Do you know what Peyton's problem is this year?

[Liverlips]

Could the Edge be the difference, or his line, or what?

[CaptainHook]

Besides leading three clutch drives to win games in back to back weeks?

 

Seriously, teams are daring the Colts to run, dropping guys into coverage. So far, the Colts are not being patient with the running game. Take the game vs. Tenn. The Colts ran 6 straight times to get the ball to the Titans 37 yard line. Then they bomb the ball into the end zone trying to get a passing TD when they should have kept pounding it. Tennessee wasn't stopping the run, and was still playing pass, but they tried to force it.

 

Plus, the Colts run defense is HORRIBLE. This eats more clock, keeps Peyton and the O on the sideline, and shortens the game. Rhodes fumbled away one posession in the first half, and Wayne dropped a pass that got intercepted and cut short another in the red zone.

[Bill Swerski]

I guess that some things never change. When the Colts defense sucks, somebody inevitably blames Manning.

[ffjunkey]

I drafted him early thinking they would not be running as much this year, but just the opposite has happened. I think Dungy is looking ahead to the playoffs already, and is trying to get his team to believe they can win by running the ball and playing better defense. The Colts have had trouble running the ball against solid defenses in the playoffs, and this has hurt their ability to pass in those games.

 

Manning has put up some monster numbers during the regular season, but not when it counts. Maybe Dungy is also going with a more conservative game plan to get his team used to winning close games. There is no reason that the Titans should have even been close against the Colts. They are a lousy team, and if Manning had come out firing they would have blown them out like Dallas did.

 

I think this approach started after the Colts beat the Texans in week 2. Dungy was not happy with the way his defense played down the stretch. I believe he wants more ball control, which spells doom for Colts fantasy players.

 

Look at these trends:

 

Game 1: 41 pass attempts, 23 rushing attempts

Game 2: 38 pass attempts, 35 rushing attempts

Game 3: 31 pass attempts, 20 rushing attempts

Game 4: 30 pass attmepts, 36 rushing attempts

Game 5: 31 pass attempts, 34 rushing attempts

 

Manning's passing yards per attempt has gone way down the last few games also. I'm sure there are other factors contributing to his numbers declining (injuries, matchups, etc.), but I believe Dungy is the main reason. I don't think opponents are slowing Manning down, but that Dungy is trying to prepare his team for a superbowl run. Success in the regular season doesn't mean much unless you continue it in the playoffs.

[The Vatican Hitsquad]

I didn't realise a poor running game and porous Defense were "Peytons problem this year".

 

And here I though he was single handedly carrying this team on his back with a great crew of WR's, stupid me for not being able to look passed this and just jump on a "slam Manning for no reason, despite being 5-0" bandwagon.

Edited October 11, 2006 by The Vatican Hitsquad

[Cosmo-J]

Yeah, I would agree inasmuch as this isn't particulary "Peyton's Problem" as it's the Colts trying desperately to establish their Run; something that will ultimately help them in the long run. Taking Peyton in the very early rounds of your draft was a high risk/high reward proposition and it's looking as though he's a QB that could have been effectively taken in the 4-8th rounds + like most normal QB's. Granted, if he was gunning like it was 2004, we'd be talking about his Fantasy studliness right now - but he's not, so we're not... But even so, he's still the in the top 3 of Fantasy QB production, so wouldn't by any means say he's broken (and the Colts are 5-0) - it's just that not taking him in the early rounds has been justified.