Category: Colts

The Xs and Os with Greg Cosell: Previewing Week 7’s biggest NFL matchups

NFL Week 7 is here! Greg Cosell and Doug Farrar get you ready for it with tape study and advanced metrics in this week’s “Xs and Os.”

It’s time for Week 7 of the NFL season, and as always, Greg Cosell of NFL Films and ESPN’s NFL Matchup, and Doug Farrar of Touchdown Wire and the USA Today Sports Media Group get you ready with tons of tape study and advanced metrics.

This week, Greg and Doug get into these games:

  • Miami Dolphins at Philadelphia Eagles — How can the Eagles’ defense stop Miami’s motion-heavy, track team offense?
  • Cleveland Browns at Indianapolis Colts — What did the win over the 49ers tell us about the Browns’ defense… both good and bad?
  • Detroit Lions at Baltimore Ravens — The Lions and Ravens are each dialing it up on both sides of the ball, leading to perhaps the best schematic matchup of the week.
  • Los Angeles Chargers at Kansas City Chiefs — How the Chiefs are playing defense at a very high level under Steve Spagnuolo.
  • San Francisco 49ers at Minnesota Vikings — Brock Purdy has been amazing against the blitz this season, but will he be able to handle Brian Flores’ multi-level pressure concepts?

Greg and Doug also get into the Jets’ amazing defense.

You can watch this week’s “Xs and Os” right here:

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You can also listen and subscribe to the “Xs and Os” podcast on Spotify…

…and on Apple Podcasts.

4-Down Territory: No more undefeateds, NFL’s best team, Secret Superstars, Worst of the Week!

The NFL’s best team? No more undefeateds? Secret Superstars? Worst of the Week? Doug Farrar and Kyle Madson cover it all in “4-Down Territory.”

With six weeks of actual football in the books for the 2023 NFL season, it’s time for Doug Farrar of Touchdown Wire, and Kyle Madson of Niners Wire, to come to the table with their own unique brand of analysis in “4-Down Territory.”

This week, the guys discuss these four downs:

  1. Which team is the NFL’s best now that there are no more undefeated teams?
  2. Will another NFL team ever go undefeated again, or are the 1972 Miami Dolphins safe for eternity?
  3. Who’s the league’s most underrated player?
  4. And of course, our Worst of the Week!

You can watch this week’s “4-Down Territory” right here:

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You can also listen and subscribe to the “4-Down Territory” podcast on Spotify…

…and on Apple Podcasts.

The NFL’s Worst of Week 6: Bad officiating, punter headbutts, angry Brian Daboll!

Massive officiating errors! Angry coaches! Punters starting fights, and announcers jinxing quarterbacks. It’s the NFL’s Worst of the Week for Week 6!

Football is a wonderful, thrilling, inspiring game that can lift us to new heights in our lives.

But football is also a weird, inexplicable, at times downright stupid game that may force you to perform Keith Moon-level furniture destruction in your own living room.

So, as much as we at Touchdown Wire endeavor to write about what makes the game great, there are also times when it’s important to point out the dumb plays, boneheaded decisions, and officiating errors that make football all too human.

Folks, it’s time for the Worst of the Week for Week 6 of the 2023 NFL season.

Jim Nantz extends Sunday’s announcer/interception curse

Announcers Jim Nantz and Spero Dedes created interceptions on Sunday with the sheer power of their words. If you don’t believe us, just watch.

At least two times on Sunday, announcers were directly responsible for interceptions.

You may think that’s facetious, but we don’t. We have seen more than enough no-hitters broken up as a result of blabbermouth people in the booth talking about it just to be defiant, and football announcers should know better than to ever say that Team X hasn’t thrown an interception, or Team X doesn’t yet have an interception. Because we ALL KNOW WHAT HAPPENS NEXT, DON’T WE?

First, veteran announcer Spero Dedes apparently forgot himself in this regard. Albert was calling Sunday’s game between the Indianapolis Colts and the Jacksonville Jaguars, and with 4:50 left in the first half, Dedes happened to mention that Minshew hadn’t thrown a pick all season long.

See if you can guess what happened next.

I mean… we’re talking MAYBE five seconds between the installation of the Announcer Curse, and the Inevitable Result. Ouch.

Then, Jim Nantz and Tony Romo were calling the game between the New England Patriots and the Las Vegas Raiders, and Nantz happened to mention that the Patriots don’t have an interception yet among the players in uniform on the field. Rookie cornerback Christian Gonzalez, out for the rest of the season with a shoulder injury, was the only Patriots defender with an interception this season.

Of course, that changed right after Nantz said it. Defensive back Jabrill Peppers put a serious hit on receiver Davante Adams, and the ball flew up into the hands of linebacker Jahlani Tavai.

When will these guys learn? Actions have consequences, people.

Announcer Spero Dedes gives Gardner Minshew the interception jinx

Announcer Spero Dedes should not have pointed out that Gardner Minshew hadn’t thrown a pick all season. We all know what happened next.

If there’s one thing you never want to do as an announcer, it’s to state that a quarterback hasn’t thrown an interception in whatever time period you want to bring up. Because we’re pretty sure that’s when the interception will happen. Like mentioning a no-hitter while it’s happening, you just don’t want to mess with the Sports Gods.

Veteran announcer Spero Dedes apparently forgot himself in this regard. Albert was calling Sunday’s game between the Indianapolis Colts and the Jacksonville Jaguars, and with 4:50 left in the first half, Dedes happened to mention that Minshew hadn’t thrown a pick all season long.

See if you can guess what happened next.

I mean… we’re talking MAYBE five seconds between the installation of the Announcer Curse, and the Inevitable Result. Ouch.

Jaguars score two touchdowns in 16 seconds as Travis Etienne Jr. goes off

The Jaguars banked two touchdowns in 16 seconds against the Colts, as Travis Etienne Jr. went off.

The Jacksonville Jaguars’ offense came into Sunday’s game against the Indianapolis Colts ranked 14th in DVOA, but it would appear that Doug Pederson and his staff want to up the ante a bit, and they want to do so in the run game.

With 14:17 left in the second quarter, Jags running back Travis Etienne Jr. took the ball into the end zone from two yards out.

On the Colts’ first offensive play after that, pass-rusher Josh Allen forced a Gardner Minshew fumble, and Jacksonville got the ball back at the Indianapolis 22-yard line.

The Jaguars responded with a direct snap to Etienne, who ran 22-yards for his second touchdown in 16 clock seconds. Not bad!

The Xs and Os: How the Eagles stopped the Rams’ best passing concept

The Eagles had a great way to limit the Rams’ bunch formations. Is that a prototype other defenses will use? Greg Cosell and Doug Farrar investigate.

Through the first four weeks of the 2023 NFL season, Matthew Stafford and the Los Angeles Rams were beating opposing defenses with bunch formations — triangle-shaped assemblages in which three receivers get off the line of scrimmage in combinations that are tough to stop. In those first four games, per Sports Info Solutions, Stafford was all about these cheat codes:

  • Six completions on eight attempts for 60 yards, 30 air yards, two touchdowns, no interceptions, and a league-best passer rating of 135.4 on throws out of bunch left;
  • Four completions on six attempts for 63 yards, 48 air yards, one touchdown, no interceptions, and a passer rating of 156.3 on throws out of bunch right.

But against the Philadelphia Eagles in a 23-14 Week 5 loss, Stafford was not ringing the same bells out of bunch to either side. He completed on of two passes for three yards and a touchdown on bunch left throws, and one of two passes for five yards on bunch right throws.

In this week’s “Xs and Os with Greg Cosell and Doug Farrar,” the guys discuss what the Eagles did to stop those bunches from killing them in… well, bunches.

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As Greg pointed out, one way to cover bunch formations is to throw the box at the offense.

“There are five or six ways, and I’ve had these conversations with coaches, to play trips bunch. And one way is what we call ‘box.’ You play four [defenders] over three [receivers]. And it’s a good way to play it, because you’re not trying to match releases. Sometimes, teams get caught — and we saw this on Puka Nacua’s game-winning touchdown against the Colts — it was tight bunch, and they got stuck with both guys [cornerbacks Julius Brents and Kenny Moore II] playing the same guy [tight end Brycen Hopkins]. Because one guy was playing man coverage, and the other guy was playing the releases. But if you play four-over-three, you can just let the routes develop.”

Here’s the Nacua touchdown.

Well, with 8:37 left in the first quarter, the Eagles went with that four-man box against bunch left, and they were able to force an incompletion in Cover-1. Stafford saw that the bunch receivers were matched, so he tried a quick pass to tight end Tyler Higbee to the other side. Safety Justin Evans stopped that from happening.

The Eagles also did a nice job of matching the Rams’ frequent use of pre-snap motion with zone coverage rules, passing off the motion men from defender to defender, as opposed to selling out their coverages by matching across. We’ll see if other defenses pick anything up from this as they try to deal with Sean McVay’s offense.

You can watch this week’s “Xs and Os” video right here:

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You can also listen and subscribe to the “Xs and Os” podcast on Spotify…

…and Apple Podcasts.

The best Amazon Prime Big Deal Days deal for each NFL team

See our favorite Amazon Prime Big Deal Days deal for each of the 32 NFL teams.

The 2023 NFL season is turning its first corner. Just in time for another important time of the year: Amazon Prime Big Deal Days.

The latest rounds of deals on the site have now hit the web. Get your holiday shopping done early this year and find the perfect gift for the football fan in your life

Are you ready to celebrate Jonathan Taylor’s new contract with the Indianapolis Colts?

How about preparing for another potential deep run for your Kansas City Chiefs or Philadelphia Eagles?

Or are you ready to jump on the Miami Dolphins’ bandwagon?

Whatever the team, use Amazon Prime Big Deals Day as an excuse to gear up for the rest of the 2023 NFL season starting with our team-by-team list below:

Jonathan Taylor, Colts come to terms on 3-year, $42 million contract

The Indianapolis Colts and Jonathan Taylor have finally come to terms

All the bad feelings can go away quickly when $42 million solves problems.

The Indianapolis Colts and running back Jonathan Taylor have erased the ill will — seemingly — and come to terms on a massive contract.

The deal, which was sealed on Saturday, is worth $42 million — $26.5M guaranteed — and is for three years.

This ends the drama that saw Taylor seek a trade and miss the first four weeks of the season.

He returned to practice this week and is expected to make his 2023 debut on Sunday at home against the Tennessee Titans.

How Puka Nacua and the Rams’ receivers are cooking in a surprising passing game

Puka Nacua has taken the NFL by storm. Here’s why Nacua, Sean McVay, and Matthew Stafford are cooking in the Rams’ surprising passing game.

When the NFL released the 2023 schedule, the Week 5 matchup between the Los Angeles Rams and the Philadelphia Eagles was not seen as must-see TV outside of the fans of those two teams. The Eagles are the defending NFC champions, and the Rams were portrayed as a team in full rebuild with little to go on. But even without Cooper Kupp (hamstring) in the first four weeks of the season, Sean McVay’s passing game has been one of the league’s most interesting, and one of the toughest to stop. And the pointman has been BYU rookie receiver Puka Nacua, the fifth-round pick who has exceeded all expectations.

Nacua’s 22-yard touchdown in overtime to send his team to a 29-23 win over the Indianapolis Colts last Sunday was just the latest play in what has become a historical season to date.

Nacua’s 39 receptions is the most for any first-year receiver in his first four pro football games — and in fact, he’s already passed Reggie Bush for the most receptions for any rookie in his first FIVE games. Nacua also has the most receiving yards (501) for any rookie receiver, and he’s the first rookie with three 100-yard games in his first four opportunities, joining Harlon Hill of the Chicago Bears in 1954.

So, it’s clear that Nacua is a natural fit for what McVay and offensive coordinator Mike LaFleur are cooking up this season. In this week’s “Xs and Os with Greg Cosell and Doug Farrar,” the guys get into how the Rams are controlling the middle of the field with simple concepts that work exceedingly well.

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You can watch this week’s full “Xs and Os” video, featuring all of Week 5’s biggest NFL matchups, right here:

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You can also listen and subscribe to the “Xs and Os” podcast on Spotify…

…and on Apple Podcasts.

Now, let’s get into this surprising Rams passing game — and why it could be a major issue for the Eagles’ defense.