9/27 Indy Star

[JAFF]

'It’s really on me': Colts offensive coordinator takes blame for Ravens safety blitzes

INDIANAPOLIS — The same disaster kept happening in the first half of Sunday’s game.

Baltimore strong safety Kyle Hamilton would blitz off the left side of the Ravens defense, flying into the backfield and leveling Gardner Minshew, ending three Indianapolis drives with thunderous takedowns of the Colts backup quarterback.

Minshew ended up taking five sacks in all, the fourth coming when he stepped out of the back of the end zone for a safety in the fourth quarter, and the fifth on the first play of overtime, unable to escape a pocket collapsing around him.

Five sacks usually means the offensive line had a tough day in pass protection.


Not on Sunday. Hamilton tied an NFL record for sacks in a half by a defensive back and recorded a remarkable six pressures overall because Ravens defensive coordinator Mike Macdonald won a battle of wits with the Indianapolis coaching staff, particularly in the first half.

“We had some protection issues last game that I’ll take,” Colts offensive coordinator Jim Bob Cooter said. “It’s really on me as a coordinator, more than it’s on those guys.”

Inside IndyStar: Talking Colts football with reporters Nate and Joel

Baltimore Ravens safety Kyle Hamilton (14) sacks Indianapolis Colts quarterback Gardner Minshew (10) on Sunday, Sept. 24, 2023, at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore.

Baltimore’s defense is known for bringing blitzes.

But the Ravens are also known for bringing blitzes from every conceivable look, in every conceivable formation. Indianapolis knew Baltimore was going to bring the heat.

The Colts simply didn’t do a good job anticipating how the Ravens might attack, or how they might deploy Hamilton as the best pass-rushing weapon the NFL has seen out of a secondary since Jamal Adams produced 9.5 sacks for the Seahawks in 2022.


“We knew it was an aggressive defense, we knew it was going to be a blitzing defense,” Cooter said. “You can say all that without knowing exactly the look or the plan those guys are going to have, and it was a really good one. Made us adjust, made us find or have a better protection ID plan.”

Hamilton did not record a sack after halftime, though he brought pressure on a couple of snaps.


And the sack numbers so far aren’t indicative of Indianapolis' offensive line play. The Colts have given up nine sacks in the first three games, tied for 21st in the league. But unlike the start of the 2022 season, precious few of those sacks can be traced to bad offensive line play.

No Indianapolis offensive lineman was tagged with giving up a sack through the first two weeks of the season, according to Sports Info Solutions, and even though the analytics site hasn’t posted its updated totals yet, it sounds unlikely that Sunday will change that trend much.

A handful of Colts sacks — two runs to the line of scrimmage by Anthony Richardson in the opener, Minshew’s faux pas in the back of the end zone Sunday — have clearly been on the quarterback.

“I think the offensive line’s done a really nice job as a whole this year, even battling through some injuries, working with a couple different guys out there,” Cooter said.

And that’s encouraging.

Particularly considering the work the Indianapolis offensive line has to do to rebuild its reputation. Left guard Quenton Nelson has been his old self in pass protection this season, second-year starter Will Fries has held his own at right guard and the tackles, Bernhard Raimann on the left and Braden Smith on the right, have been excellent anchors.

A year ago, issues at left tackle and right guard caused a collapse.

Raimann’s emergence — the 2022 third-round pick in his second season as a starter — has allowed Nelson to play to his reputation in the passing game and made life easier for the coaching staff.


“Bernie’s been doing a nice job this year,” Cooter said. “Protecting those edges in this league are vital, to be able to drop back in the pocket and feel that those edges are protected, is a pretty good testament to both our tackles.”

Not every team is going to blitz like the Ravens.

But after the big day Hamilton put together Sunday, it’s probably smart to assume that other teams will start blitzing defensive backs.

From the sounds of it, though, the Colts coaching staff bears the responsibility for fixing it, and that’s a better place to be than figuring out how to hide weak spots.