Ryan Review: Colts’ QB, Offense Become Predictable vs. Eagles

The Indianapolis Colts couldn’t get the victory in interim head coach Jeff Saturday’s house debut, falling to the Philadelphia Eagles, 17-16.

Whereas the protection did its half, holding the Eagles to their lowest-scoring recreation of the season, the Colts’ offense got here up quick, beating themselves with pricey errors and poor execution.

Quarterback Matt Ryan did not have a serious affect for the Colts on Sunday, ending the day 23-of-32 (72%) for 213 yards, no touchdowns or interceptions, and a QB score of 89.7.

“That is a troublesome one to swallow,” Ryan mentioned after the sport. “, make no mistake, they are a good soccer group. They have been enjoying very nicely all 12 months. I assumed we had a good suggestion of what we wanted to do as a way to win. We did quite a lot of actually good issues. We made too many errors alongside the best way. And, yeah, that one seems like, you recognize, we let it get away.”

“Ryan Evaluation” is again on Horseshoe Huddle, the place we are going to take a look at the movie every week and dissect how Ryan performed. Ryan had some success within the regular areas, however the predictability and lack of execution for the Colts’ offense is a trigger for concern.

Success Over the Center

In case you have adopted this sequence all through the season, you recognize that Ryan does a lot of his harm over the center of the sphere. Throwing over the center is the power of the 15-year NFL veteran, and that was the case on Sunday.

Ryan picked up the vast majority of his yardage and had most of his conversions over the center of the sphere. Broad receiver Michael Pittman Jr. was the recipient of most of those throws, permitting the 6-4 223-pound wideout to go to work. Ryan is at his finest when he could make throws over the center to the second layer of the protection, particularly when he can get the ball out shortly.

So long as Ryan is the beginning quarterback for the Colts, count on the center of the sphere to be the realm the Colts make the most of most by way of the air.

Opening Issues Up

One space of the passing recreation the Colts haven’t utilized a lot is taking pictures down the sphere. Now, there are some causes for this – Ryan’s arm power and holding up lengthy sufficient in safety, to call just a few – however it’s an space the Colts ought to take a look at using extra transferring ahead.

Apart from the 24-yard play by Pittman seen above, listed below are a pair extra pictures down the sphere that Ryan was in a position to hit. The throw to extensive receiver Parris Campbell was the longest play of the day for the Colts. The safety holds up, and Ryan stays calm within the pocket as he delivers the ball downfield.

The Colts haven’t taken very many pictures downfield as a result of the safety has not been in a position to maintain up lengthy sufficient for these performs to develop. Nevertheless, as we are going to see, opposing groups are catching on to what the Colts try to do on offense.

Fast Passes Develop into Predictable

Due to the problems alongside the offensive line, Indy has dialed up quite a few fast passing performs to get the ball out of Ryan’s palms shortly so the safety doesn’t have to carry up as lengthy. Since this has been a difficulty all season lengthy, opposing defenses are actually anticipating the Colts to throw the ball shortly and are able to converge when the ball is within the air.

This subsequent clip exhibits a few examples the place the Eagles have been enjoying near the road of scrimmage and anticipating the ball to come back out of Ryan’s palms shortly. The Eagles’ defenders have been sitting on these routes and anticipating the ball to come back to the receivers near the road of scrimmage. It made issues easy for the Eagles to both rally to the ball or play tight protection with the receivers.

Groups across the league know the Colts are struggling for solutions in safety. They know if they’ll generate stress and play tight protection from the snap, the Colts can have hassle with longer growing performs. Count on this to be a development during the last seven video games of the season for the Colts.

Persevering with to Crumble Beneath Strain

Whereas the Colts gave up just one sack of their win over the Las Vegas Raiders, the Eagles proved to be a distinct animal. The Colts gave up eight QB hits and 4 sacks on Sunday, with all 4 coming within the second half.

Whereas the subsequent clip isn’t a sack, it demonstrates that the fixed stress Ryan is dealing with is having an affect on his play. The Eagles ship a blitz, and Ryan shortly dumps the ball off to his test down, working again Deon Jackson. Nevertheless, due to desirous to get the ball out shortly, Ryan misses Pittman coming open on the backside of the display screen for a would-be first down. The second angle exhibits Pittman beginning to come open throughout the sphere with nobody round him.

The ultimate clip of the day exhibits all 4 sacks of Ryan on the day. A few of the sacks are on Ryan for not getting the ball out, notably the second sack as he has tight finish Mo Alie-Cox open heading to the sideline. However whether or not it’s on Ryan or the offensive line, the poor execution killed quite a few drives by the Colts and stalled the offense tremendously.

Closing Evaluation

The efficiency by Ryan and the Colts’ offense is way of what we now have seen from the unit all season. Whereas Ryan has been in a position to dominate the center of the sphere and hit deep pictures when given time, safety breakdowns have been the crux of the unit and brought about them to severely underperform. Opposing groups know the weaknesses of the Colts’ offense and are ready to fight the methods Indy works round them. The Colts should modify as an offense and turn into much less predictable in the event that they hope to have success the remainder of the best way.

Issues won’t get any simpler this week because the Colts tackle the Pittsburgh Steelers on Monday Night time Soccer. Though the Steelers (3-7) have a worse file than the Colts (4-6-1) on the season, they’ve a defensive entrance that features reigning NFL Defensive Participant of the 12 months linebacker T.J. Watt, linebacker Alex Highsmith (9.0 sacks), and defensive deal with Cameron Heyward (4.0 sacks). The Steelers might be able to get after Ryan on Monday night time, and if the Colts usually are not ready, Indy’s offense could also be in for a tough night time.

Need extra Colts content material? Try the newest episode of the Horseshoe Huddle Podcast!

Comply with Andrew on Twitter @AndrewMooreNFL.

Comply with Horseshoe Huddle on Twitter and Fb