Monday, October 12, 2009

Austin Collie, Colts vs. Titans Hero: NFL Twitter Mailbag

Austin Collie was a little-known receiver coming out of BYU in this year's NFL draft, but on Sunday night he had a big game on a big stage, with the best performance of his young NFL career in the Sunday night Colts vs. Titans game. And as we open up the Monday morning NFL Twitter mailbag, we start with Collie.

We also get to Randy Moss's interception, Mike Singletary's coaching, Dre Bly's Leon Lett moment, and Derek Anderson's pathetic completion percentage. Your questions and my answers for the NFL Twitter mailbag are below.

FBfollies: Did you ever think Austin Collie would be the star of a game for the Colts?
No, I didn't, certainly not as a rookie. I thought the Colts were taking Collie in this year's draft mostly for roster depth and special teams help, not as an integral part of their passing game. But there he was on Sunday night, scoring two touchdowns and generally looking like a poised veteran, not a rookie with one NFL start under his belt.

Think about this: Collie was the 19th receiver taken in this year's draft, and he already has 20 catches for 228 yards and three touchdowns. The top two receivers taken in this year's draft, Darrius Heyward-Bey and Michael Crabtree, have a combined for two catches, 36 yards and zero touchdowns.

It's amazing that the Colts are undefeated, and yet they look like a team that will get a lot better by the end of the season: They're still missing starting wide receiver Anthony Gonzalez, who's bound to improve their passing game when he's healthy, and I still think their offensive line looks a little out of sorts and can get more cohesive as a unit as the season goes on. Most importantly, Bob Sanders -- who in my opinion is the Colts' second-best player, after Peyton Manning -- hasn't played a down yet. The Colts are going to be really, really hard to beat in January.

jakeytorres Why was Randy Moss playing defence?
The Patriots put Moss in the secondary on the last play of the first half because his height and leaping ability make him a natural fit to defend against a Hail Mary. Sure enough, he got an interception -- meaning that in Sunday's game, Moss caught as many passes from Kyle Orton as he caught from Tom Brady.

WatchKalibRun: All I see Singletary doing is lecturing players in a condescending way, maybe they should make adjustments.
I've been impressed by Singletary as the 49ers' coach -- he took a terrible team and made them competitive -- but this is a good point. Most weeks, Singletary's fiery personality seems to motivate the team to play hard, but on Sunday against the Falcons, the 49ers didn't need a fiery personality. They needed a good game plan. They were badly outplayed and badly out-coached by the Falcons, and I hope Singletary holds himself as accountable as he holds his players when they screw up.

ninerchick05: Do you think that was a Leon Lett-Don Beebe moment in SB 27?
mmahotstuff: He should be fined for being an idiot. If I owned the team I would have fined him $15000. Then I'd give it to charity.
These were among the responses to the absolutely ridiculous play by 49ers cornerback Dre Bly, who intercepted a Matt Ryan pass, only to start showboating on the return, fumble, and have the Falcons recover. Bly has made stupid mistakes for years. I used to watch him with the Lions, and he was maddening: He's a good enough athlete to be one of the best cover corners in football, but he would regularly mess up his coverage assignments -- and refuse to be accountable for it, claiming publicly that the only problem in Detroit was Joey Harrington. (The Lions are 11-42 since Harrington left.)

AusRob They've got to make a change after that, surely? Derek Anderson completed 11% of his passes today -- and won.
As I tweeted on Sunday, Anderson completed 11.8% of his passes against the Bills. For perspective, JaMarcus Russell's lowest completion percentage in any game of his career is 29.2%. And yet I'm not at all sure the Browns will make another quarterback change. I think Browns coach Eric Mangini will view the fact that his team finally won a game as evidence that he made the right move by benching Brady Quinn. Either way, it's going to be a long year for the Browns.
Source nfl.fanhouse.com

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