There was a guy sitting a few rows behind me at the Colts game. Every time Mac got sacked or misfired he would start
yelling Zapp-EEEE, Zapp-EEEE, Zap-EEEE!!!!!! at the top of his lungs. Nobody else chimed in and a few people heckled him. I turned around
once to see what sort of lunatic was screaming that loud and he seemed to be avoiding all interaction. Just a man on a mission to express
his views.
The big story of this game was Defense. Indy was limited by not having a running game or a professional QB, so we just teed off and shredded them. The 2nd
big story was that, from what I could see, Mac was generally uncomfortable, uncertain of himself and inaccurate. What I can't fathom are the reasons why he
looks like he does. If it's the ankle, then he needs to be replaced. If it's the protection then we need to sort that out. If it's the system and game plan then we
need to try something different, because Jones is a mess at present and has consistently looked like a guy going backwards. I keep coming back to the timing---
there are brief periods of synchronicity followed by longer stretches of disarray. His footwork looks off-kilter and his mechanics follow. I love the kid, but have to
concede that he is a total mess.
I can't say for sure, but there was one play where it appeared to me that Mac was looking Tyquan's way and expected him to adjust his route, likely a comeback, which didn't happen.
Jones had started his motion and had to stop to reset and the play failed. Shortly thereafter, he targeted Thornton again on an in-cut and threw it well behind and over the head of the
open rookie. To me, it appeared they each messed a play up, but Jones will catch blame for both. Accuracy has always been the best part of Jones' game, but even
though his completion percentage was solid at 66% -- there were a bunch of passes that were way off-target, imo. That 66 was a bit deceiving, as well, since Jones has continued
to throw short to players who are blanketed and it goes as a completion for almost no yardage.
Only Mike Onwenu seemed to play well up front. We had churn at 3 of the 5 spots and it looked it. I'll have to rewatch, but my impression was that
Cajuste played slightly better than Wynn or Cannon at RT, but gave up a near sack on a whiff block, but it's hard to focus on any single player watching live. I will say
that Yodny appeared to show better movement skills than the other guys and appears healthy, so we'll see how that goes. Let's see what Lazar says on the topic.
The offense was not close to being in synch at any point and I believe the game plan was very vanilla because Bill wasn't worried about Indy winning the game.
I think he's trying to find the best formula up front he can and save whatever wrinkles we have for the stretch run. Yes, for about the 10th year in a row I'm going with
the "Trojan Horse" theory and imagine a dynamic offense suddenly springing itself on unsuspecting opponents over the next 8 games because.......it can't possibly be
as bad as it looks. There has to be more behind the curtain.
The fans were pretty dead yesterday because the offense didn't give them a reason to get excited except for brief periods. I don't know what the attendance was but there were a lot of empty seats in my section. It did not feel like I was watching a 23-point win.
