The Colts' Defense, 2018
 

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(vs. REDSKINS, 9/16)



Excellent game overall, in spite of 2 INT's thrown by Andrew Luck (one of which was his fault, and one on a batted ball.)

They were extremely fast, with good open-field tackling and good gang-tackling.



GETTING OFF OF THE FIELD: ) The Redskins were 5-for-15 on 3rd downs, and 1-for 2 on 4th downs (plus, the one 4th down in which they did convert was late in the 4th quarter with the Colts leading by a score of 21-9. At that point, the defense was more concerned with not giving up large chunks of yardage, and keeping the Redskins in-bounds on tackles.)


They forced a turnover with 5 minutes left to play in the 4th quarter and the Redskins driving deep in Colts territory, which (largely) sealed the fate of their opponents.



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I was really happy with the D. As for Luck, I felt it would take a few games for him to get his groove back. He's still making some dumb throws and I'm hoping it's mental rust. Hopefully when the OL gets Costanza back and the unit starts to really click, he'll have shaken all the cobwebs out of his brain.

It's not mental rust since he's been doing it his entire career. It's part of the confidence he has in his abilities. He can say he knows otherwise, but it's not changing.

I was obviously very impressed with the D yesterday. In most ways it was a complete 180 from the Cincy game. The obvious question is why such a big difference? I’d love to believe it’s growth, but you don’t see that much growth from game one to game two in a season. It could be the nature of a very young, inexperienced D - prone to wild ups and downs. But most likely it’s a function of matchups. Hopefully I’m wrong, but I still expect to see the Cincy level D more often than yesterday’s D - at least for this year.


The two big things (besides Leonard and Hunt) I’ve been impressed with is the improved quality of tackling overall and the apparent emphasis on stripping the football. I swear I’ve already seen more attempts to knock the ball loose in these two games than I’ve seen from them in the last 5 years. I love that.

That’s a Dungy/Lovie Smith/Marinelli thing. Apparently it rubbed off on Eberflus. Ballard might have some impact there too given his time in Chicago. Glad to see this again on defense.

It’s refreshing to see how you can be technically sound at tackling the ball carrier while trying to strip the football at the same time. While I was initially quite skeptical of a positive change on defense being realized so quickly this coaching staff is proving me wrong, quite happily I might add.

In rewatching the Sheard sack I want to credit to Woods and Ridgeway, they punched a nice hole in the line for Sheard to rush through. Sheard earned the sack, he beat his own guy, but Ridgeway especially was like a lead blocker while Woods sucked up two blockers away from Sheard's inside stunt. Good teamwork.

The first half of the Cincy game they did pretty well on D

The second half was just bad.

The FORCED turnovers are a nice thing to see. Though some INTs created by the DBs would be a welcome addition. I think one easy one that would have gone for a pick six was dropped yesterday. The first INT vs Cincy was created by the pressure on Dalton. However there have been a few plays where the DBs are not making INTs but actually stripping the ball out after the WR tries to make the catch. Hooker did that once last week and one of the DBs did that this week on an end zone throw

But in general, its a welcome change with an aggressive, fast tackling D. The play by Leonard to force that fumble in the 4th quarter and pretty well end the game was great.

I'm guessing that it's a single gap Dungy D, the D line has been running a lot of stunts, and they are bringing blitzes.

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(vs. EAGLES, 9/23)



Even though the Eagles had a huge advantage in BOTH Time of Possession (40:20 to 19:40) AND Total Plays from Scrimmage (77 to 56), the Colts' defense did not play like they were winded.


They (the Colts' defense) reminded me of the 3rd game of the 2013 season against the 49ers, when everybody was expecting the defending NFC champions to blow the Colts off of the field ........ they hung tough against Kaepernick and company then, and they hung tough against Wentz and company today.


They were flat-out robbed by the referees of a big 4th-down stop late in the 4th quarter, which may have cost them the game.


o