Denver

[Diekan]

Wish they could have pulled it off, but their D gave up on that last drive.

[Reynaldo]

with as good cover corners as Denver has, I don't see why they never rushed more than 4 vs manning and played man to man coverage. Rushing 4 is just asking him to drop 300 and 4 TDs on you.

[Diekan]

They went one on one coverage in that last series and got owned.... hard. I agree you gotta pressure that pansy ass Manning and make him cry like the little bitch he is - BUT - when you've got X seconds left on the clock you KNOW he's going to throw the ball on pretty much every play. You really need to go with the dime and try to confine them to the run... keeping Vinni away from FG range to at least keep it tied and go into OT.

It was actually a pretty decent game - the best of the weekend. I just wish Denver could have held on and won. BUT Indy has to play NE next weekend, so that'll be their first lose I'm sure.

Some times you gotta wonder about the D cooridinators though. What was the DB's name in the final drive matched up to someone what... 6 inches taller. You can't have a mismatch like that in a game against a passing team like the Colts or you'll get owned. NE had that problem last year. Had Samuel (all of something like 5 feet 10) matched up to Harrison who is 6 foot plus. And, the Colts made them pay for it - but rather than substitute Samuel they left him in and let Harrison own them... over and over and over....

I would, however, like to fuck the entire Colts' cheerleading squad. Just stick a Gatoraide IV in my arm and I'm good to go.

[Xaiveir]

Substitute your starting cornerbacks because they are afew inches shorter than the recievers? No way! They are your starting corners for a reason, yeah they will get torched badly on a day at some point during the season, its going to happen. But just because a reciever is taller you dont put someone else on him. Corners are RARELY taller than 5'11", you are ALWAYS going to have recievers that are taller than them. Besides the problem last night with Denver had nothing to do with heighth, it had to do with Manning being near perfect with his passes.

Denver's Defense has been amazing all year, why change what was working? Sure you make small adjustments from opponent to opponent, but your asking for a whole sale change in the secondary over how tall a guy is? Denver runs a zone defensive scheme, thats their bread and butter, thats what got them to 5-1 entering the game with statistically the best defense. They paired Champ Baily with Marvin Harrison all night and Darrent Williams was matched up against Reggie Wayne. Wayne is 6'0" and Williams is 5'8". Thats pretty standard in the NFL as far as matchups go of WR vs. DBs.

Honestly though that matchup means little because there was rarely 1 on 1 coverage, they dropped into zone, a variation of Cover 2 zone. On Wayne's TD catches both times was against the zone and he found a soft spot beind Lynch for 2 of those touchdowns (not sure on the 3rd i was getting a beer at the time). So those passes were not Williams fault, even though he will get the blame and all the Monday morning Quarterbacks will Fault him.

You replay the game and Denver's zone may cause 8 turnovers during the game, it just so happens that this game, Manning was perfect against that zone. The real matchup problems came with Dallas Clark and the Linebackers of Denver. Clark made big first down, after big first down in the center of the field.

We are talking about Denvers D that only allowed 44 Points in 6 games coming into this game, they were obviously doing something right and this particular game MANNING beat them. Manning is the best Quarterback in the league, and the smartest, hell Shannahan after the game said this.....

"He amazes me," Broncos coach Mike Shanahan said. "Just his leadership qualities, and his sense of urgency, the way he reads defenses. He did a heck of a job today."

As for Samuel against Harrison, who do you substitute for Samuel? He was their best corner, you put your best corner on Harrison. Just so happened Manning had a great game against the pats (who also run the zone Cover 2 scheme). If you were the patriots who do you put on Harrison if not Samuel? Manning beat the zone that game, there are other teams he has not beat the zone.

I know you hate the Mannings but he was the reason the Colts won the game agains the Broncos, not because of cornerback matchups. I will agree the Colts cheerleaders are OMG hot though.