). So it's a good season for their defense to shine. And I give them credit for so far not being the "take your average offensive output and add 2 TDs" Colts D of recent years. But until you stop an elite offense you haven't proven you have a great defense, period. They MIGHT have a great defense, but that won't be known until Oct 17. As of right now they have a much improved defense vying for greatness.
That'll never happen.
yeah...
I think that is more crucial than Harrison myself.
That was Brady's blind side that kept getting hit last night....
Freeney is going to have a field day with the Rams....
The Colts had a solid running game and ran the ball about 1/3 of the time last year. Not what I would call a well balanced offense, but also not completely pass whacky like Martz's Rams. Martz goes into every game, and his team gave up 50 sacks last year, hey they're in the NFC West they aren't a good team, but they can still put up points.
Which is why Indy will probably win unless the Ram defense has a good day.
In the playoff game against the Pats last year it seemed like Indy abandoned the run way too early and it cost them.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.