With the Indianapolis Colts preparing for their 2010 regular-season opener against the Houston Texans Sunday, Indy Football Report Editor John Oehser offers three quick thoughts on the opener . . .

1.Too much, too soon? If there’s a dominant theme entering the Indianapolis Colts’ season-opener, it may be one that in a sense doesn’t directly involve the Colts.

That’s just how the Houston Texans are approaching the game.

The Texans, as Colts fans know, are hyped for this game. Big-time hyped. That’s not unusual, because Houston always gets up for Indianapolis, but combine the heady feeling around Houston surrounding this season, the Texans’ history against Indianapolis and the Colts’ status as perennial division powers and you’ve got a pretty frenzied situation.
That could impact the game in several ways.
The first thought is maybe this will be an extremely difficult situation for the Colts. They have, after all, needed dramatic, historical rallies each of the last two seasons to win in Houston, and in each of the last two seasons, there were moments in the game where it looked extremely doubtful the Colts could win.

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INDIANAPOLIS — Each week on Examiner.com, Indy Football Report Editor John Oehser offers seven thoughts on all things surrounding the Indianapolis Colts. Without further delay, the fourth Magnificent Seven of the 2010 season, this one looking at seven issues as the Colts approach the preseason finale . . .

7. Keeping the streak. It wouldn’t seem right to write about the Indianapolis Colts this week and not mention umpire placement, so let’s lead Magnificent Seven with it and get it out of the way for today. We’ll begin with a story in by the New York Times’ solid NFL writer, Judy Battista, who provided a detailed play-by-play of the positioning change – the gist of which is that umpires will be lining up in the offensive backfield rather than around the linebackers, as they did previously. Colts quarterback Peyton Manning on Monday said it seemed the NFL didn’t take into account how some offenses operate when installing the rule. The Colts, in particular, run one of the quickest-tempo offenses in the NFL and the ability of the umpire – who often places the ball at the line of scrimmage – to get into position quickly could have an effect on teams wanting to snap quickly after the ball is placed. The Colts last Thursday in Green Bay were twice penalized for snapping the ball illegally – before the umpire was in position. Battista reported that NFL Vice President for Officiating Carl Johnson said the umpire will stay on the offensive side of the ball, but said the NFL has made “subtle changes” already and that more could be coming. Already, Battista wrote, the NFL has moved the umpire from 14-to-17 yards – as was originally mandated – to 12 yards, then after the second week of preseason games, the league told officials the umpire needed only be deeper than the deepest member of the offense. “During a Monday conference call, members of the competition committee discussed more changes to the umpire’s spot that could be made in time for the final preseason games this week,” Battista wrote, then added what eventually could be the key to making the system work, “In the meantime, all seven members of the officiating crew have been told to hustle, Johnson said, and spotting the ball has become more of a community assignment — with nearly every member of the crew having spotted the ball at some point in the preseason games.” That’s a start. Battista also reported Tuesday that the league will move umpires back to the defensive side for the final five minutes of the game in this week’s preseason finales. For the first three preseason games, they had been moving back to defense for the final two minutes. This is a start, too, but likely won’t address the Colts’ issue, which is that they run a quick-tempo offense throughout the entire game.

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INDIANAPOLIS – With each week, it seems the feeling grows.

This post is about Indianapolis Colts safety Bob Sanders, and it’s tough to find a way to start, because if you’ve been following the Indianapolis Colts in the 2010 preseason, Sanders’ story seems to have been as repetitive as it has been unusual.

That’s because the story is that Sanders is doing OK.

He’s making progress.

And all signs point to him playing.

Sanders, a two-time Pro Bowl selection and the 2007 Associated Press National Footbal League Defensive Player of the Year, reiterated that this week, his first availability with the Indianapolis media since last Thursday, when he made his preseason debut.

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INDIANAPOLIS – As Jim Caldwell saw it, there was good and bad.

But that’s the reality of most NFL preseason games, and even after a second consecutive loss to start the 2010 preseason, the Indianapolis Colts said there was good things.

One was that the running game improved.

The backup quarterback did, too.

Caldwell, entering his second season as the Colts’ head coach said in wrapping up the Colts’ 34-21 loss to the Buffalo Bills in the second game of the 2010 preseason that those things along with several solid stretches on defense were some of the best signs of the game played in Toronto, Canada on Thursday night.

“We put together pretty good scoring drives offensively, and defensively, we had a good number of three and outs,” Caldwell said Friday at his weekly next-day press conference at the team’s Indianapolis training facility.

“Some of those things need to fall into place.”

Caldwell on Friday also discussed . . .

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ANDERSON, Ind. — The preseason is fast approaching.

But although the Colts will open the preseason at home against the San Francisco 49ers Sunday, quarterback Peyton Manning said Tuesday is a bit too early to start thinking about the a preseason game.

The Colts, after all, are still very much in training-camp mode.

That means working on basics, which Manning calls “Colts against Colts,” and that’s what the team continued doing on Tuesday — Day 2 of the second week of 2010 Colts Training Camp at Anderson Unversity.

“You get tired of hitting the same guys and the linemen want to see a different defense and different color jerseys,” Manning said Tuesday shortly after the morning session. “I kind of caution against the philosophy when it’s Tuesday of training camp. We still have a lot of work to do. I think our focus will be there, to get better to improve your skills, to really learn your playbook even netter and be sharp on the execution of your job.”

Tight end Dallas Clark returned to practice Tuesday morning, while centers Jeff Saturday and Jacques McClendon remained out. Colts Head Coach Jim Caldwell declined to offer specifics on the nature of the injuries of Saturday and McClendon.

Also, Caldwell said the Colts have signed offensive lineman James Williams after the release of lineman Andy Alleman Monday. The Colts reportedly have acquired lineman Adrian Martinez, but he did not yet practice Tuesday.

With the Indianapolis Colts’ 2010 organized team activities sessions ongoing at the team’s practice facility, Indy Football Report Editor John Oehser takes a daily look at the team’s most-pressing issues . . .

One of the fuzzier storylines of the Indianapolis Colts’ 2010 off-season may have gotten a little clearer early during organized team activities.

This was Thursday, eight days ago. Most notably, this was the first time Colts K Adam Vinatieri had spoken publicly since the end of what was the longest, most-frustrating season of a career decidedly short on such seasons and decidedly long on history.

Vinatieri knew immediately the topic:

The hip and knee injuries that cost him most of the 2009 regular season and the entire post-season. He addressed it quickly, positively and enthusiastically, and that he did has to make the Colts feel more confident in their place-kicking situation than they have been in more than a year.

“Everything’s healed up and looking good,” Vinatieri said at the Indiana Farm Bureau Football Center on the first day of media availability of OTAs. “The entire off-season, we’ve been working on strengthening everything back and making sure I’ll be ready for a long season.

“Things have been moving in exactly the direction we wanted to go.”

That’s something Vinatieri has been waiting for since the 2009 off-season.

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