Walker-Sports NFL review: Someone's missing Edge

by user BigPPup

Week 1 of the NFL season has come to an end, and the one thing we can tell at this early point of the season is many of the predictions and hoopla we heard before the start of the season are going to be wrong, and the Packers are going to be bad, real bad this year.

Let us start with the game that got the most publicity going into the weekend. Manning Bowl 1, earned a spot as the Sunday Night game on NBC, and showcased the first ever meeting of two brothers as starting QB’s in the NFL. The NFL is a marketing machine, and all too often the product on the field falls well short of the marketing hype. Manning Bowl 1 had no such problem.

The Colts and the NY football Giants put on a show on Sunday night, battling down to the wire, with the Colts prevailing 26-21. However, despite leaving the Meadowlands with a victory, the Colts discovered the have a major problem. The Colts miss and need Edgerian James. His presence in the backfield both as a blocker and more importantly as a rushing threat, are two things the Colts need if they want their offense to be effective throughout the season. On Sunday night the Giants defense held the Colts to 55 yards rushing. Dominic Rhodes and the rookie Joseph Addai were both held under 30 yards rushing.

Peyton Manning and the receiving core were able to handle their business as usual. Yet, that is almost a given when one is talking about someone as talented as Peyton Manning and Marvin Harrison. Both of them are going to be sure to get their yards, and make big plays happen. That’s what big time players do.

Yet, if a team wants to play in, and win a Super Bowl which is what the Colts are expected to do this season, they must have a balanced offense. In past seasons, Indi has been forced to compete while Edge was on the bench with injuries. Every time they struggled against the teams with solid defenses. Right now with the lack of a running game, defending the Colts becomes very easy. Teams can sit back in modified pass defense packages to contain the Colts. Bringing in a Dime Back is possible on every game, when the defense does not have to worry about the run.

To compound this problem, the lack of a rushing attack also cripples Indianapolis’s passing game. Every week fans hear that Peyton Manning is one of the best playaction QB’s ever. Yet, if there is no rushing threat then the playacton becomes ineffective. Watch any Colts game and see that they take the majority of their passing plays from a playaction set.

The Colts will be happy with a win in week 1, but I am sure they cannot be pleased about the rushing attack and will look to fix it soon.

Date

Tue 09/12/06, 3:57 pm EST