“Establish the run” means a consistent use of it to force the defense to respect it. The Colts read the Niners aggressive reaction to the first stretch play and called the halfback pass. It’s the same thing as using a trap or belly run: use the offensive line and backs’ motion to cause false steps by linemen and backers and then reverse direction to the side of the field that is now left open by the aggressive pursuit.

It was definitely deception, but it had nothing to do with “establishing the run” because clearly the Colts never did — 2.9 ypc.

Actually, the play right before Addai’s touchdown pass, the Colts ran the exact same stretch play with Addai (albeit to the right, as opposed to the halfback pass which was to the left) and then they followed up that run play with a play that looked exactly the same but turned out to be halfback pass. The Niners D read run, which was caused via the deception of seeing what they thought was the identical play from one play earlier (albeit to the opposite side), and this allowed the Colts to fool the Niners.

I hope C.Johnson plays this week against Seattle which appears closer than last week. I’m definitely starting E.Royal over P.Garcon.

I will keep my fingers crossed.

Greg, once again keep it coming.