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Fans of the Seattle Seahawks should definitely hope that new offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer wasn’t involved in the game planning process for the 2017 Indianapolis Colts, in particular when it comes to planning for playing with a lead in the fourth quarter.
This review by Sharp Football Analysis goes through just how predictable the Colts offense was in the fourth quarter of 2017, and how they effectively telegraphed their intentions on plays, making it far easier for the defense to stop them. Amazingly, the Colts telegraphed their offensive intentions with such certainty that it almost certainly cost them multiple wins.
In this article by Warren Sharp he looks at playcalling relative to formation for the Colts in the fourth quarter of games, and the results he shows are absolutely mind boggling. It’s almost as if the Colts weren’t trying to win the games they were playing, and as if they wanted to make signalling their intentions to the defense as simplistic as possible.
As promised, I wrote an article which incorporated a lot of this thread and added some additional thoughts / information. If you prefer an article as opposed to a Twitter thread -> The Unbelievable Story of the 2017 Colts: https://t.co/uIamLnPTWf
— Warren Sharp (@SharpFootball) February 23, 2018
For example, back in December Cam Newton and Clay Matthews had an on field exchange after Matthews began yelling to his teammates what he felt the coming play was based on his review of films.
Clay Matthews Thought He Knew The Panthers' Next Play, But Cam Newton Showed Him - Clay Matthews was close, and Cam Newton even lauded the Packers linebacker’s consumption of tape. But Panthers running back Christian McCaffrey ran a slant instead of a... https://t.co/aGGCfuIcxy
— Rob Kaarto (@Robkishere) December 18, 2017
While Matthews was incorrect on this play, the data on the tendencies of the fourth quarter Colts in 2017 is absolutely astounding, and Sharp’s review is simply mind blowing.
Seattle fans can only hope that the 2017 quarterback coach for Indianapolis, Brian Schottenheimer, wasn’t involved in game planning for the tendencies the Colts showed, because if he was Hawks fans could be in for a very long 2018 campaign.