It is great to have a 44 year old vocal leader on your team, but his role should not be as your starting QB. Yesterday, Rivers made the entire team feel like they had a chance to win as a 13.5 point underdog. The rest of the team maintained that feeling, even after watching dying quails, stumbles, and a 15 yard max on the ball flight of their QB. The feeling was “We are going to win this dag-gon thing”, which should be how a team feels each and every week. A QB can be and often is the guy that the team looks to for confidence, but as a rule that confidence is placed in the QB’s ability. The other person that is supposed to make you feel like you are going to win each and every time you step on the field, is the coach.
The coach that had his unit ready to roll against the Seahawks, was Lou and his defense. You can say what you want about not protecting a lead with 47 seconds left, but his unit was the only reason that 16 points was looking like enough on the day. His players saw the practices and likely knew that they would have to be at the top of their game if the Colts had any chance to win. I believe if Ward or Gardner would have been available, those 16 points would have been enough. Giving up 50 yards of rushing and holding them to 2 of 13 on 3rd down conversions, should win you most contests. Based on their play, I held out hope for 59 minutes and 42 seconds, that the Colts could pull this one out.
Rivers is getting a lot of flowers this morning and getting on the field under his widely discussed circumstances is quite the story. Most of his accolades are coming from two aspects. The first is that he was making a lot of calls at the line and he is getting credit for getting the offense into the right play. The second is the infectious enthusiasm he had for the game and the moment. Those two qualities were nearly enough to overshadow the fact that the team gained 215 yards on the day, with 120 of those yards coming through the air.
I don’t point to those numbers out to disparage Rivers. My reason for bringing this up goes back to the two things that Rivers got a lot of credit for, by getting the team into the right play and getting them fired up. I’ve never played a down of competitive football, but those sound two things sound like things that the coach should be able to accomplish. I’ll catch some heat, but I think that Steichen should have had Leonard prepared to make those reads and then rallied the rest of the team to believe in the next man up. In short, I believe that Steichen is good at designing plays, but I do not feel he has much situational awareness and he just might not be a “Leader of men”.
Rivers getting the team into the “right” play, was often going with the run. It didn’t produce any of the chunk plays that we often see when JT gets 25 carries. It didn’t produce anything over the top to soften things for the short game. It kept him upright for much of the games and generally ahead of the sticks as well. Even though Rivers would have had trouble against massive pressure, it was actually the smarter play not to blitz and to make him throw those quails into tighter windows. Our WRs battled for a few balls that made the passing stats a shade over awful.
Last week, I gave my reasons for believing that Ballard and Steichen should be let go at season’s end. This game did not change my opinion. A 3 – 0 finish could propel the team into the playoffs and could even see them host a game, but aside from yesterday’s moral victory, only watching the defense step up gave me any reason to believe that we could get that 3 – 0 outcome. We are locked into Rivers now. You can’t make the call that asks him to restart his HOF clock and then tell him that you want to go with the younger guy after one game.
Maybe the right call would have just been to fly Rivers up to the complex to talk to his young mentee? Let Rivers’ bravado be felt by the entire team, as there are still a good amount of former teammates in the building. Let him instill some confidence and give him a couple of things to look for that might make him more comfortable. Of course that is not necessary, if the guy that is supposed to play that role is actually doing so.
My final thought would be that our QB1 for opening day next year is, at minimum, in flux. We’d like to say that it is Jones, but we first have to sign him, then he has to have a nearly perfect rehab period. If those two conditions are not met, then you have to decide if AR is still on the team and if he is, hope that he is available to play. That leaves the possibility that Leonard needs to at least start the season as your starting QB. In that event, I’d feel better about him if he was the one leading the charge to finish out the season.
Leonard’s throwing prowess is not what led Notre Dame to a National Title game last year. He did exhibit leadership and some moxie against the much stronger Buckeyes. He should have been allowed to try and do the same for the Colts. Steichen and Ballard bringing in Rivers, showed that they did not have faith in Leonard, so why should his teammates? It may not be as great of a story if Leonard was to have rallied the troops, as compared to the story we are riding with, but I think it would have sent the better message and honestly given us the better chance to win.
So, what I need to hear from you is whether or not you think that bringing in Rivers was the right move?
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