Week 10: St. Louis Rams(3-6) @ Indianapolis Colts(6-2)

[wwharton]

Re: Week 10: St. Louis Rams(3-6) @ Indianapolis Colts(6-2)

The Colts have the right idea to be a Run first team, especially after the Wayne injury they just don't have the personnel to be a Spread 4-5 Wide Offense, that runs hurry up through out the game. Hilton, and Fleener at Tight End are their only reliable receivers in the pass game right now. They gave up a future 1st for Richardson, but that hasn't panned out how they have been hoping thus far; he's being outperformed by Donald Brown and he's not really much of a factor on Passing downs; but they don't really have the O-line to be a run team either at the moment.

Going forward I'm having a difficult time seeing how the rest of their season plays out. They are 6-3 having beat some of the better teams in the NFL, but their 3 losses are to the Dolphins, Chargers, and Rams with two of those losses coming at Home. I think they are better than what they showed vs. St.Louis but that Offense will struggle some the rest of the way I think they go 4-3 to finish out putting them at 10-6 winning the AFC South, but no first round bye.

Richardson hasn't been lighting the world on fire, but they haven't been using him as the end all, be all like Cleveland did either. As you said, Brown has been doing more with what he's been given, but Richardson has also gotten tough short yardage conversions with the box stacked to stop him quite a few times. I didn't see too much of the last game, but the first couple his ypc were low but he clearly had a nice role in the wins by getting tough yards on 3rd and short, goal line carries and running out the clock (remembering the denver game specifically).

Now that Wayne is down, it'd be nice if he could expand his role, and not being able to do that is where people should point to the trade being a failure, but it really hasn't made sense the heat they've been getting for it so far.

As for the losses, this last one was the only real head scratcher. The Dolphins were playing great when they faced the Colts earlier in the year. The Chargers are still a serious playoff contender... their problem is the two division teams ahead of them. I don't think either should be considered bad losses. Meanwhile, SF, DEN and SEA aren't just playoff contenders but SB contenders. Two of those teams have one loss... to the Colts. The other team has the same record, but isn't getting nearly the questions the Colts are, only because of what they did last year.

Losing Wayne could prove huge, but at this point I don't see how one loss means the sky is falling for this team.