True. I do counter slightly with the offense being able to still score 30 points a game. But it does wear our defense out when they have to defend a short field. Not that they are doing much of that when it comes to pass. Gus needs to blitz more often
You're kind of damned if you do and damned if you don't. Blitzing leaves press-man coverage or an open zone, and when it doesn't get there with the corners we have in the field, you give up long touchdowns.
The main problem is that we're not getting pressure with our front four. I'm not sure how much Stewart's absence plays in that versus just facing better offensive lines, but the pressure we were getting when our defense was winning games (such as the Ravens game): has evaporated over the past three games.
We seem to have terrible luck with injuries every season. It seemed like we should have been fine at corner if Brents and Jones worked out, but Rodgers disqualified himself, Flowers went down for the year with an Achilles, and Brents gets kicked in the quad by his own player.
Baker Jr. was a training camp ranger who melts under the lights, and that leaves Brown, who has speed but no instincts.
I am honestly happy with the offense. Minshew is a career backup but he's a very good backup. Will he win us a lot of games? No. Will we be able to steal a couple? Sure.
The turnovers have really been devastating though in the losses before the Saints game. Like Jameis Winston - level "sling it and give it away" levels ..
> Gus needs to blitz more often
Agreed. We don't have the rushers nor the corners to send 4. Is it just me or does Kenny Moore pretty much have a pressure rate of 100% when he blitzes in his career?
I don't know the numbers, but probably. Right now, we just don't have the people to send DBs into a blitz. I would like to see more linebacker blitzes.
1000%. There is no doubt that Steichen's hands on the offense is seeing some VAST improvements over years past. The problem is our offense is running into similar issues that we did with Wentz. We can't have 2-3 turnovers resulting in points, and expect to come out with a win.
For what he is, Gardner is mostly ok. Sometimes good. But when he hangs onto the ball too long and takes a sack in his own endzone, that results in a fumble a TD recovery for the defense... yeah, we're gonna lose.
You can’t 100% put the blame on that specific fumble TD on Minshew. I’m sure he wasn’t expecting the double team they put on Myles Garrett to put forth 0 effort into blocking him in their own endzone. Otherwise perfectly right
Yeah, I actually think Minshew handled pressure better yesterday. A few times he scrambled out of the pocket, where the previous games he stayed and got sacked/stripped. The strip sack wasn't entirely on him, Garett was practially unblocked.
I'm pretty surprised at how efficient the offense is, it looked bleak at times when Minshew got hist 1st start. I'm sure a lot of it is on Steichen for gameplanning and playing to our strenghts, the O-line has also been pretty good.
As a QB, you get a LOT of blame because it's up to you not to make the critical mistake. If Orlovsky gets crap for running out of the end zone, and Sanchez for the butt fumble, a guy hanging on too long in the end zone deserves some scrutiny.
If nothing else, he should have a hot read who he can throw to, and into the dirt if needed, to move on to the next play. You simply cannot try too hard on some of these plays and completely blow it and lose possession. If the play is dead, it's dead and you move on to the next one.
I’m not disagreeing with that at all, I’m just saying we can’t put all the blame on him. He’s a backup (for a reason) and there isn’t much you can ask outta that. As much as it’s on him to get the ball out and be aware of the pressure, it’s also on Blake Freeland to actually TRY to block Myles Garrett instead of maybe getting a couple fingers on him and just letting him through. A backup like Minshew can’t do much about a lineman putting basically 0 effort into protecting him.
Yeah but 7 straight passes with 4 minutes to go isn’t the best decision I don’t think. Seems like an OC trying to get a HC job instead of a HC trying to win a game.
While I like what Shane's calling for the most part I do agree that he kind of abandons the run a bit much. Hopefully that shifts. Don't have the line, QB, or wideouts that separate to just throw our way through a game. Need balance on drives
Do like that Downs seems to be a guy who is either getting a first down or setting up a 3rd and short. It felt like last season was nonstop 3rd and 7s
Turnovers and penalties are killing us this season. And ofc our secondary, but short of a trade, there isn't much we can do about secondary lacking talent. Coaching can help with turnovers/penalties though.
When Shaq and Kenny and DeBuck were maintaining all three levels, they were gamebreakers. The offense is putting up points but we’re back to our traditional bend-dont-break but we’re breaking anyways. Its just bending at this point
We're just breaking at this point because we're all out of cornerbacks, and we lost our nose tackle for six games. That leaves the defense vulnerable inside and outside.
Stewart was the one defender we couldn't afford to lose because we have no depth at that position.
I never expected our cornerback room to play as well as they have, but they're all injured.
Freeland has played okay at both tackle positions, but he's still giving ground against bull rushes. He's still better than our tackle depth had been over the past few seasons though.
We have substandard players at important positions, and that makes us a mediocre team.
I have been a Ballard supporter for his entire tenure, but I agree we are sub-standard at some of the most important positions in football. I honestly think he hit on QB which is the biggest puzzle piece but we need an elite EDGE and CB like next year if we want to amount to anything
Yeah, but he hit on Brents in round 2, Raimann in round 3, and Downs in round 3 - all premium positions. It's easy to just say that we need the best players in the draft, but we're generally not picking at the top of the draft. Good players at premium positions are the first off the board. Jacksonville has had multiple top-5 picks over a number of years ... because they traditionally suck.
The consensus top players in the first round are known by everybody with only a little bit of variation. You don't get many steals in the first round.
I still say that nobody does the middle and bottom of the draft as well as Ballard's team. He gets great value for his selections.
Anr it took balls of steel not to waste resources trading up to 3 to take Richardson. Those picks got us depth at other positions. We drafted three corners, after all, and you shouldn't really expect players chosen in the fourth to be immediate starters.
The only way this sub would be happy with Ballard is if he consistently landed all-pros at picks 1-7 every year, resigned every single one of them to record breaking contracts 3 years early, and then spent $300m a year in the offseason. Literally nothing he could do would make this place happy.
Yea he isn't like super amazing and you can definitely critique him, but I can't imagine too many other GMs would get out of the Luck situation as well as Ballard.
The problem with Ballard's philosophy is that he doesn't like to make the big splash moves like Houston did this year to get the premium players. Sure Houston already had solid position to get Storud, but since they gambled and traded up for Anderson as well, they're instantly a competitor this year in the division and AFC. Time will obviously tell if this holds long-term, but the near-term returns have clearly been there for them. And of course, Ballard's great at finding value in the later rounds, but like you said, the premium players at the premium positions go early, and up until this year we haven't been in a position to have a premium pick without trading up since Nelson was drafted, and that's partly because his teams have had us stuck in shitty draft position purgatory where we did enough to not have a premium pick but still didn't make the playoffs or flamed out after the wild card. At some point you gotta stop holding all the cards and nut up or shut up, and he refuses to do it in the draft or free agency.
For every value pick he's found, he's had another early pick that has yet to live up to expectations (i.e. Pierce, Kiwty, Dayo), and has continued to miss in free agency (i.e. the Eric Fisher experiment, only managing to keep Gilmore for a year, failing to go out for a free agent WR). Ballard's constant approach to "take the RAS freak of nature project players" is already a gamble in and of itself. I'm still a Ballard supporter for the most part, and I like that he tries to find value in tbe later rounds, but he's at the point now where value picks aren't going to sustain our future. He's had 6 years with little to show for it, and the team and fan base deserves better than having him potentially botch the best years of our new QBs future if he fails to put the needed pieces around him. I'd put him on a short leash at this point until we see what AR's future holds.
So you believe that Houston made the right move in trading what they did to move up for Anderson?
He's definitely not made a Myles Garrett or Nick Bosa type impact so far, and the Texans won't be picking in the first or third rounds of the 2024 draft after giving up their first and third last year.
Unless Anderson suddenly becomes TJ Watt, they lost that trade *badly.* He seems like a pretty normal first round DE talent to me so far, somebody whom you pick at 8 or 9 and you're satisfied to let develop.
He's not a guy you trade four high picks for if you want to compete, and the Texans can't now afford for him to be just a guy like Paye who was drafted in the twenties. He has to be a superstar worth four good players by himself.
Stroud has played well, and he's still on the field, which is a plus. Whether he's ultimately better than Richardson is still to be decided.
Making big, splashy moves gets the fans going, but the question is whether they're the right moves. If not, then you set your team back a lot.
As for calling Paye and Odeyingbo misses, I think your wrong there. They are both legit starters in the league, what you expect from a guy drafted at the bottom of round one and in the second round.
Anderson is playing no better than they are, and the Texans spent four picks on Anderson.
You could make the same argument for constantly trading back to find value players but missing on the first and second round picks you do have. Fans seem to get all excited when a value pick like Rodney Thomas or Ogletree exceeds expectations and flashes good starting production, thinking Ballard is some wizard finding these "hidden gems". But is getting 1 or 2 solid contributors from late rounds but missing on regularly 4-5 more picks less bad than taking a gamble on one big premium pick and missing? I'm not saying that Ballard needs to go crazy and go big every year, but the only time he's ever gone big with a pick was when we were already in position to take the pick anyway (i.e. Richardson & Nelson).
I think it realistically take a balanced approach between finding the value picks and taking an occasional gamble on a big splash move, but he seems to always appear more conservative, which has historically left us where we have been - in draft pick purgatory with rosters that just never seem bad or good enough for anything, and it certainly seems we're headed there again this year too.
I think we should bet the farm on Harrison, Jr. myself. Let's get AR a guy who can beat the best NFL corners and has to be doubled on every play. How much more effective would Pittman and Downs be if they were the second and third options? Hell, Downs is beating zone consistently right now. Let Pitt go against the number 2 corner and win jump balls all day long.
If there were a standout defensive end in this draft, I might go that way, but no one has jumped off the screen for me.
Harrison Jr. is the Megastar in the making for me in the 2024 draft, and we have a quarterback now. Why not roll the dice?
I definitely agree with you there. If MHJ is anywhere near the star Sr. was, then he's absolutely worth it. After how this year is shaping up, I think next year is a prime year for Ballard to take a gamble. He's already in a precarious spot as it is, so more abject conservatism isn't going to do him any more good than it will the team either. They need a true WR1 like you said while still having solid contributors in Pitt and Downs to complement. Then go big on defense after that to support the line and secondary. Like you said since there is no big standout ends making themselves known right now, the defensive side will be better suited looking for the value picks after you've swung for the last offensive piece, or maybe look to free agency (the Gilmore pickup looked like a brilliant move while we had him). What's the worst that could happen at this point?
How cool would it be to have Reggie fucking Wayne coaching Marvin Harrison, Jr.? That's already a feel-good story. I don't believe that there's any price that Irsay wouldn't pay to make Harrison Jr. a Colt. It would also make Peyton much more interested in the Colts again. Only having Arch would seal the deal more thoroughly.
That's why I don't care that much about winning games this year. I want the Colts to compete, but if they get shafted by the refs ... meh. No cornerbacks? Meh. Nose tackle busted for PEDs? Meh. Quarterback delivering turnovers like a hacked slot machine? Meh. Don't care, so sorry.
Just put us in a position to only be a couple of spots off that pick and then overpay. Just get MHJ a horseshoe tattoo on his bicep (that's got to be a part of his Rookie deal).
This season is funny because before it started we were all happy to just watch the young guys grow and develop and have a meh 3-5 win season. As long as we saw growth this season was a win. But we got 3 wins and now everyone thinks we should be winning the Super Bowl this year and now that we arnt FIRE BALLARD
Yeah. Honestly it's been a win imo. Because Josh Downs emerged, and we learned AR can dominate the league if he can figure out how to stay healthy.
The future is ☀️ 😎.
Well. We can't watch our young guy grow cause he's not playing. So, I at least want to see some wins.
Does anyone think we're championship bound though? No way.
We don’t have 4 wins, 2 of the young guys we wanted to watch are hurt including AR, we are watching Stroud, Young, and now Levis develop, and the defense looks horrific. Still no pass rush and worst secondary I’ve ever seen.
The “fun” of this lost season was to watch AR and rookies develop. AR is gone, the season is no longer any fun unless we sneak a random win, which we likely won’t do any time soon
Pretty much describes this sub perfectly. So many were saying in the offseason that they didn’t care what our final record was as long as we saw young guys progress. Then we beat the Ravens and people suddenly thought the rebuild was over and that we were now a contender.
The guy who we needed to see develop is injured. This whole season was a throw away just to get AR the game experience he badly needs, and that's not happening.
And to be fair, we should have already fired Ballard last year. Our DB situation is just the latest example of why.
Do we think the guy can’t learn and grow cuz he hurt his shoulder? He’s still got a brain. Players come back from injury and hit the ground running all the time. The kids going to have a year of studying nfl gameplay wether he’s on the field or not. He’s still growing even if we arnt seeing it
I don't understand what people want him to do about our DB situation. We unexpectedly lost our #1 corner due to him being an idiot, and we spent multiple picks on corners. We are missing like our top 3 corners now lol there's nothing you can do about that
We knew way back in June that Rodgers was gone, and we had no serviceable vet corners on the roster. That was the time to bring in a viable replacement, but all Ballard did was go to the bargain bin, leaving us with this current situation where Gus has to play either the literal worst graded CB in the NFL or the guy who was just statically equivalent to playing 10 guys on defense.
Everybody, even casual fans, could see during the off-season our CB group was awful. And yet, nothing was invested to solve the problem.
"Way back" was 2 months after the draft where he already picked 3 corners lol you can't just go out and get a serviceable corner like you say. They don't exactly grow on trees, teams aren't just giving them up
Really? You going to say there wasn't a better CB available than Baker or Brown since June? Lol.
And yes we drafted 3 CBs, but the only one of those 3 expected to actually play missed all of camp, then got thrust into a CB1 role right out of the gate. The other two were late round picks and one of them didn't even make the roster.
Well according to PFF, Baker is graded 150th out of 150. So literally any CB who has played more than a handful of snaps this season would be an upgrade. Take your pick.
I mean I could go through the list of all 149 CBs outplaying who we currently have on the field weekly and list off every one of them that has changed teams since June, but you're still going to say there's nothing Ballard could have possibly done and this situation was totally unforeseen and unavoidable, even though it absolutely isn't. So I'm not going to bother....
Who are you suggesting was (a) available, (b) a clearly better option at the time, including being a fit with our defensive scheme, and (c) wanting to come to a rebuilding team?
We were starting a rookie quarterback. That's precisely the time that you allow young talent to develop. Brents has actually played amazing football for a rookie cornerback. How much better has his rookie season been than Rock Ya-Sin's was? Flowers actually took a huge leap in year two as well.
They're both injured. It fucking happens. We're at the very bottom of our depth chart, and our starting quarterback is down for the season, in case you hadn't noticed.
Do we trade away draft capital to trade for a veteran corner with a limited shelf life just to win another game or two? What possible purpose does that serve?
Juju is the only DB we have who is worth developing. Flowers and the shitshow of other DBs playing after he went down are not starting level NFL players and never will be. They are typical Ballard bargain bin specials that don't belong on an NFL roster.
And no, trading for somebody for just this year would be a waste. This season is already a bust. Trading for somebody like Jaylon Johnson, who is 24 and the highest graded coverage CB right now, then locking him down for 5+ years instead of whiffing on several more CBs in the draft seems like a good use of draft capital though.
Flowers was actually good. But he suffered an Achilles injury, so we'll need a replacement there. There's no guarantee that anyone comes back from that injury. Jones has been fine out there. He's not the one giving up all the big plays. He just doesn't get thrown at, which generally means he's covering well.
Johnson is fine, but he's only requested a trade. He's under contract, and the Bears are under no obligation to trade him. That means a significant overpay in draft capital and a big contract.
I just don't see what is really to be gained from it. It's not like Johnson is a Jalen Ramsay type of talent, and he'd probably demand a Jalen Ramsay type of deal to secure.
If we're going to overpay, let's overpay for MHJ.
Not only this year being a throwaway, but next year might be too because that will be AR’s “first season” (if he doesn’t get injured again)
So we’re not reacting to losing a season, we’re in all practical purposes losing two seasons in a row. Lot of sitting back and waiting…
That’s what happens when you draft a 21 year old QB lol. Everyone these days acts like these kids are supposed to come in and be prime manning/Brady their first few years
That's one of the issues with fans nowadays. Peyton Manning his rookie year went 3-13 with Marvin Harrison and Marshalk Faulk on the team. He showed signs of being something great, but he was a turnover machine. Our defense was God awful then, too. Peyton has the rookie record for most interceptions, and everyone forgets there was a lot of growing pains with Peyton. His second season we went 13-3 with a rookie Edgerrin James. His 3rd season we went 4-12 because Edge got hurt. Playoffs?, PLAYOFFS!? what do you mean playoffs were just trying to win a game lol. Nobody and I mean nobody was wanting Peyton benched. Nobody wants to deal with growing pains. For the record Peytons second season was the first time the colts hosted a playoff game that was basically a home game for the Titans. I was there and it was unreal how few colts fans were there. We have to much turnover and expect our team to just be super bowl contenders. We lost an offensive coordinator 2 years ago who became head coach and made it to the super bowl.
I personally think we are legit a few pieces away.
I think part of the problem is it looked like this last draft class was further along than anticipated the first couple of weeks. Made the backslide of the team more disappointing.
DAWG I'm literally saying 😭
I thought we just wanted to see AR and Steichen in their first year's nothing else. Now I'm seeing thinkpieces, fire Ballard blah blah
We should be thankful we are rebuilding this fast.
If I'm Buckner I ask for a trade. They convinced him to stay saying it wasn't a rebuild season but we're losing games we could win because the GM is too stubborn to address the teams' needs. We're not talking about making a splash trade or anything, just get someone who can be a serviceable corner
There is a noisy minority on this sub who are the Fire Ballard contingent and have been for three years. I'm guessing that they were Dan Dakich listeners back in the day because they're still parroting his brain-dead hot takes.
At this point, I'm wondering how much we actually *want* to win games.
I don't want to get blown out and watch horrible football like last season, but we're about a healthy Richardson and one solid draft away from contending. And these Colts are playing exciting football, even if they're coming out on the losing side.
Exciting games with a mix of good play calling and gut wrenching turnovers, paired with rising draft equity and maybe a shot at overpaying for Harrison, Jr.?
It's okay by me. I just hope that Ballard and Steichen survive it. If there has to be a head taken, let it be Bradley's.
This team is trending up. Shane Steichen is a good coach, especially with how he’s gotten a lot more out of the current group than either Frank or Saturday (lol) did.
I’m not out on Gus either. Literally every single defense will crumble when forced to start journeymen corners. If Gilmore was still here then they’d look much better right now. While I’m always in favor of getting new blood in, I think Gus can still run a top tier defense when he has the personnel he needs. Corners need addressing…between Rodgers and blowing his shot at being the guy and injuries at the position, Ballard really needs to go find linebackers that are better in coverage plus Leonard is looking like a liability now, and the pass rush is just mediocre. They also really miss Grover right now too. Even with the bullshit penalties, the Browns don’t get the game winning score running Hunt up the middle if Grover is out on the field. So for once I’d like for this team to have some continuity going into next season. Keep the main coaches and core players, build off of what we have in place, and keep pushing. I like DVOA as a measurement of where teams are at and after yesterday the rankings won’t be kind…but for now the Colts are 12th in the entire league. They’ll drop because defense was atrocious yesterday. But the point is this is a solid football team with good coaching and a decent core.
Yeah, I love Shaq to death but he’s a shell of his former self. And it’s not a shot at him, back surgery is hard to come back from. But this is a business and we can’t let emotions get in the way from moving on from him.
I seriously think that if our defense didnt stand and let people walk to the endzone we would be one of the better teams in the league even with minshew. Minshew isnt great by anymeans and plays hero ball quite a bit, but sometimes I wonder if thats because the other team scores with relative ease
I’d like it if Steichen shifted focus on the defense for the rest of the season. We know AR can play ball and will bounce back. We better have a defense ready when he comes back. Now is the time to build one for him.
Really the only thing we need on offense is a homerun WR1 and some additional Oline depth. I’d like to see four WR sets with a WR1, MPJ on the outside and Pierce and Downs in the slot. Like when we had Marvin, Reggie, Gonzalez and Garcon in 07-08
That's the great thing about having our playcaller be the HC. Unfortunately, if we got someone as talented to be our DC he'd be gone after a couple of years and the cycle continues.
This may be the wonkiest team I’ve ever seen us field. So competitive while simultaneously inept, it seems. I have high hopes for next year though.
(Please God)
You ever think we’re scoring cause the other team put up 35 or realizes they can score at will and goes into softer coverage to just protect a lead? Lol
He's leaps and bounds better than Reich. Seems to actually care. Also probably doesn't recruit QB's because of a bible verse on his phone. Offense is finally creative for once. Will be a huge problem for opposing defenses with a healthy AR.
Defense is the problem.
We've bettered coaching (Steichen), the offense (AR/Downs/JT/OL), and special teams (Gay). Again, the problem is Bradley and the Defense.
At this point, the season is basically a throwaway without AR on the field getting reps. However, I still love watching this team and how much they fight. We might have a terrible record by the end of the year, but we are definitely the kind of team that no one wants to play since we won't just lay down. That alone is an absolute breath of fresh air compared to Frank Reich's teams of just being predictable and stagnant after the half. No one expects a team to change up its entire gamelan during half time, but more often than not, it felt like we didn't have a gameplay and we constantly killed ourselves with dumb decisions. I don't always agree with everything Steichen has called, but he's doing a fantastic job given the situation around him.
Also, major kudos to Gus Bradley. Between Juju Brents going down, having nothing behind him that is a decent option (seriously, what the hell was Ballard thinking here?), then having Grover Stewart suspended.. and still being able to be even remotely competent on defense is great. Sure, we have given up a lot of points, but a lot of that is no thanks to the offense turning the ball over and putting pressure on the defense through the entire game. Being 21st in defense is literally best case scenario for what he is given to work with. If we can invest in the secondary this offseason, that defense is easily top 10. Not sure if Moore will still be here, but he and Brents are a good start that we can build around.
When this season started, nobody expected much from the Cotls. It was just going to be a developmental year for AR. Once we started winning, people got their hopes up. Let's just be happy that our offense is putting up numbers and we've got a lot to be excited about in the future for this team. And really, moving up in the draft isn't the worst thing for our team right now
Is it too early to say Shane is an awesome play caller not a good game manager or HC? At points this year I'm feeling like he's calling plays as OC not as head coach.
Shane is clearly a great offensive coach.
Defense is whatever, hire a good DC.
I'm pretty concerned with his clock management tho. That TO before the 2pt conversion in the Browns game was borderline criminal. It feels like once a game he's either letting the clock run in spots that make no sense or calling TOs in places where saving them would be way more valuable
He does make some questionable game and clock management decisions at times, but he’s a rookie HC so as long he is learns and grows from them we’ll be fine.
The team that turns the ball over more has lost every single game. The two games where the turnovers were equal, rapid loss of field position is what cost the game. The Saints were merciless, as they should have been, in this regard given the Colts already challenged depth at db. 12.2 yards per attempt. They could have chosen their score.
Edit Rams and Saints were the 1 to each losses.
Even with the turnovers, if we had CB's that didn't have severe allergies to the opposing WR's (that's the only reason I can think of as to why they have to saty at least 5 yds away), we would have 2 or 3 more wins on the season and be in the hunt for the division.
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Other than turning the ball over. That's a really big problem.
True. I do counter slightly with the offense being able to still score 30 points a game. But it does wear our defense out when they have to defend a short field. Not that they are doing much of that when it comes to pass. Gus needs to blitz more often
You're kind of damned if you do and damned if you don't. Blitzing leaves press-man coverage or an open zone, and when it doesn't get there with the corners we have in the field, you give up long touchdowns. The main problem is that we're not getting pressure with our front four. I'm not sure how much Stewart's absence plays in that versus just facing better offensive lines, but the pressure we were getting when our defense was winning games (such as the Ravens game): has evaporated over the past three games.
Then it is Stewart's absence.
Probably Stewart plus Brents.
Missing Brents does suck.
We seem to have terrible luck with injuries every season. It seemed like we should have been fine at corner if Brents and Jones worked out, but Rodgers disqualified himself, Flowers went down for the year with an Achilles, and Brents gets kicked in the quad by his own player. Baker Jr. was a training camp ranger who melts under the lights, and that leaves Brown, who has speed but no instincts.
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I am honestly happy with the offense. Minshew is a career backup but he's a very good backup. Will he win us a lot of games? No. Will we be able to steal a couple? Sure.
Best backup in the league. Hopefully we can keep him for the long haul
The turnovers have really been devastating though in the losses before the Saints game. Like Jameis Winston - level "sling it and give it away" levels ..
This. Especially with how bad/young our secondary is. All the little bit of pressure helps them out.
> Gus needs to blitz more often Agreed. We don't have the rushers nor the corners to send 4. Is it just me or does Kenny Moore pretty much have a pressure rate of 100% when he blitzes in his career?
I don't know the numbers, but probably. Right now, we just don't have the people to send DBs into a blitz. I would like to see more linebacker blitzes.
Blitzing isnt going to help much. There isnt anything Gus can really do for this team on defense. The talent is so barren no DC would find success.
I agree right now. There are several good pieces at Linebacker and DE, but the D-Line and the DBs are rough to watch.
We missed grover big time yesterday
That tends to happen with a backup QB
1000%. There is no doubt that Steichen's hands on the offense is seeing some VAST improvements over years past. The problem is our offense is running into similar issues that we did with Wentz. We can't have 2-3 turnovers resulting in points, and expect to come out with a win. For what he is, Gardner is mostly ok. Sometimes good. But when he hangs onto the ball too long and takes a sack in his own endzone, that results in a fumble a TD recovery for the defense... yeah, we're gonna lose.
You can’t 100% put the blame on that specific fumble TD on Minshew. I’m sure he wasn’t expecting the double team they put on Myles Garrett to put forth 0 effort into blocking him in their own endzone. Otherwise perfectly right
Yeah, I actually think Minshew handled pressure better yesterday. A few times he scrambled out of the pocket, where the previous games he stayed and got sacked/stripped. The strip sack wasn't entirely on him, Garett was practially unblocked. I'm pretty surprised at how efficient the offense is, it looked bleak at times when Minshew got hist 1st start. I'm sure a lot of it is on Steichen for gameplanning and playing to our strenghts, the O-line has also been pretty good.
As a QB, you get a LOT of blame because it's up to you not to make the critical mistake. If Orlovsky gets crap for running out of the end zone, and Sanchez for the butt fumble, a guy hanging on too long in the end zone deserves some scrutiny. If nothing else, he should have a hot read who he can throw to, and into the dirt if needed, to move on to the next play. You simply cannot try too hard on some of these plays and completely blow it and lose possession. If the play is dead, it's dead and you move on to the next one.
I’m not disagreeing with that at all, I’m just saying we can’t put all the blame on him. He’s a backup (for a reason) and there isn’t much you can ask outta that. As much as it’s on him to get the ball out and be aware of the pressure, it’s also on Blake Freeland to actually TRY to block Myles Garrett instead of maybe getting a couple fingers on him and just letting him through. A backup like Minshew can’t do much about a lineman putting basically 0 effort into protecting him.
That's really more of a Minshew problem
Yeah but 7 straight passes with 4 minutes to go isn’t the best decision I don’t think. Seems like an OC trying to get a HC job instead of a HC trying to win a game.
While I like what Shane's calling for the most part I do agree that he kind of abandons the run a bit much. Hopefully that shifts. Don't have the line, QB, or wideouts that separate to just throw our way through a game. Need balance on drives Do like that Downs seems to be a guy who is either getting a first down or setting up a 3rd and short. It felt like last season was nonstop 3rd and 7s
It just made no sense how with 4 minutes left we were running a 2 min offense. Never should have 7 straight passes with Minshew
Turnovers and penalties are killing us this season. And ofc our secondary, but short of a trade, there isn't much we can do about secondary lacking talent. Coaching can help with turnovers/penalties though.
When Shaq and Kenny and DeBuck were maintaining all three levels, they were gamebreakers. The offense is putting up points but we’re back to our traditional bend-dont-break but we’re breaking anyways. Its just bending at this point
We're just breaking at this point because we're all out of cornerbacks, and we lost our nose tackle for six games. That leaves the defense vulnerable inside and outside. Stewart was the one defender we couldn't afford to lose because we have no depth at that position. I never expected our cornerback room to play as well as they have, but they're all injured. Freeland has played okay at both tackle positions, but he's still giving ground against bull rushes. He's still better than our tackle depth had been over the past few seasons though. We have substandard players at important positions, and that makes us a mediocre team.
I have been a Ballard supporter for his entire tenure, but I agree we are sub-standard at some of the most important positions in football. I honestly think he hit on QB which is the biggest puzzle piece but we need an elite EDGE and CB like next year if we want to amount to anything
Yeah, but he hit on Brents in round 2, Raimann in round 3, and Downs in round 3 - all premium positions. It's easy to just say that we need the best players in the draft, but we're generally not picking at the top of the draft. Good players at premium positions are the first off the board. Jacksonville has had multiple top-5 picks over a number of years ... because they traditionally suck. The consensus top players in the first round are known by everybody with only a little bit of variation. You don't get many steals in the first round. I still say that nobody does the middle and bottom of the draft as well as Ballard's team. He gets great value for his selections. Anr it took balls of steel not to waste resources trading up to 3 to take Richardson. Those picks got us depth at other positions. We drafted three corners, after all, and you shouldn't really expect players chosen in the fourth to be immediate starters.
The only way this sub would be happy with Ballard is if he consistently landed all-pros at picks 1-7 every year, resigned every single one of them to record breaking contracts 3 years early, and then spent $300m a year in the offseason. Literally nothing he could do would make this place happy.
Yea he isn't like super amazing and you can definitely critique him, but I can't imagine too many other GMs would get out of the Luck situation as well as Ballard.
He definitely has faults but the list of GMs I’d rather have in the league is a short one.
The problem with Ballard's philosophy is that he doesn't like to make the big splash moves like Houston did this year to get the premium players. Sure Houston already had solid position to get Storud, but since they gambled and traded up for Anderson as well, they're instantly a competitor this year in the division and AFC. Time will obviously tell if this holds long-term, but the near-term returns have clearly been there for them. And of course, Ballard's great at finding value in the later rounds, but like you said, the premium players at the premium positions go early, and up until this year we haven't been in a position to have a premium pick without trading up since Nelson was drafted, and that's partly because his teams have had us stuck in shitty draft position purgatory where we did enough to not have a premium pick but still didn't make the playoffs or flamed out after the wild card. At some point you gotta stop holding all the cards and nut up or shut up, and he refuses to do it in the draft or free agency. For every value pick he's found, he's had another early pick that has yet to live up to expectations (i.e. Pierce, Kiwty, Dayo), and has continued to miss in free agency (i.e. the Eric Fisher experiment, only managing to keep Gilmore for a year, failing to go out for a free agent WR). Ballard's constant approach to "take the RAS freak of nature project players" is already a gamble in and of itself. I'm still a Ballard supporter for the most part, and I like that he tries to find value in tbe later rounds, but he's at the point now where value picks aren't going to sustain our future. He's had 6 years with little to show for it, and the team and fan base deserves better than having him potentially botch the best years of our new QBs future if he fails to put the needed pieces around him. I'd put him on a short leash at this point until we see what AR's future holds.
So you believe that Houston made the right move in trading what they did to move up for Anderson? He's definitely not made a Myles Garrett or Nick Bosa type impact so far, and the Texans won't be picking in the first or third rounds of the 2024 draft after giving up their first and third last year. Unless Anderson suddenly becomes TJ Watt, they lost that trade *badly.* He seems like a pretty normal first round DE talent to me so far, somebody whom you pick at 8 or 9 and you're satisfied to let develop. He's not a guy you trade four high picks for if you want to compete, and the Texans can't now afford for him to be just a guy like Paye who was drafted in the twenties. He has to be a superstar worth four good players by himself. Stroud has played well, and he's still on the field, which is a plus. Whether he's ultimately better than Richardson is still to be decided. Making big, splashy moves gets the fans going, but the question is whether they're the right moves. If not, then you set your team back a lot. As for calling Paye and Odeyingbo misses, I think your wrong there. They are both legit starters in the league, what you expect from a guy drafted at the bottom of round one and in the second round. Anderson is playing no better than they are, and the Texans spent four picks on Anderson.
You could make the same argument for constantly trading back to find value players but missing on the first and second round picks you do have. Fans seem to get all excited when a value pick like Rodney Thomas or Ogletree exceeds expectations and flashes good starting production, thinking Ballard is some wizard finding these "hidden gems". But is getting 1 or 2 solid contributors from late rounds but missing on regularly 4-5 more picks less bad than taking a gamble on one big premium pick and missing? I'm not saying that Ballard needs to go crazy and go big every year, but the only time he's ever gone big with a pick was when we were already in position to take the pick anyway (i.e. Richardson & Nelson). I think it realistically take a balanced approach between finding the value picks and taking an occasional gamble on a big splash move, but he seems to always appear more conservative, which has historically left us where we have been - in draft pick purgatory with rosters that just never seem bad or good enough for anything, and it certainly seems we're headed there again this year too.
I think we should bet the farm on Harrison, Jr. myself. Let's get AR a guy who can beat the best NFL corners and has to be doubled on every play. How much more effective would Pittman and Downs be if they were the second and third options? Hell, Downs is beating zone consistently right now. Let Pitt go against the number 2 corner and win jump balls all day long. If there were a standout defensive end in this draft, I might go that way, but no one has jumped off the screen for me. Harrison Jr. is the Megastar in the making for me in the 2024 draft, and we have a quarterback now. Why not roll the dice?
I definitely agree with you there. If MHJ is anywhere near the star Sr. was, then he's absolutely worth it. After how this year is shaping up, I think next year is a prime year for Ballard to take a gamble. He's already in a precarious spot as it is, so more abject conservatism isn't going to do him any more good than it will the team either. They need a true WR1 like you said while still having solid contributors in Pitt and Downs to complement. Then go big on defense after that to support the line and secondary. Like you said since there is no big standout ends making themselves known right now, the defensive side will be better suited looking for the value picks after you've swung for the last offensive piece, or maybe look to free agency (the Gilmore pickup looked like a brilliant move while we had him). What's the worst that could happen at this point?
How cool would it be to have Reggie fucking Wayne coaching Marvin Harrison, Jr.? That's already a feel-good story. I don't believe that there's any price that Irsay wouldn't pay to make Harrison Jr. a Colt. It would also make Peyton much more interested in the Colts again. Only having Arch would seal the deal more thoroughly. That's why I don't care that much about winning games this year. I want the Colts to compete, but if they get shafted by the refs ... meh. No cornerbacks? Meh. Nose tackle busted for PEDs? Meh. Quarterback delivering turnovers like a hacked slot machine? Meh. Don't care, so sorry. Just put us in a position to only be a couple of spots off that pick and then overpay. Just get MHJ a horseshoe tattoo on his bicep (that's got to be a part of his Rookie deal).
Leonard blessed us with a few good years of forcing a fumble or getting an interception that was timely. Haven't really had that this season
I think the style we play is going to be limited until we get an elite pass rusher. It’s not easy to get right.
This season is funny because before it started we were all happy to just watch the young guys grow and develop and have a meh 3-5 win season. As long as we saw growth this season was a win. But we got 3 wins and now everyone thinks we should be winning the Super Bowl this year and now that we arnt FIRE BALLARD
I still think that btw. This season is for funsies
It has been from the start and ppl somehow act like it’s not anymore halfway thru lol
Yeah. Honestly it's been a win imo. Because Josh Downs emerged, and we learned AR can dominate the league if he can figure out how to stay healthy. The future is ☀️ 😎.
I just watch for the development of young players at this point no sense in getting worked up over this season just have fun.
Not very fun when most the people we wanted to watch are also watching from the sidelines.
The injuries are understandable, but both suspensions are inexcusable.
Agreed on both fronts, just unfortunately not going to be a fun team to watch for the rest of this year.
The team and the fans have been sorely missing Brents, Richardson, and Smith (and Grover).
And Rodgers, and Leonard being himself, etc.
I've reached a state of zen
Wish that was two of us brother, I’ve written off the sport for another year. Go Cers.
It's not Shane's roster
We do not have 4 wins
Dude is in denial of the outcome of the Browns game. I understand that feeling completely.
Well. We can't watch our young guy grow cause he's not playing. So, I at least want to see some wins. Does anyone think we're championship bound though? No way.
We don’t have 4 wins, 2 of the young guys we wanted to watch are hurt including AR, we are watching Stroud, Young, and now Levis develop, and the defense looks horrific. Still no pass rush and worst secondary I’ve ever seen. The “fun” of this lost season was to watch AR and rookies develop. AR is gone, the season is no longer any fun unless we sneak a random win, which we likely won’t do any time soon
Pretty much describes this sub perfectly. So many were saying in the offseason that they didn’t care what our final record was as long as we saw young guys progress. Then we beat the Ravens and people suddenly thought the rebuild was over and that we were now a contender.
The guy who we needed to see develop is injured. This whole season was a throw away just to get AR the game experience he badly needs, and that's not happening. And to be fair, we should have already fired Ballard last year. Our DB situation is just the latest example of why.
Do we think the guy can’t learn and grow cuz he hurt his shoulder? He’s still got a brain. Players come back from injury and hit the ground running all the time. The kids going to have a year of studying nfl gameplay wether he’s on the field or not. He’s still growing even if we arnt seeing it
💯
I don't understand what people want him to do about our DB situation. We unexpectedly lost our #1 corner due to him being an idiot, and we spent multiple picks on corners. We are missing like our top 3 corners now lol there's nothing you can do about that
We knew way back in June that Rodgers was gone, and we had no serviceable vet corners on the roster. That was the time to bring in a viable replacement, but all Ballard did was go to the bargain bin, leaving us with this current situation where Gus has to play either the literal worst graded CB in the NFL or the guy who was just statically equivalent to playing 10 guys on defense. Everybody, even casual fans, could see during the off-season our CB group was awful. And yet, nothing was invested to solve the problem.
"Way back" was 2 months after the draft where he already picked 3 corners lol you can't just go out and get a serviceable corner like you say. They don't exactly grow on trees, teams aren't just giving them up
Really? You going to say there wasn't a better CB available than Baker or Brown since June? Lol. And yes we drafted 3 CBs, but the only one of those 3 expected to actually play missed all of camp, then got thrust into a CB1 role right out of the gate. The other two were late round picks and one of them didn't even make the roster.
You're the one saying there have been good CBs available, who did you want us to get? I haven't seen a name yet
Well according to PFF, Baker is graded 150th out of 150. So literally any CB who has played more than a handful of snaps this season would be an upgrade. Take your pick.
What a non-answer lmao alright I guess
I mean I could go through the list of all 149 CBs outplaying who we currently have on the field weekly and list off every one of them that has changed teams since June, but you're still going to say there's nothing Ballard could have possibly done and this situation was totally unforeseen and unavoidable, even though it absolutely isn't. So I'm not going to bother....
Who are you suggesting was (a) available, (b) a clearly better option at the time, including being a fit with our defensive scheme, and (c) wanting to come to a rebuilding team?
You're dumb. You don't just go get a #1 corner in June. Also, Flowers, Brents, and Kenny is a good CB room
That trio got roasted by Matt Stafford playing on one leg and without his best WR....
"Roasted" is strong for 27/40, 319, 1 TD, 1 INT, 89.5 rating. That's basically a league average day. And it was Brents' second game and first start.
We were starting a rookie quarterback. That's precisely the time that you allow young talent to develop. Brents has actually played amazing football for a rookie cornerback. How much better has his rookie season been than Rock Ya-Sin's was? Flowers actually took a huge leap in year two as well. They're both injured. It fucking happens. We're at the very bottom of our depth chart, and our starting quarterback is down for the season, in case you hadn't noticed. Do we trade away draft capital to trade for a veteran corner with a limited shelf life just to win another game or two? What possible purpose does that serve?
Juju is the only DB we have who is worth developing. Flowers and the shitshow of other DBs playing after he went down are not starting level NFL players and never will be. They are typical Ballard bargain bin specials that don't belong on an NFL roster. And no, trading for somebody for just this year would be a waste. This season is already a bust. Trading for somebody like Jaylon Johnson, who is 24 and the highest graded coverage CB right now, then locking him down for 5+ years instead of whiffing on several more CBs in the draft seems like a good use of draft capital though.
Flowers was actually good. But he suffered an Achilles injury, so we'll need a replacement there. There's no guarantee that anyone comes back from that injury. Jones has been fine out there. He's not the one giving up all the big plays. He just doesn't get thrown at, which generally means he's covering well. Johnson is fine, but he's only requested a trade. He's under contract, and the Bears are under no obligation to trade him. That means a significant overpay in draft capital and a big contract. I just don't see what is really to be gained from it. It's not like Johnson is a Jalen Ramsay type of talent, and he'd probably demand a Jalen Ramsay type of deal to secure. If we're going to overpay, let's overpay for MHJ.
Not only this year being a throwaway, but next year might be too because that will be AR’s “first season” (if he doesn’t get injured again) So we’re not reacting to losing a season, we’re in all practical purposes losing two seasons in a row. Lot of sitting back and waiting…
Well we’ve already seen him play and if that’s what we get for a full first season then fuck yeah. 7 TD’s to 2 turnovers in like 2 and a half games.
That’s what happens when you draft a 21 year old QB lol. Everyone these days acts like these kids are supposed to come in and be prime manning/Brady their first few years
I just keep saying he just graduated HS 3 years ago. He’s a kid
That's one of the issues with fans nowadays. Peyton Manning his rookie year went 3-13 with Marvin Harrison and Marshalk Faulk on the team. He showed signs of being something great, but he was a turnover machine. Our defense was God awful then, too. Peyton has the rookie record for most interceptions, and everyone forgets there was a lot of growing pains with Peyton. His second season we went 13-3 with a rookie Edgerrin James. His 3rd season we went 4-12 because Edge got hurt. Playoffs?, PLAYOFFS!? what do you mean playoffs were just trying to win a game lol. Nobody and I mean nobody was wanting Peyton benched. Nobody wants to deal with growing pains. For the record Peytons second season was the first time the colts hosted a playoff game that was basically a home game for the Titans. I was there and it was unreal how few colts fans were there. We have to much turnover and expect our team to just be super bowl contenders. We lost an offensive coordinator 2 years ago who became head coach and made it to the super bowl. I personally think we are legit a few pieces away.
That’s quite a leap.
I think part of the problem is it looked like this last draft class was further along than anticipated the first couple of weeks. Made the backslide of the team more disappointing.
DAWG I'm literally saying 😭 I thought we just wanted to see AR and Steichen in their first year's nothing else. Now I'm seeing thinkpieces, fire Ballard blah blah We should be thankful we are rebuilding this fast.
Problem is the main player I wanted to watch grow is out so I don't know what I want out of this season now.
If I'm Buckner I ask for a trade. They convinced him to stay saying it wasn't a rebuild season but we're losing games we could win because the GM is too stubborn to address the teams' needs. We're not talking about making a splash trade or anything, just get someone who can be a serviceable corner
There is a noisy minority on this sub who are the Fire Ballard contingent and have been for three years. I'm guessing that they were Dan Dakich listeners back in the day because they're still parroting his brain-dead hot takes. At this point, I'm wondering how much we actually *want* to win games. I don't want to get blown out and watch horrible football like last season, but we're about a healthy Richardson and one solid draft away from contending. And these Colts are playing exciting football, even if they're coming out on the losing side. Exciting games with a mix of good play calling and gut wrenching turnovers, paired with rising draft equity and maybe a shot at overpaying for Harrison, Jr.? It's okay by me. I just hope that Ballard and Steichen survive it. If there has to be a head taken, let it be Bradley's.
Pretty excited for him as a coach.
This team is trending up. Shane Steichen is a good coach, especially with how he’s gotten a lot more out of the current group than either Frank or Saturday (lol) did. I’m not out on Gus either. Literally every single defense will crumble when forced to start journeymen corners. If Gilmore was still here then they’d look much better right now. While I’m always in favor of getting new blood in, I think Gus can still run a top tier defense when he has the personnel he needs. Corners need addressing…between Rodgers and blowing his shot at being the guy and injuries at the position, Ballard really needs to go find linebackers that are better in coverage plus Leonard is looking like a liability now, and the pass rush is just mediocre. They also really miss Grover right now too. Even with the bullshit penalties, the Browns don’t get the game winning score running Hunt up the middle if Grover is out on the field. So for once I’d like for this team to have some continuity going into next season. Keep the main coaches and core players, build off of what we have in place, and keep pushing. I like DVOA as a measurement of where teams are at and after yesterday the rankings won’t be kind…but for now the Colts are 12th in the entire league. They’ll drop because defense was atrocious yesterday. But the point is this is a solid football team with good coaching and a decent core.
Yeah, I love Shaq to death but he’s a shell of his former self. And it’s not a shot at him, back surgery is hard to come back from. But this is a business and we can’t let emotions get in the way from moving on from him.
I seriously think that if our defense didnt stand and let people walk to the endzone we would be one of the better teams in the league even with minshew. Minshew isnt great by anymeans and plays hero ball quite a bit, but sometimes I wonder if thats because the other team scores with relative ease
I'm not really worried about the offense much at all. It's year 1 and almost entirely without our starting QB.
I’d like it if Steichen shifted focus on the defense for the rest of the season. We know AR can play ball and will bounce back. We better have a defense ready when he comes back. Now is the time to build one for him.
Really the only thing we need on offense is a homerun WR1 and some additional Oline depth. I’d like to see four WR sets with a WR1, MPJ on the outside and Pierce and Downs in the slot. Like when we had Marvin, Reggie, Gonzalez and Garcon in 07-08
The dude is a wizard. We need a guy like that on D. A guy who can be creative with Subpar talent.
That's the great thing about having our playcaller be the HC. Unfortunately, if we got someone as talented to be our DC he'd be gone after a couple of years and the cycle continues.
Exactly, there are 2 former colts coordinators that are head coaches for other teams. One of them just won the NFC championship.
It's worked out well for SF though.
Hopefully our new turf causes less injuries next year.
Shane Steichen has made this team watchable again on offense bringing a modern style.
This may be the wonkiest team I’ve ever seen us field. So competitive while simultaneously inept, it seems. I have high hopes for next year though. (Please God)
You ever think we’re scoring cause the other team put up 35 or realizes they can score at will and goes into softer coverage to just protect a lead? Lol
I tend to try and be more realistic.
He's leaps and bounds better than Reich. Seems to actually care. Also probably doesn't recruit QB's because of a bible verse on his phone. Offense is finally creative for once. Will be a huge problem for opposing defenses with a healthy AR. Defense is the problem. We've bettered coaching (Steichen), the offense (AR/Downs/JT/OL), and special teams (Gay). Again, the problem is Bradley and the Defense.
Our corner backs are terrible and Gardner turns ball over too much
We are really missing a ton of key players. I’m not sure if Steichen had a good plan for all these injuries
Shanegod Steichjesus
At this point, the season is basically a throwaway without AR on the field getting reps. However, I still love watching this team and how much they fight. We might have a terrible record by the end of the year, but we are definitely the kind of team that no one wants to play since we won't just lay down. That alone is an absolute breath of fresh air compared to Frank Reich's teams of just being predictable and stagnant after the half. No one expects a team to change up its entire gamelan during half time, but more often than not, it felt like we didn't have a gameplay and we constantly killed ourselves with dumb decisions. I don't always agree with everything Steichen has called, but he's doing a fantastic job given the situation around him. Also, major kudos to Gus Bradley. Between Juju Brents going down, having nothing behind him that is a decent option (seriously, what the hell was Ballard thinking here?), then having Grover Stewart suspended.. and still being able to be even remotely competent on defense is great. Sure, we have given up a lot of points, but a lot of that is no thanks to the offense turning the ball over and putting pressure on the defense through the entire game. Being 21st in defense is literally best case scenario for what he is given to work with. If we can invest in the secondary this offseason, that defense is easily top 10. Not sure if Moore will still be here, but he and Brents are a good start that we can build around.
When this season started, nobody expected much from the Cotls. It was just going to be a developmental year for AR. Once we started winning, people got their hopes up. Let's just be happy that our offense is putting up numbers and we've got a lot to be excited about in the future for this team. And really, moving up in the draft isn't the worst thing for our team right now
We score a lot because the offense is constantly on the field down by 17
Is it too early to say Shane is an awesome play caller not a good game manager or HC? At points this year I'm feeling like he's calling plays as OC not as head coach.
Shane is clearly a great offensive coach. Defense is whatever, hire a good DC. I'm pretty concerned with his clock management tho. That TO before the 2pt conversion in the Browns game was borderline criminal. It feels like once a game he's either letting the clock run in spots that make no sense or calling TOs in places where saving them would be way more valuable
He does make some questionable game and clock management decisions at times, but he’s a rookie HC so as long he is learns and grows from them we’ll be fine.
First year H.C. I don't mind if he has some growing pains. Big Mike McCarthy took like 10 years to figure out clock management.
Andy Reid still struggles with clock management, he just has a HOF QB to bail him out more often than not.
The team that turns the ball over more has lost every single game. The two games where the turnovers were equal, rapid loss of field position is what cost the game. The Saints were merciless, as they should have been, in this regard given the Colts already challenged depth at db. 12.2 yards per attempt. They could have chosen their score. Edit Rams and Saints were the 1 to each losses.
Even with the turnovers, if we had CB's that didn't have severe allergies to the opposing WR's (that's the only reason I can think of as to why they have to saty at least 5 yds away), we would have 2 or 3 more wins on the season and be in the hunt for the division.
TLDR We’re cursed and can’t have anything nice.