Stampede Blue
Reviewing how the Colts’ players improved or decreased their position on the team
Latu had his best career game against the Lions, getting a strip sack, five total pressures, and a game-high 90.8 pass-rushing grade. He has stepped up in the past couple of weeks, and is starting to show why he was the first defensive player selected in this past draft. With some savory matchups in the horizon hopefully he can close out the season on a high note.
Sanchez has been consistently good this season, and against the Lions he was on the field a lot, which is not a good sign at all but when he was it was always positive. He punted the ball six times averaging over 50 yards per kick and had two inside the 20-yard line. After some rocky couple of years, Sanchez is once again a weapon and probably earned himself a long term extension.
No missed tackles, and another impeccable cleanup game from safety Nick Cross. The Colts’ defense needs just that from him, as with the way they play he is tasked with leading the second unit to prevent runs from going over 20 yards. For the team, Cross leading the team in tackles is not a good sign because they are mostly coming 10 yards down the field, but it is good for him and his standing on the team,
Pittman had one of his best games this season, overcoming a recent slump while dealing with a painful back injury that almost landed him on IR, racking up 6 catches for near a hundred yards. It is encouraging watching him finally develop some chemistry with AR.
Watching just the box score this was not a good game from AR, but if you actually take the time to watch the entire game and the All-22 film, then you can see that Richardson looks like an entirely different quarterback than before his benching. He is more accurate, more poised under pressure, and keep in mind that he was playing without three of his starters on the offensive line and was pressured on an astounding number of his dropbacks.
There were more Lions’ than Colts’ fans on Sunday, as clearly the team having no direction, changing quarterbacks mid-season for barely justifiable reasons, and having no superstars is alienating the fanbase (who would have thought right?). Ballard is running out of time, as this is now his 8th season as Colts’ general manager with just one playoff trip to show for it, and Steichen was hired because of his offensive capabilities and quarterback development, and those two have been his biggest weaknesses, so go figure.
Do not get fooled by the stats, sure you might look at 13 tackles and a sack and think “Zaire had another great game!” but he was actually among the...
