The Spy on Russell Wilson

[ivotuk]

Indianapolis picked a good one for it, Jerrell Freeman, #50 was very good at it. I think this is where not having Zach Miller really hurt us because he could have gotten out there and blocked Freeman.

What I found interesting though is that Doug Farrar called it on Saturday in his conversation with John Clayton.

Doug called the Indy defense "multiple" and praised Mathis, Freeman and Vontae Davis.
He also said "They don't make a lot of mistakes and could be tougher than Houston."

On the Indy offense Doug forecasted that Reggie Wayne and TY Hilton would have success out of the "stack" formation. He said Luck would be trouble because "with Schaub, you can count down 1,2,3 and the ball is gone, Luck isn't like that."

Some info about #50 for the Colts:

"In his first full-season in the league aged 26, Freeman surprised many with his committed play last year and made 115 tackles, including six tackles for loss and a pick six."

http://mynorthwest.com/category/pod_player_sports/?a=9962269&p=1034&n=John Clayton Show

About the Colts:

http://www.footballsfuture.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=525517&start=38

 

[ivotuk]

One thing I wanted to add, I think this loss could be good for us in more ways than one, it pointed out our major weaknesses such as the "Spy," and it is better to suffer through it now, than in the playoffs! This will only make our team stronger.

"That which does not kill you only makes you tougher."

 

[nepahawk]

Freeman made some good stops but, Russ also had 102 yds.
I don't think Freeman spying on Wilson was why we lost.

 

[drdiags]

Plus the Texans had a spy on Wilson last week. That is just one of the tactics folks have used on running QBs like Vick and are now using on Wilson, RGIII and Kaep. They just mix it up.

 

[Hawks46]

I'm not sure he even spied Wilson. Wilson got a ton of his yards up the middle, and a Spy would've stopped that.

The accepted way to defened the Read Option in the NFL is to crash your DE and scrape your LBer out to the flats for outside contain. The few tackles I saw from Freeman on Wilson were outside when Russ saw the DE crash down.

It's effective as it is assignment correct, and also forces 2 reads. In the RO, a QB reads the DE crashing down. Now, you can choose to run, pass, etc. but on a designed run play, it's a one read thing. So, read the DE crashing down, then look up and HELLO, there's a LB. If a QB waits too long and tries to read too much, that DE is still unblocked and comes after you, so all this has to be quick.

Freeman just played well in the assignment given him. I didn't see a lot of spying. If he did Spy, shame on us for not hitting the TE over his head or have some crossing routes into that hole in the zone.

 

[mikeak]

Freeman made some good stops but, Russ also had 102 yds.
I don't think Freeman spying on Wilson was why we lost.

This

We lost because we couldn't pick up a first down while allowing our opponent to convert an insane number of 3rd downs.

We were 2 for 12 on 3rd downs and they were 7 for 12. Sure the spy stopped a few of those third downs but mainly our inability to do more on defense killed it. Not going to get into an argument about refs of why or how etc

A few overthrown balls also didn't help. Unfortunately I can probably not write that without being viewed as highly critical of RW and be told that people like me wish we had Flynn instead. Which is not what I said I just said unfortunately there were 2 or 3 passes that should have been made that would have made a difference. We had 12-0 and should simply have broken their back there but didn't

 

[HunnyBadger]

I didn't like that read-option playcall on that 3rd and short at that time in the game. We had already used it several times and the Colts were wising up to it. I wish they called a short PA pass to Willson or Coleman.

 

[ivotuk]

Jerrell Freeman made several clutch tackles on Russell that brought up 4th down. I don't know how that has no effect. It doesn't matter that he got 102 yards, when he tried the read-option out to the left, it failed miserably on 3rd down. Credit Freeman for that.

Danny O'Neill "Jerrell Freeman played that perfectly."

 

[nanomoz]

Zach Miller's absence probably made the difference between a win and a loss in this game. Willson is a nice athlete, but he rarely got a body on somebody when thinks broke down.

 

[Ad Hawk]

"That which does not kill you can leave you paralyzed for life."

Just another way of looking at that silly maxim.

But I agree this loss should lead to some teaching opportunities

 

[brimsalabim]

I didn't like that read-option playcall on that 3rd and short at that time in the game. We had already used it several times and the Colts were wising up to it. I wish they called a short PA pass to Willson or Coleman.

that play doesn't work without a block.

Zach Miller's absence probably made the difference between a win and a loss in this game. Willson is a nice athlete, but he rarely got a body on somebody when thinks broke down.

I agree. Miller was the straw that broke the camels back.