Is Dungy on the hot seat?

The Colts have a serious problem here: their defense has no heart or stones. That's everything in the NFL. They're soft, and they border on being outright p-----ies. This was coming for a long time. The Jaguars may actually catch them for first place in the division.

 

That cracked me up.

 

He absofuckinlutely should be. Perhaps the most overrated coach in the NFL.

But for the reasons described above, he's not on the hot seat.

 

Good list (and a valid point), but when you only have 6-7 possessions a game -- and it's almost impossible to get into a rhythm because the defense is on the field 8 minutes a chunk -- it's difficult to score a ton of points. When they were 9-0, it was largely because they were scoring on 75% of their possessions, and that masked the fact that they were only getting 3-4 touches per half.

This Colts run defense is one of the worst I've seen from a contending team -- and it was painfully obvious starting in Week 1. Manning & Moore aren't putting up a ton of points, but it's virtually impossible to score if you don't have the ball. Last year's Colts were able to slow down the run, create some turnovers and allow Manning to get into some semblance of a rhythm.

Opposing OC's have figured this team out, too. In the past, if you get down 14-0, it's time to start throwing, which plays right into the Colts' hands. They've finally figured out it's wise to keep cramming the ball down the Colts' throats and shorten the game, even if they're down 2-3 scores.

That said, the Colts' receivers have left a LOT of points on the field by dropping passes in recent weeks.

 

Yes, it truly is amazing how much a quarterback change can help a team's . . . defense.

In Manning's four years at UT, Florida scored . . .

31
62
35
33

The year after he left, Florida scored . . .

17, in overtime no less.

 

He is? Ask Mike Shula, who was booted after the Bucs nearly won the NFC with Shaun King at QB, and Les Steckel, who was booted the next year after the Bucs set a team record in pts, how loyal Dungy is to his assistants.

I won't deny Dungy is by far the finest man walking an NFL sideline, as empty an honor as THAT is in a business of liars and worse. But he's a lousy coach, and he's getting worse by the year. There is no excuse, none, for a defensive guru presiding over a defense that awful. And his Bucs outfits set offense back 20 years (yeah, yeah, blame the OC...the one constant there was Dungy).

He's going to go down in history as the only man to coach the greatest defense of the modern era and the greatest offense of the modern era and not win a damn thing. He's like Buck Showalter squared.

 

BYH, do you like ANYBODY? Good lord.

 

As a matter of fact, I heart lots of people.

I never said I don't like Dungy. Only that he should be on the hot seat because he's an overrated coach...and that to say he's loyal to a fault to his assistants is a bit misleading.

 

That's a bit harsh, but there's a lot of truth in it. His teams have underachieved repeatedly at both of his stops. That's not just coincidence.

 

I'd agree except for one major point -- the Colts' offense is perceived to be able to score at will. Defense on the field forever or not, the Colts offense is allegedly supposed to make up for it with its point-a-minute ability.

Only lately, they haven't been living up to the billing. Main reason? Inconsistent running game.

We're beginning to see the answer to the Colts chicken-and-egg question ... did Edgerrin James help Peyton Manning or did Manning help James? The Colts would kill to have James back, Joseph Addai's flashes of potential not withstanding.

And based on what's up in Arizona, I'm sure James would love to be back.

 

Time to dust off (and update) one of my favorite Polian quotes:

"Peyton Manning's still the quarterback, Tom Moore's still the offensive coordinator and Tony Dungy's still the head coach and if you don't like it, get out of town!"