Colts Gab

The Indianapolis Colts recently just placed backup quarterack Jim Sorgi on IR. That just leaves more help for Curtis Painter, who has been playing football in Indiana for pretty much his whole life.

Painter has just now moved up to the second spot in the depth chart behind Peyton Manning (who would replace him?).

“I guess it moves me up. Now I’m one step away instead of two,” Painter told the Indianapolis Star. “It changes in that sense, but not really, because in this league you’ve got to be ready at any time. So I’ve really tried to take that approach the whole time.”

Painter had thrown for 381 passing yards and completed almost 60 percent of his passes in the preseason. If the Colts move to 13-0, they might have home-field advantage.

And if that happens, Indiana might bench their players, which would leave playing time for Painter. I like to see what Painter has. I think he looks like a good backup.

But Jim Sorgi may be in trouble.

The Indy Star reports today that Jim Sorgi’s backup QB job is safe:

If sixth-year quarterback Jim Sorgi takes his first snaps of the preseason Thursday at Cincinnati, he won’t be competing for his job with rookie Curtis Painter. “It’s a situation where ‘Sorge’ is our backup guy right now,” Indianapolis Colts coach Jim Caldwell said Sunday. “He’s been here a long time. He knows our system, understands it. “Obviously, Curtis has made a strong statement, but right now it kind of lines up the way it was when we first got started with Peyton (Manning) at the helm and Sorge backup to Peyton and then Curtis.”

The Indy Star reports that backup QB Jim Sorgi will miss a few weeks with a hamstring strain:

The Indianapolis Colts have lost the services of backup quarterback Jim Sorgi for a couple of weeks. Sorgi limped off the practice field Friday afternoon after straining his right hamstring. “Sorgi has got a pretty good strain,” coach Jim Caldwell said this morning. “Not quite certain how long it’s going to take him to get back, maybe two to three weeks.” Sorgi’s absence leaves the Colts with only two quartertbacks on the roster – Peyton Manning and rookie Curtis Painter.

The Colts had a great season last year. Not just great, it was amazing. They started out the season with a painful loss to the Chicago Bears, 29-13. That was the first time they lost their first game of the season since 2004, when they lost to the Patriots.

The Colts started out with a 3-4 record that year. That was just not how the Colts play. After that, the Colts shined. After beating the Patriots, 18-15, that was the start of their nine-game win streak. They improved to a 12-4 record and made the playoffs.

One of the anchors on CBS said that the Colts were the hottest team coming into the playoffs. Unfortunately, it didn’t look like it. They lost to the Chargers, 23-17 in overtime, while the Colts didn’t even have a chance to touch the ball.

After that painful loss, Tony Dungy said that it was over for him in football. After he retired from the Colts and wrote a book called, Uncommon, the Colts were looking for a new coach. Gladly, the found Jim Caldwell, a man who has been with the staff for quite some time.

What can Caldwell do? Is he the man for the job? Can the Colts show the world they have a running game and they can be Super Bowl contenders? Let’s see what happens.

Today, I am going to break down the Colts. Every single player. Today, I start with the quarterbacks. Next time, I’ll go straight towards the running backs and fullbacks. Then, the time after that, it’s wide receivers. So you get the trend. Let’s get started!

Quarterbacks

Peyton Manning: 27 touchdowns, 12 interceptions, 4,002 passing yards, and a 95.3 quarterback rating.

Peyton Manning started out horrible last year. After skipping training camp and missing the pre-season, Manning started out his first game of the season with a 81.8 rating. Even though he had no interceptions, the Bears dominated as Manning only completed 30-of-49 passes.

His next two games went worse. He had one touchdowns and two interceptions in both of those games. In the second game of the season, Manning had a 72.6 rating against the Vikings, with one touchdown and two picks. Manning had, almost, the same exact stats the next game against the Jaguars and had a 59.0 quarterback rating.

So, in his first three games of the season, Manning had three touchdowns and four interceptions with a 71.1 quarterback rating. After that horrible start, Manning improved to two touchdowns and only one interception, including a 101.0 rating.

The next game, Manning proved himself once more with three touchdowns and, finally, no picks! He finished with an amazing 134.7 rating. Manning improved deeply and was becoming a fine star. The Colts kept winning and winning.

Manning’s best game came against the Jaguars. He had three touchdowns and no picks with a dominant 140.7 quarterback rating. The 364 passing yards showed the pass game was on, while the running game wasn’t. It was a 31-24 win, as Keiwan Ratliff picked off David Garrard for a touchdown.

Manning ended the regular season with a 23-0 win over the Titans. Manning had a 158.3 rating as he went seven-for-seven and one touchdown with no picks. The 95 passing yards all went in the first quarter, and Jim Sorgi took it from there.

Manning ended the season with the stats shown above. Manning also won the MVP award, which looked to guide him towards a win in San Diego. Though Manning and the Colts lost, he showed pretty decent numbers. He had 310 passing yards, along with a touchdown and no picks. The 90.4 rating came when Manning went 25-42 on his passes.

Peyton Manning looks to guide the Colts to a playoff spot next year. He needs to. He has to. Lets hope Manning wins another MVP and guides himself and the Colts to their fourth Super Bowl and win it. Manning looks to earn his second Super Bowl ring while Tom Brady is worrying that Manning is only one ring behind. Can Manning do it?

Of course. He’s strong. He’s never missed a game. He only missed one play in his entire career while starting. He’s smart. Well, of course. Why else did he have 49 touchdowns in 2004? Good luck, Manning.

Jim Sorgi: No touchdowns, no interceptions, 178 passing yards and a 87.9 quarterback rating.

Jim Sorgi is probably one of my favorite backup quarterbacks. He has six touchdowns and one interception in his career. That is actually pretty good for a backup. He has a career 89.9 quarterback rating.

Sorgi disappointed the Colts in the 2007 regular season, when the Colts lost to the Titans, 17-14. It ended on a fourth down pass, when Sorgi threw to Devin Aromashodu, who is now on the Bears and a Super Bowl XLI champion, who failed to make the catch because of the swarming defenders.

Sorgi has been a great player with the Colts. Even though he was horrible in the pre-season when he had no touchdowns and one interception, he is better in the regular season.

Sorgi proves himself that he can stay with the Colts because he shows Lucas Oil Stadium that he is consistent in the last game of the season. Right now, it looks like Sorgi might lose his job. According to Bryan Brackney at The Colts Corner, he said that the Colts were the only scouts to look at Nate Davis’s Pro Day.

What does that mean? The Colts are looking for a new backup and they also checked out Mark Sanchez, according to the Bryan Brackney article. I think Jim Sorgi will still stay.

He was mostly the star of the 23-0 win against the Titans. He completed 73 percent of his passses, 22-for-30, and threw for 178 yards. His average passing yards a play was almost six (5.9). He also had a 87.9 quarterback rating.

Sorgi didn’t run that good though. He had five carries for only eight yards. He had close to two yards per carry average (1.6). Sorgi can still be a good backup, but he is kind of horrible. Just saying: In Madden 2006, Jim Sorgi had a 65 overall rating along with some guy named Travis Brown.

Can Sorgi be a good backup? Can he be a potential starter with some team? The Vikings could take a shot but it might be a little too risky. At 28 years old, he still has a lot to learn. He is improving. Why not? I would love to stay with the Colts, just getting payed to do nothing while Manning is at work. Heck, that would be a good life.

So now you know them Colts’ quarterbacks. One is consistent, one is not as much. This is a good one-two punch of quarterbacks. What is going to happen? Will the Colts get Nate Davis? Yeah, probably. No chance they get Sanchez. Davis looks to be a great backup for the Colts.

We’ll see sometime soon. So this wraps up part one. Stay tuned for part two of running backs and fullbacks. That looks to be good. This is Breaking Down the Colts. Thank you for reading and you have a nice day.

Carolina Panthers defensive end Julius Peppers is rounding out to the form that made him one of the more feared DE’s in the National Football League; Peppers had a sack and recovered a fumble and John Kasay kicked a 46 yard field goal in overtime, leading the Panthers to a narrow 23-20 victory over the Indianapolis Colts at Charlotte.

Turnovers killed the Colts as the Panthers recovered 2 miscues deep in Colts’ territory; running back DeAngelo Williams, who was the benefactor as a result, scored twice on the ground as the Panthers built a 14-0 lead. Colts quarterback Jim Sorgi, for the second week in a row, had a sub-par effort; he went 6-of-9 for 65 yards, but was sacked twice and threw an interception, while reserve QB Jared Lorenzen went 12-of-23 for 117 yards and a pair of touchdowns and Quinn Gray went 11-of-19 for 107 yards and 2 interceptions.

The Panthers’ competition for the backup QB job should be interesting as no specific QB stood out; Matt Moore went 7-of-14 for 107 yards, while Lester Ricard went 6-of-12 for 85 yards and Brett Basanez went 7-of-9 for 54 yards but also threw an INT. Jake Delhomme, returning from off-season ligament-replacement surgery, played only a pair of series, attempting only one pass – an incompletion.

The running game of the Colts was ineffective, as they were led by Gray and rookie RB Chad Simpson with 27 yards each; meanwhile, the running game of the Panthers was productive, led by rookie Decori Birmingham with 17 carries for 70 yards while Williams ran for 55 yards on only 9 carries and a pair of TD’s; LaBrandon Toefield added 49 yards on 12 carries. Rookie tight end Jacob Tamme led all Colts receivers with 5 catches for 57 yards while Onrea Jones caught 5 balls for 44 yards; rookie WR Chris Hannon led the Panthers’ receivers with 2 catches for 46 yards while second-year WR Dwayne Jarrett chipped in with 3 receptions for 43 yards.

Cornerback Brannon Condren led the Colts defense with 8 tackles while linebacker Ramon Guzman added 6 tackles and a fumble recovery; CB Keiwan Ratliff intercepted a pass. Rookie LB Dan Connor led the Panthers’ defensive effort with 6 tackles while the aforementioned Peppers recorded a sack and recovered a fumble; safety Quinton Teal, LB Adam Seward and rookie S Joe Fields recorded an INT apiece. The Colts play again on August 16 when they fly to Atlanta to face the Falcons while the Panthers play their second preseason contest when they travel to Philadelphia to face the Eagles.

The Hall of Fame Game this past Sunday marked the first game NFL game played since the Giants and Pats back in February. As a Colts fan I really don’t think I could have asked for a better start to the preseason. Dungy has been quoted saying that it was the best start to a season the Colts have ever had. Which is saying something considering the high caliber team the Colts have consistently been in his seven years at the helm.

The first player to jump out at me throughout the game was Mike Hart. This guy is such a perfect fit for the Colts, and really lives up to the acclaim he received coming out of Michigan. He moved the ball really well up the middle and once he touched the ball you could see him set his lane and power right through it. With guys like Rhodes and Addai on the roster the Colts were in the market for an up the middle down hill runner and I really think they found it in Hart. Never mind the fact that he rushed for an extra 3 or 4 yards and a first down AFTER having his helmet knocked off in his first broken tackle of the run.

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Capping off a tremendous Hall of Fame Weekend, the Colts and Redskins entertained the fans at Fawcett Stadium on Sunday night to a little taste of preseason football, with the Skins outslugging the Colts 30-16.  The story of the back and forth contest was the play of the four Skins QB’s, who are all learning the new system being put in by new head coach Jim Zorn and the fact that the Colts simply seemed to just want to leave Canton with no major injuries.

Jason Campbell, the teams starter this year, was sharp off the bat and on the night, going a perfect 5-for-5 for 61 yards and a TD to Antwaan Randle El from 20 yards out that opened up the scoring just over a minute into the game.  Rookie QB Colt Brennan drew cheers when he came into the game in the second half, and didn’t dissapoint.  He went 9-for-10 for 123 yards with two TD’s, and looked poised for his first action as a pro.

2nd year running back Marcus Mason, from Youngstown State, paced an effective Redskins running game as he ran for 98 yards on 18 carries (5.4 per carry) with a long of 19.  He and Rock Cartwright were the only two ball carriers for the Skins, and they put up a total 156 yards on 31 carries.  As for the Colts, preseason for them is just that – a time to simply get ready for the regular season and not get anyone hurt.  They rested just about all major starters, including players like Peyton Manning, Bob Sanders, Dwight Freeney and Marvin Harrison.  One starter who did give the team a scare was RB Joseph Addai, who left after the second play with a head injury, but seemed all right by games end.

The Colts starters played just one series, and usual backup Jim Sorgi played one series and led the team on a field goal drive, going 7-for-10 for 66 yards.  Former Jags QB Quinn Gray, who was a recent cut by the Texans, saw the most extensive action for the Colts, and went 10-for-19 for 160 yards with a TD to Onrea Jones from 30 yards out that gave the Colts a 10-9 lead with 5:57 left in the first half.

Indy led 13-9 at the half after an Adam Vinatieri field goal from 24 yards out to end the first half.  Rookie kicker Adam Crossett kicked a 28-yard field goal to make it 16-9 Colts with 10:44 left in the 3rd quarter.  That’s when Brennan made his debut, and he quickly made an impact.  He tied the score witha nifty 20-yard TD to wide out Maurice Mann that made it 16 all.  Then with 10:22 left in the 4th he threw a five-yard TD to Mason on the run that put Washington up for good.

Colts QB Jared Lorenzen, formerly of the Giants, took the helm for Indy in the 4th quarter, and threw a pick with 1:50 left that Skins corner Matterral Richardson took back 30 yards to close out the scoring at 30-16.  Indy will head to Carolina to take on the Panthers on Saturday night.

Backup QB Jim Sorgi will get plenty of playing time Sunday vs the Titans when the Colts take the field for the final regular season game ever at the RCA Dome. Colts coach Tony Dungy says that Peyton Manning will start the game, but many are already thinking that it would be a shock to see Manning play much more than that. Dungy said that Sorgi will play at least a half, but no one would be surprised to see him play earlier than that.

The game means everything to the Titans, who if they beat the Colts will move on to the postseason and a wild card game the following weekend vs either the Chargers or Steelers. A loss to Indy, and the Cleveland Browns will get the 6th and final seed in the AFC.