He'll be attempting 50+ passes, I don't care who he's playing, when you throw that much you will put up stats.
and take a lot of hits.
Im not exactly sure how benching bulger would remedy this.My guess is that Pace keeps Freeny occupied so there will be very few hits from the blind side. Which is good because those are the ones that will potentially knock him out of the game. Mathis may just beat up on Barron but at least Bulger will see it comming.
In fact I am starting bulger. Im definately loving the Holt- Harper matchup if holt can play and about this Indy defense- St. Louis is going to be the litmus test. With the exception of Cleveland, all the teams they faced are below average passing teams with porous Offensive Lines. Not to say that the St. Louis line is the greatest, but I think that individual matchups may limit the Indy pass rush.
Also in the cover two scheme, the defense is generally geared towards Indy's first few opponents- Qb's without a good arm, TE primary, short routes rather than deep. So in effect, Indy's D should look good thus far- every team sans the Browns (and maybe even them) lacks a pure deep threats and relies on TE routes and quick-drops to avoid the pressure. Here is why St Louis is a good matchup.
X Factor 1) Kevin Curtis. Its clear he's going to be the #3 in this game and theres where his value is. The LB's who play back a little do not have the speed to shadow curtis and with Bob sanders gimpy, and slow, this is a problem. The Safety is playing deep so he'll have quite a bit of turf to cover to get to the ball if it is thrown in the 10-15 yard mark, past the LB's and yet too far for the safety to arrive in time. Thus, Curtis has the ability to catch and find an open lane downfield with his speed- because neither sanders or doss will be able to get to the grey area in the coverage. This hole is in the dead center of the field and if Curtis can get a pass there, he'll smoke the safetys.
X Factor 2) Tory Holt. The other soft zone against the defense is along the sideline, just a bit farther than where the LB's play. If Bulger can complete a pass to Holt and if the corner shanks the tackle, theres nothing but daylight seperating Holt from the endzone. Again, the safety has a lot of ground to cover and even if he gets to holt, a shanked tackle can lead to 10-20+ extra yards on any given play along the sidelines. Now here is where Curtis comes into play. If Indy chooses to bring in sanders or Doss to contain the routes to curtis, they leave open a bigger window of opportunity for Holt for the big play and nobody does it better than Holt. Also if they play more shallow coverage, than a shanked tackle may end up yielding a touchdown.
My feeling is that Bulger will have his miscues but will have a otherwise good game. Possibilities are galore with this offense.
I will start Bulger every week until he is injured.
). They won't be any more valuable than they are right now.
