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OverviewOn December 23 Christine Michael Sr Jersey , 2018 the Indianapolis Colts will host the New York Giants. In this Week 16 match-up I sought to understand our opponent and get a better idea of how they may attack our surging Colts.The Colts have lost to the Giants once in the past twenty (20) years, that loss coming in 2002. Prior to that the Colts hadn’t lost to the often talked about G-Men since 1993 and going back to 1968 (not a typo, the Vietnam War was being waged) our Colts are 8-3 against these Giants. Unfortunately for us, history has nothing to do with the game on Sunday, unless you consider Eli Manning’s career, as the best of it is far in the past. Let’s figure out what we can expect in Week 16. Offensive Scheme When the New York Giants hired Pat Shurmur away from his post as offensive coordinator of the Minnesota Vikings, they believed they were getting the man who made Case Keenum look like a top 15 quarterback which is exactly who they got. The biggest problem is he couldn’t bring the Vikings defense with him so while the wins haven’t come for the Giants at the pace they were probably hoping he has managed to improve Eli Manning’s statistical output to the best they’ve been in years. He’s currently on pace to throw only 10 interceptions on the year which would tie the lowest amount he’s had in a single season (as a full time starter) in his career. So what does this offense look like? For answers I turned to my favorite football website, not named Stampede Blue; Inside the Pylon. Nick Turchyn looked at Shurmur’s offense from 2017 and while I’m going to give you excerpts here to paint a coherent but (hopefully) succinct picture this article is worth the read. Your browser does not support HTML5 video.This last paragraph jumped off the page when I read it as it is very consistent with what I’ve seen on tape of these Giants. Lots of swing passes. Also given the aggressive nature of our defense I presume we will see many delayed handoffs this Sunday. If you’ve followed my work very long, you’ve probably seen me talk about play action working regardless of run success. I’m not just making stuff up, but that’s not the point of this article. Turchyn goes on to break down a couple of different play action passes that turned into screens. He then goes into the differences between Ben McAdoo’s West Coast offense and what Shurmur might look to do when he drops this gem:He goes on to show a clip of Manning against the Cowboys in week 14. I am unable to embed the video but it shows exactly what he’s talking about above. Manning wasn’t getting more comfortable. Turchyn goes on to show similarities and differences between McAdoo and Shurmur’s system. He highlights some quick hitting passes and where Manning was successful and where he struggled. The long and short of it is, the Giants will look to establish the run, use play action and get the ball out of Manning’s hand quickly. If the Colts can limit the ground game and force the Giants to throw the ball down the field, it could bode well for the Colts playoff chances. While Shurmur has done all he can to improve the offense he hasn’t been able to overcome all of their deficiencies. The rankings haven’t improved much and they will miss the playoffs for the 8th time in the past decade. For a deeper dive into Pat Shurmer, really go read the entirety of the above article, it is excellent.Despite the Giants overwhelming lack of success, like the Cowboys, analysts year after year talk about them ad nauseam. I’ve been a Giants fan a total of two days in my entire life, each of those two days they’ve made me proud, beating the Patriots in the Super Bowl. Beyond those two games Pat McAfee Color Rush Jersey , like the Cowboys, most of their recent seasons have been irrelevant.Quarterback: I feel it’s important to preface the clips I’m about to show you with this: I pulled these clips before I found the article and subsequent data from the Inside the Pylon article. I need to tell you that because if I weren’t the guy who watched the tape, found the clips and then many, many hours later found an article that perfectly explained what the clips showed, I would assume the guy writing the article was cherry picking to fit his narrative. That’s not how it happened, but it does completely back up everything you’ve read up to this point. Rolling out:Manning does a good job here off of play action, rolling to his right, finding a receiver and delivering a catchable ball under pressure. I would say that he makes a read, but that would imply that he progressed through his reads and I don’t think that’s what happened here at all. It worked out, but you’ll see in the last clip how quickly it can go wrong.Quick hitting throw:This ball comes out quickly on his first read. There’s nothing great about this play, but this play and plays like it are why Manning’s numbers have been good. You can rack up a lot of yards and a great completion percentage without racking up a lot of wins. Longer than 2.5 seconds:Just like Nick Turchyn said, if Manning has to hold the ball and progress through reads, his footwork gets sloppy and he is slow to process. That’s exactly what happens here as he fades away and throws a bad pass. RPO-ish:While this play could be confused as a RPO, it’s just a play action pass. Manning was going to his first option all the way, the cornerback recognized it, jumped the route and made the interception. Most of Manning’s mistakes this season have been fairly minor. He isn’t making big mistakes, he isn’t taking big risks, he’s not making a lot of big plays and he’s not winning the Giants any games. Running Back:There’s not much I can tell you about Saquon Barkley that you probably don’t already know. He’s really good. He should be, he was drafted second overall https://www.coltsfanshop.com/Jack-Doyle-Jersey , he better be great and so far he has been. What does a great running back on a bad team get you? A losing record. With that said he could turn into a huge problem if our Colts don’t play their assignments and gang tackle. He is a lot of fun to watch but hopefully he won’t be adding to his highlight reel this Sunday. It would be a mistake not to mention his ability as a pass catcher. He’s caught 82 passes, 15 more than Odell Beckham. There isn’t much to say about it, he’s a complete back. That’s a tiny crease. Barkley hits it in a hurry. This is what you should expect out of him but it isn’t common. I watched Barry Sanders play a handful of times as a kid. I wasn’t able to really appreciate what I was watching and while Barkley isn’t Sanders, he can do some of the same things I didn’t think the NFL world would ever see again. This is why our Colts have to stay in their gaps and multiple people have to flow to Barkley. At Penn State he majored in making the first guy miss and minored in breaking tackles. He is a special back who can take over games, our defense will need to have a plan in place to keep that from happening. Pass Catchers: Odell Beckham, Sterling Shepard and Evan Engram all trail Saquon Barkley in catches but they’re the guys you need to know. Beckham is a great receiver with the temperament and maturity of an emotional 10 year old who was handed a million dollar check. If the Colts had the chance to acquire his services I would hope they pass, no matter how good the guy is. I don’t have a high opinion of Beckham the person but he is a lot of fun to watch. Engram is talented and Shepard would be a big upgrade on the Colts roster but as long as Eli Manning is under center we may never know how productive these receivers can be. Yards after catch is a concept foreign to Colts fans, the Giants receivers not only need it if they have any hope of moving the ball, they are good at it too. To Beckham’s credit he’s the only guy on the roster with the guts to throw a pass down field. I know, Barkley’s section was above this one but how could I not include him in the pass catcher’s section?If the Colts can give Beckham the same treatment they’ve given DeAndre Hopkins and Amari Cooper, they’ll just have to worry about stopping Saquon Barkley. Offensive Line: In the off season the Giants signed Nate Solder to a massive contract to play left tackle. At the time I criticized the move and said that they were paying Solder insane money to play worse than Anthony Castonzo. I caught some flack, but I was right. Solder, hasn’t been bad but they paid him like the best tackle in football and he hasn’t been close to that. The Giants also took Will Hernandez in the second round in the 2018 draft. Hernandez has played well at times but he hasn’t changed the entire culture and attitude of the Giants offensive line like some other rookie guard we’ve all heard about. Chad Wheeler the Giants starting right tackle, is probably a good guy. I don’t have anything positive to say about his ability to play football. Spencer Pulley the starting center is in the same boat as Wheeler. Jamon Brown, the starting right guard is in the exact same boat. These guys better hope they keep their looks because they’re not going to get by on their ability to play football much longer. I expect to see a lot of this on Sunday. They just don’t have the talent up front to block the Colts deep defensive line. I also expect to see this. This isn’t on the offensive line but it counts all the same. This line is bad. I expect more production from our young defensive line and with any luck a fun day in the trenches for the good guys. Final Thoughts:The Giants have played better over the second half of the season. They’ve beaten the 49ers, the Buccaneers, the Redskins and the Bears. Of those opponents only the Bears are a quality win and the Giants have yet to beat a team with quarterback as good as Andrew Luck. This isn’t a game anyone should overlook but as a fan I’m not going to worry about the outcome of this one. The Indianapolis Colts were riding a 3-game win streak coming into their Week 11 matchup with the Tennessee Titans. The Titans were allowing the fewest points in the league while the Colts were averaging over 30 points per game over their last five games as well. This one was meant to be a great battle in Lucas Oil Stadium. The Colts certainly owned the first half racking up 24 points and 246 total yards, while holding the Titans offense to only 3 points and 114 yards from scrimmage.The Colts second half was just as dominant, but without all of the scoring. The Colts put together lengthy drives keeping the ball in the hands of their franchise quarterback Adam Vinatieri Jersey , and put together a great game plan to complete the blowout of their divisional foes. Here are a few takeaways from today’s big Colts win.Colts get T.Y. Hilton involved very early on One of the Colts biggest playmakers on offense, Hilton, had only accumulated 8 catches in his last three games played before today. However, the Colts were obviously determined to change all of that going forward. Hilton caught 2 passes on the team’s first 3 plays of the game and nabbed 4 receptions for 101 yards, including a 68-yard bomb for a touchdown in the first half alone against the Titans. Andrew Luck attempted to hit him again deep on the very next possession and while it didn’t net a reception, it did force a pass interference call on Titans’ corner Adoree Jackson giving the Colts the ball near midfield. Hilton finished the day with 9 catches for 155 yards (17.2 yards per reception) and 2 touchdowns. I think he’s back.Colts defense earns 4 sacks in first half, shut down Titans’ offenseAfter several straight games without accruing a sack, the Colts defense decided to switch things up a bit in this matchup. The Colts DO NOT blitz with any frequency, and they don’t do it on third down almost at all.Today, though, they did, and they did it early and often. On the Titans’ very first possession they brought Marcus Mariota down for their first sack after sending 6 rushers on third down, and on their very next possession the Colts blitzed on first down to stop the running game, and again two plays later on third down again.This mindset — of which the Colts very rarely have strayed from this year — allowed the Colts to rack up 4 sacks, hold the Titans running game to only one double-digit yard run (both first half stats), and keep the Titans offense off balance throughout the rest of the day. The Colts only allowed 114 total yards and 3 points in the first half on a day in which the Colts offense was next to perfect most of the game.The Colts held the Titans to 4.5 yards per play, 87 rushing yards and 176 passing yards all while allowing only 10 points on the day. They also accumulated a total of 5 sacks and 8 tackles for loss on the day.Darius Leonard continues his fantastic rookie campaignIt seems like we’re talking about him every week. Maybe that’s because he’s dominating every week. Leonard has now cleared 100 total tackles on the season, and just today added 7 total tackles, another sack Marvin Harrison Color Rush Jersey , a forced fumble as well as an interception to his season totals. Leonard is making a very strong push for Defensive Rookie of the Year honors, has been a surprise to some, but has also been vindication for others who touted his second-round selection as a fantastic pick for this new Colts’ defensive scheme. Leonard has been a fantastic addition to the Colts who desperately needed a massive upgrade to their linebacker corps this season. He shows off his speed, is a sure tackler and offers some of that quick-twitch pass rush help that the Colts have also needed from the unit.All in all, Leonard is definitely the Colts defensive MVP through 10 games and may be in line for more league awards if his play continues to dominate as the season progresses. Colts offense is humming at the right timeThe Colts, again, put together a very impressive game offensively. Not to mention that they did it for a second consecutive week against divisional rivals, and another very good defense. The Colts, in the last two weeks, have put up 53 points in the first halves of those games, and Andrew Luck has 13 touchdowns with only a single interception over his last 4 games. Luck also has at least 3 touchdown passes in his last 7 games (24 total touchdowns), a feat in which only Peyton Manning and Tom Brady have done before him in a single season. Luck finished the day 23-of-29 for 297 passing yards, and 3 touchdowns with a 10.2 yard per attempt average. He’s certainly getting into the MVP conversation in addition to the comeback player of the year honors.The offensive line hasn’t given up a sack now in 5 straight games, the running game got back on track today (4.2 yards per attempt before their kneel-downs) after a quick speed bump against the Jaguars last week, and outside of a few blips, the receivers have been as sure-handed as they’ve been all year.