The Colts

OK. After watching last night's Colts/Saints game there are some things I'd like to say.

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1) NBC played that damn Chevy commercial with John Mellencamp's song way too many times. I pretty much decided last night that I will never buy a Chevy Silverado just because I am sick of that commercial and song.

2) The Colts appear to be better than I thought they were going to be. Especially on defense. Either that, or the Saints really got worse. Maybe my prediction of the Colts only winning 9 games this year was a little premature. The Saints didn't test the middle of Indy's defense as much as I thought they would, though. It was only one game so I'm not going to pass any judgement yet. I guarantee the Titans will test Indy's defensive middle next week.

3) Freddy Kieaho looks like he may be the real deal. He played fast, hit hard, and seemed to be in the right place most of the time. I think he could easily have 160-175 tackles this year if he stays healthy and continues to play the way he did last night.

4) That Colt's secondary already looks better than they did last year. They gave up a lot of underneath stuff last night, but they knocked the crap out of just about every receiver that caught a ball. By the 4th quarter there weren't too many Saints receivers that seemed brave enough to go over the middle. I really like that.

5) Here's the big one. Tony Ugoh looks like he may turn out to be pretty good in the NFL. I'm not going to say he played great like Chris Collinsworth and Tiki Barber tried to tell us at halftime. No, Tony was far from great. The three plays that Collinsworth/Barber showed us at halftime were probably the best three plays that Ugoh had in the first half. Anybody who watches the Colts on a regular basis can tell you that the Colts played two tight ends last night, especially in the first half, so they could put Ben Utecht next to Ugoh to help him block Will Smith. When Utecht wasn't there to help Ugoh, Will Smith was able to get around Ugoh pretty easily and cause Manning to throw the ball before he was ready. That screwed up the Colts' timing and caused a lot of incomplete passes. That is why Manning's completion percentage wasn't that great, especially in the first half. That severely limited the Colts offensive play calling last night. Tony will get a lot of holding calls this year if he doesn't correct his mechanics.

Tony Ugoh was playing against an All-Pro caliber defensive end in Will Smith so I am going to cut him some slack. Tony actually did a really good job run blocking. He didn't do so good in pass protection, but his problems there appeared to be mostly mechanics. John Madden was correct when he said Tony's center of gravity was too high and he needed to lower his hips. Tony also needs to work a little more on his footwork so he can keep his shoulders square to the line of scrimmage a little longer on Manning's deep drops. Will Smith was exploding up field on pass plays and Ugoh's feet were too slow to keep up. So, Ugoh tried to compensate by turning his hips and shoulders too soon and trying to push Smith past Manning to the outside. Tony needs to be able to backpedal a little faster and keep his shoulders square to the line of scrimmage a little bit longer. If Tony keeps his shoulders square and his hips low it will take away the defensive end's spin move to the inside. If Tony learns to keep his shoulders square it will also basically force the pass rusher to try either the bull rush move or the shoulder under to beat Ugoh to the outside. Either way, Tony will have the advantage if he can keep his center of gravity lower than that of the pass rusher.

6) Hats off to Ben Utecht. That guy was a blocking machine last night.

7) I didn't see any drop-off in the Colts running back production. Addai and Keith did fine as far as I am concerned.

8) I feel your pain Saints fans. Jason David drove me absolutely crazy when he played for the Colts. That guy will make some big plays for you this year, but he will also get burned a lot. He is simply too aggressive on pump fakes and play action. He is a good cornerback when he has deep help, but he is vulnerable when the deep safety help isn't there.

9) Did anybody else notice how much holding the refs missed last night? Both teams were holding like crazy. Freeney was getting held on almost every play, as was Will Smith for the Saints. Of course, Will Smith also had a handful of Tony Ugoh's face mask on every play so I guess it balanced out.
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All in all, I think the Colts looked pretty good. Once Tony Ugoh gets better at pass protection I think we will see the Colts go more with a single tight end look which will allow Manning to spread out the defenses a little more with three wide receiver sets. We didn't see that much last night. You'll know when Tony Ugoh starts getting better because you will start noticing Anthony Gonzalez getting on the field more in a three wide receiver look.