Colts' Pep Hamilton: Point the finger at me

Pep Hamilton is on a quest for answers.

His Indianapolis Colts offense is falling woefully short of expectations, and it's his job as the offensive coordinator to fix that.

"We have not done our job," Hamilton said of the offense. "I have not put our guys in position to be successful and to put our guys in position to produce."

After sorting through the carnage of the first two games of the season – the Colts rank dead last in points per game (10.5) – Hamilton on Thursday offered his take on the challenges he's facing.

The offensive penalties, it seems, have significantly impacted Hamilton's play calling. The Colts are tied for the league lead with seven offensive holding penalties, leaving them in numerous long down-and-distance situations. Hamilton said he has to be more adept at helping the Colts dig out of those deep holes.

"I have to do a better job of, first off, doing whatever I can to keep us out of the extreme passing situations," Hamilton said. "We've had more first-and-20s, second-and-20s, a lot of long-yardage situations. Those situations are tough on any offensive unit, not just the offensive line. I have to find ways to make sure we're more efficient and more productive on first and second down."

Asked whether he can do anything schemewise to mitigate the poor offensive line play, Hamilton took that on his shoulders, too.

"In some cases (the holding) is just technique and fundamentals," Hamilton said. "At the same time – I'll give you an example – in the Buffalo game, that's a tough block for Khaled (Holmes) to have to block back on one of the better (defensive tackles) in the National Football League (Kyle Williams). So, I put him in a tough position.

"That goes back to awareness of those situations. Now that we have more data and more film to study with regard to who we're facing this Sunday, I think we'll have a better idea of exactly what to expect. You never know what you're going to get on gameday. But there shouldn't be as many unknowns."

Regarding the idea of using a quicker tempo to help bring the offense out of its funk – quarterback Andrew Luck has had past success in the no-huddle offense – Hamilton said it's not been easy to use the tactic consistently.

"We've gone no-huddle early and often throughout our first two games," he said. "But when you have a positive play and then it's followed up by a self-inflicted negative, you're going to have some long-yardage situations. It slows down the offense and makes it more of a challenge to get first downs."