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    • The Colts defense has no answers for ugly play
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    The Colts defense has no answers for ugly play

    Vaseline Posted on

    JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The Colts defense has been beaten in just about every way this season.

    Indianapolis hemorrhaged rushing yards against Houston and Green Bay, gave up big passing plays against Green Bay and Chicago, allowed Chicago and Pittsburgh to collect completions to march down the field.

    The Jaguars put it all together on Sunday, beating the Colts’ defense in just about every way in a 37-34 loss, leaving Indianapolis once again looking for answers on the defensive side of the ball that don’t seem to come easily.

    Battered and bruised by injuries, Indianapolis came into the game missing five starters who sapped the Colts’ strength on both sides of the passing game: three key members of the pass rush (DeForest Buckner, Kwity Paye and Tyquan Lewis) and two crucial pieces in the secondary (Kenny Moore II, JuJu Brents).

    “It’s tough to have guys out, but Jacksonville won’t care, Tennessee won’t care,” Colts middle linebacker Zaire Franklin said. “You can’t use that as an excuse.”

    Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence certainly didn’t care.

    Unhindered in the pocket, Lawrence posted single-game career highs of 371 passing yards and 10.9 yards per attempt, shooting at will against an Indianapolis pass rush that failed to record a single sack or quarterback hit.

    “You have to put pressure on the quarterback, we know that,” Indianapolis head coach Shane Steichen said. “I have complete confidence that we will succeed.”

    How that will happen is the hardest part.

    Because after the Jaguars torched the Colts in Jacksonville on Sunday, it’s hard to see a whole lot of good options available for defensive coordinator Gus Bradley and general manager Chris Ballard, the two main architects of this Indianapolis defense.

    The Colts entered Sunday’s game ranked last in the NFL in yards allowed, giving up nearly 400 yards per game, and then coughed up even more, allowing a Jaguars offense in disarray to rack up 497 yards of offense yield, a total breakdown of only across any standard.

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    Bradley is not a prolific blitzer, preferring to press with his front four, and his coaching staff is full of assistants who have been with him for a long time, making it unlikely that there will be a drastic change in approach the defense will take place.

    Without Buckner, Paye, Lewis and defensive end Samson Ebukam, however, a Colts pass rush with 12 sacks through the first four games looked toothless against a Jaguars offensive line that allowed Lawrence to be sacked 13 times in the same span.

    Ballard built Indianapolis’ defensive line so deep that he could send waves of pass rushers to opposing quarterbacks, but injuries have sapped that depth, shifting the pass rush largely to first-round defensive end Laiatu Latu and hybrid defensive lineman Dayo Odeyingbo , who is in charge of Indianapolis’ defensive line. team with 2.5 sacks.

    The demands they place on both players appear to have sapped their pass rush strength. Forced to play a full season of snaps, Latu focused on playing the run better and made six tackles; Odeyingbo was credited with just one stop.

    Neither player impressed in the passing game.

    Jacksonville took their teeth early. The Jaguars opened the game by building their passing attack around plays designed to avoid the rush: quick play, play-action throws, screens.

    Indianapolis had no answer.

    The more Lawrence retreated, the more time he seemed to have.

    “That definitely makes it harder, especially when those guys are hanging on to you, because you have to make sure you play the run and respond to it,” Latu said. “They are already close to you and trying to grab you, but we have to be better.”

    Latu was visibly frustrated after the match.

    The first-round pick feels the weight of his selection and knows he has been drafted as the final piece of the pass rush, the player who can take the Colts defense to the next level.

    Latu has one sack through his first five NFL games, and while he has had a handful of close calls under his belt, the lack of success is hard to stomach.

    “It’s incredibly frustrating,” Latu said.

    In the absence of the team’s frontline pass rushers, Bradley could break from his history and use more blitzes to put pressure on Lawrence.

    But Ballard opted not to add experienced depth to the secondary this offseason, and the pitfalls of a blitz-happy offense were evident Sunday. Jaylon Jones broke up a pass and forced a fumble, and rookie cornerback Sam Womack III had a key pass breakup late, but for the most part, the Jaguars took what they wanted.

    More importantly, they hit the Colts with blitzes that make it difficult to call blitzes.

    Rookie wide receiver Brian Thomas Jr. blew past cornerback Dallis Flowers and safety Nick Cross for an 85-yard touchdown in the first half, and veteran slot receiver Christian Kirk got free for a 61-yard gain against Jones and veteran safety Julian Blackmon in the first half. second half.

    For the most part, Bradley stuck to playing coverage.

    But when the Colts desperately needed a stop in the final two minutes of a tied game, Bradley turned up the pressure, a firing zone blitz designed to keep Jacksonville from getting into field goal range.

    The blitzers never had a chance. Kirk was wide open on an outbound route and took advantage of a secondary that couldn’t deliver on its promise.

    “You try to attack them, hit them out of field goal range because they have time, the field position is not on your side, so the defense has to be ultra-aggressive to get them out,” Franklin said. “They made a good decision, we’re in a fire zone and they hit Kirk right away.”

    Indianapolis also tried to free up its pass rushers by running lots of stunts, twists and plays on the defensive line as the Colts rushed four players, but when the tactic got a defender free, Lawrence almost always had a wide-open outlet to pass the ball to to throw. ball, neutralizing the pass rush.

    Ballard believed the team’s young corners and safeties would take a step forward.

    But he left little depth, and the absences of Moore and Brents were felt on Sunday, even if the Colts refused to acknowledge it.

    “It sucks not having guys there, but it’s the next man up,” Jones said. “Nobody cares who’s out there.”

    For most of the first half, the Colts’ defense looked like the only bright spot on a bad day for the defense, allowing a long carry of just four yards by Jacksonville runners in the first 30 minutes.

    Two runs by Jaguars behind Tank Bigsby undid all that hard work.

    Bigsby rolled the Indianapolis secondary, led by Cross, on a 19-yard run early in the third quarter, then romped away from the Colts on a 65-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter, nearly evaporating the game.

    Time and time again, Colts defenders in the open field failed to make tackles in the passing game.

    The same problem reared its ugly head in crunch time in the running game.

    “Tackling it was horrible. I made that kid look like something that I don’t necessarily think he is, but he did it,” Franklin said. “We didn’t do our best today.”

    Beyond getting Buckner, Paye and Moore healthy, there appear to be few answers to the problems plaguing one of the NFL’s worst defenses.

    Steichen has stuck by Bradley, backing his conservative approach as long as explosive play is limited, although Jacksonville beat the Colts on Sunday by getting explosive yardage.

    Every change in the plan seems to open a new hole in the defense. An in-season change seems unlikely with a staff of coaches who have worked with Bradley throughout his career.

    Steichen still believes the defense will right the ship.

    “Because of the guys we have there,” Steichen said. “Zaire, EJ, Buck, Kwity. All those boys are working their butts off.’

    Two of these players are currently unavailable.

    And until they are, Bradley and the rest of the Colts defense don’t seem to have any answers as to how to fill their shoes.

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