Crappy Colts beat Bears - who gets the deflated ball?

Well you can't win games with 10 penalties
For most of the game, the D played like crap
Barf for missing the field goals
Massie for the critical hold

Penalties are an indictment on the coaching staff. 10 is way too many. So I put losing this very winnable game on Fox.

That said, Barf deserves honorable mention for missing yet another easy field goal. But one play doesn't necessarily lose a game.

As much as I dislike Massie, that was a hold that should not have been called. His defender knocked him over because he sucks so bad. But then the defender fell on top of him. There was no hold.

Or.....he pulled him down on top of him.  That's how they called it and when you're as bad at pass blocking as Massie is you will never get the benefit of the doubt on a borderline call.  How that guy manages to screw up so badly at just the wrong time is beyond me.  He's 5 year vet who plays like a raw rookie.  He lacks focus and he lacks most of the physical skills you'd want out of a decent all around RT.

Barth is now 5 for 8/62.5% and this is yet another guy Fox had to have because he couldn't trust Robbie Gould any longer.  Bullshit.  It was a salary dump to clear cap to sign Long to his extension.  Fox only had Barth for 5 games in Denver not his entire career and the guy lost out in a duel for the PK job in NOLA.....twice.  Anyone who doesn't see Fox's hand in some of these dumb personnel move raise their hand.

Good teams don't commit 10 penalties and shoot themselves in the foot that way.

Good teams don't rack up 400-500 yards total offense each week and average just 20 points per game unless they have an anal retentive uber conservative HC with a lousy rep for being out coached on game day.

And good QBs would see their #1 WR had man coverage and gone to him with a jump ball or deep corner toss in the end zone the guy makes 9 out of 10 times and maybe we win that game on that final play.  The problem is Hoyer can't make that throw well at all.

If anyone can honestly say this team is any better coached now than it was under Trestman I'd like to know why.  What do you see that I don't?

It's painful how badly I want Fox gone in January.

We looked like what we are - a young team cobbled together due to being devastated by injuries.  Even before the injuries hit us, it was still a team of new/young players learning their craft.  We are playing with a backup QB and a lot of young backups everywhere you look teamwide.  That is probably the real reason we had so many penalties - not because of the head coach.

I liked how the team scrapped and fought hard all game long - especially how some of the young backups performed.  Yes, Meredith fumbled at a critical time in the game.  I felt bad for the kid because he was stepping up bigtime until then.  For an undrafted backup he didn't disappoint, until that fumble.  He is already ahead of what I thought possible for him achieving at the NFL level.

Get used to this.  It is going to be a long season, and many losses.  Anyone who thinks it is possible to do otherwise this year, with the remaining talent we have is probably delusional.