Gumbo

I started writing this at halftime, and pretty much kept going throughout the second half; and I was concerned at the end of the first half, because there were problems, which I will discuss below. But by the end of the second half, I was more than a little impressed. The Colts used tonight’s national spotlight to serve notice that the team that decimated its four playoff opponents last season is the exact same team that is starting the new regular season.

At the end of the first half, a few things are apparent. The first, and perhaps most obvious, is that Manning and his passing offense are not sharp; his pass velocity might even be a bit too fast for this early in the season - but this is likely to change in the second half. I expect the second half to be classic Colts second half football - a takeaway that leads to points and a quick march down the field, to take the fight out of the opponent.

The New Orleans secondary was enormously disrupting in the first half - the New Orleans defense overall was much better than I had thought it would be - but Manning was not quick to make adjustments to busted routes and blown plays. I can’t recall another Colts game I have ever watched where Manning had so many of his passes tipped or knocked away. I counted at least three there in just the first half of tonight’s game.

On the other hand, Freddy Keiaho has introduced a revolutionary new form of rush defense, whereby he will use a tailback’s own offensive lineman (John Stinchcomb) to make the tackle; and then, just for good measure, he’ll reach up and grab Reggie Bush’s shoestrings, just to make sure the play is good and over.

The second obvious thing is that it looks like we’re not going to miss retired left tackle Tarik Glenn nearly as much as I thought we would. Tony Ugoh has performed admirably protecting Manning’s blind side - Manning looked perfectly comfortable in the pocket, and even though his poise has developed enormously over the years, a Manning that did not feel good about his left tackle would have looked more harried in the pocket than this Manning did in the first half.

Third, the pass rush - and perhaps Dwight Freeney? - were not in the building at all, at least until right there at the end of the half. Even with losses in personnel, this is still a dominant defensive line capable of generating a lot of sacks. The Saints have a good O-line, but Brees had way too much time in the pocket. The Colts are not a pressure defense, of course, but there are far too many sacks waiting in the persons of Freeney, Mathis, and Brock for Brees to have been that free and clear for the first thirty minutes.

I liked the play that called Kenton Keith’s number on the play after Addai went down - it gives your unproven tailback a chance to shine in a low-impact high-pressure situation, lets him know that this is the NFL and this is the real thing - and when we call your number, you’d better be ready to play. He answered with a strong 7-yard run. That was good play-calling on the part of the Colts, as opposed to the 52-yard field goal attempt the Saints tried early in the first half, on I think their second drive. You miss that and you give the World Champions Of All Football great field position on their second drive, which the Colts used to burn the Saints and put the first points on the board. I like the idea of that play, which shows that Sean Payton isn’t afraid to make gutsy calls in a hostile environment against an elite team; but the problem is that there’s no upside unless it works, and this one didn’t. The Saints weren’t actually broken until the successive Colts touchdowns to start the second half - but seeing the Colts score a touchdown on a long pass to Harrison was a signal of what was to come; they weren’t broken, but when Harrison’s left foot dragged along the ground, they had to know that they were going to be broken.

Something I noticed in the one pre-season game I saw bits of is something that showed up tonight, too - Antoine Bethea is going to be an impact safety this season. His field vision is developing rapidly, as evidenced by his sharp closing speed and precise tackles. He also has clearly picked up some pointers from Bob Sanders in the hitting department, because Bethea is putting monster shots on guys. Marlin Jackson showed some of this in that same pre-season game (it was one of the two in the middle, I don’t remember which one), and now that he’s going to have a full season at his natural position, I’m expecting good things from the secondary this year.

The Colts forced a three-and-out on the first Saints drive of the second half, with an overall sharper look than they had in the first half; and they tightened up nicely for the second Saints drive, as well. On the third Saints drive, they did cause that turnover that I called for - and it was Freddy Keiaho going high into the air to pick off a pass that Drew Brees threw under the kind of pressure he didn’t have to face in the first half. And then another turnover with about eight minutes left to go in the fourth - Robert Mathis got to Brees a split second before his arm came around, and out came the ball. Mathis fell on it for the second Colts takeaway.

The first Colts drive of the second half was that quick march down the field that I was talking about. The second long pass to Harrison was a well-run route, a smoother-looking play than the touchdown pass in the first half, which was just a little bit ahead of Harrison (though definitely very pretty); the second-half pass caught Harrison right in stride. And even though it wasn’t the turnover and a long drive that I predicted, it was two strong touchdown drives in the first nine minutes of the second half. In fact, on the first play of the Saints drive after the second touchdown, they got to Brees, who barely got an incomplete screen pass off before he went down. The second touchdown pass to Wayne was also right in stride.

And the bottom line tonight is - the Colts did what the Colts do. They made adjustments at halftime based on what they saw in the first half, and those adjustments were exactly what was needed to achieve success. The Saints figured to be one of the better teams the Colts had to play this season (along with the Chargers, Broncos, and Patriots - and though I acknowledge that the Colts might lose a game to both Jacksonville and Tennessee, I don’t think those are good teams - I think those are teams that are a year away), but they presented virtually no challenge. Granted, they are not the Chargers or the Patriots - and I’d be so much less worried about the Patriots if we had been lucky enough to get them in the first four weeks, given the defensive personnel they are not going to have during those weeks - but the Saints are a good team, and they got manhandled tonight.

And hopefully Jason David doesn’t feel too bad about getting burned so much. He looked pretty sloppy, but lots of people have been burned that badly. Elvira. Joan of Arc. The tanning bed girls in Final Destination 3. He’ll bounce back - but he won’t have two Super Bowl rings at the end of this season. His former teammates just might.