Tony Dungy can't complain about another road win in New York, the Colts' 4-0 record or Peyton Manning's poised comeback.
After watching tape from Sunday's game, though, the usually unflappable Colts coach wasn't going to sugarcoat his criticism.
``I didn't feel good about the way we played,'' he said. ``We've got to sharpen up a little bit. You can't have all those penalties, we couldn't convert some of those third-downs and we didn't really tackle very well.''
That's about as outspoken as Dungy has been in his five seasons with Indy.
For weeks he's challenged the defence to eliminate the miscommunications and blown assignments that have helped opponents run over the Colts. But that's not the only thing that has upset Dungy.
On Sunday, the defence played well for one quarter before allowing the New York Jets to control the clock. Indy also drew 10 penalties, an uncharacteristically high number for a team that typically ranks among the league's least-penalized.
At times, Dungy said, the Colts blocked the wrong way and got into the wrong coverages. It's enough to make a seasoned coach bristle.
``We were missing coverages, not communicating, having 10 guys on the field. That's really hard to figure out,'' Dungy said. ``We've got to be a little better and a little more sound.''
Somehow, amid all the mistakes, the Colts are off to their third 4-0 start in four years and are one of three remaining unbeaten teams, along with Baltimore and Chicago.
Yet Dungy is still looking for answers.
Aside from the defensive errors, he was particularly upset with a special teams unit that drew two holding penalties on punts, allowed Justin Miller to score on a 103-yard kickoff return and had consistently poor kickoffs.
Kicker Adam Vinatieri, the Colts' biggest off-season acquisition, was expected to return Sunday after missing his first game in 11 seasons, but was held out because the field was damp.
Last week, Dungy said they may keep Vinatieri's replacement, Martin Gramatica, for kickoff duty to protect Vinatieri's injured right groin. Gramatica kicked against the Jets.
There could be changes at practice this week.
Dungy altered the repertoire last week, taking the Colts out of pads on Thursday to try and re-energize players. Now he's looking to focus more on fundamental tackling.
All Dungy wants to see this week is improvement when winless Tennessee comes to town.
``We have to play better and the guys we're playing have to play better,'' Dungy said. ``For the most part, our problems were tackling and not knowing the coverage, and we have to get better at that.''
