Offense

I have to give Steichen some rope here because I understand it has to be really hard to build an offense around a quarterback whose accuracy on throws shorter than 30 yards is so erratic, and also not wanting to use him on the ground too much because you run the risk of him getting injured. I am fine with Taylor’s 24 touches as I think that the Colts’ offense needs to revolve around him at least until AR can find some sort of consistency. It is also worth noting that there were several plays were the Colts’ receivers were wide open and Richardson missed them by a mile. You cannot fault Steichen for that. Since we are criticizing not only Steichen but his entire coaching staff, I do think Reggie Wayne has to do a better job with the Colts’ wide receivers. Lack of effort and drop issues are inexcusable, no matter how inaccurate your quarterback is.

I would like to see some more plays for Richardson on the ground though, even running the risk of him getting injured. The guy is massive and on the open field is perhaps the fastest quarterback in the NFL, not utlilizing him as a ball-carrier more is a self-imposed nerf on the Colts’ offense. I think that this offense will improve each week, but the Steelers will definitely be a tough matchup.

Grade: B

Defense

While I was not a fan of Bradley’s lack of blitzing and prevent defense late in the game, it is hard to argue with the results. The Bears scored just 16 points, turned the ball over three times, and went just 9-21 on third downs. This defense is still unconvincing, as you have to keep in mind that they were playing a rookie quarterback with a terrible offensive line in front of him. I want to see how they do against tougher opposition, which will not come until we play the Texans again in four weeks. Overall I think that Bradley’s ultra conservative defensive approach works well against terrible offenses, but will not help the Colts once the brutal Texans / Vikings / Bills / Jets / Lions stretch arrives. Let’s just pray that Buckner is ready to go by then.

One also has to acknowledge the absurd amount of injuries the Colts have had so far on the defensive side of the ball, missing three starters in Ebukam, Buckner, and Brents. And it is also worth noting that the lackluster unit did not see much reinforcements in the off-season.

Grade: B

Special Teams

While it looked like another clean day at the office there were two individual instances were I think there was bad coaching. The first came on the roughing the kicker penalty on the Bears’ own endzone. First of all I think that the risk/reward of going so aggressively for the block and risking a flag and a free first down when you already would have gotten the ball back makes no sense, but it was even worse considering that the Bears were punting out of their own endzone and the Colts would have had excellent field position with the game really close at the time. In the end it ended up not making a difference because Williams threw an interception the next play, but there was no need for an aggressive rush at the moment.

The second one came in the final kick return of the game, where with just 2:01 left on the game the Colts did not return the kick, essentially gifting the Bears a free timeout because of the two-minute warning. In the end it did not matter because JT got the first down and sealed the game, but those two mistakes could end up being the difference between a win and a loss, and need to be cleaned up.

Grade: C –