what the heck happened to our defense?

[swflacoltsfans]

Our game plan was to let them score a bunch of TDS and hope the celebrating tired them out. 

[#12]

Within 7 days I saw one of the best defensive performances of the Indianapolis era followed up by, most certainly, the worst.  The only time the Steelers were stopped was when they stopped themselves.  There wasn't a pass rusher within 5 yards of Roethlisberger while seemingly every Steeler receiver had 5 yards of separation or more.  That was so easy Curtis Painter could have done it. 

 

Life as a Colts fan.  Every time you have visions of a true NFL defense and offensive line, the real Colts return.  Reminds me of last season.  They need to nip it in the bud and not go through another Bengals, Rams and Cardinals stretch.  I was wondering when teams were going to start killing us with the crossing routes as they did during that stretch.  Sad thing is this:  had they just gotten a few stops, Luck would have won that game. 

[GwinnettColt]

Can't cover TE's nor any WR who heads to the middle.  

 

Couldn't tackle.

 

Couldn't rush the passer.

 

It was a bad game.  Teams have them.  Although I don't like losing to a team like the Steelers, I'm over it.  On to NYG.

[mintor]

pash rush. We need a superstar caliber player there. A Mathis or Freeney style playe

 

 

need 1 are  2  pass rushers.

[krunk]

A big thing that disturbs me is that we have a consistent tendency of putting up these type of performances on the road.  We have not been a good road team this year on defense. Denver, Houston, Pittsburgh each revealed major holes in our defense.  The only exception was Jacksonville and that's because they are bad.  Whatever this thing is with road games we need to get it fixed now to get where we need to be in the playoffs. 

[bluephantom87]

No pressure on Ben who UNLIKE Luck had all day to throw. Like Phil Simms said the Colts allowed Ben to step up in the pocket play after play. I didn't see one delayed blitz up the middle to move Ben off the spot or take him down. Yeah they blitzed a lot in the second half but it seemed like the heat should've been focused up the middle. Any elite qb will pick the secondary apart if given time and Brady will have a field day in a couple of weeks if this problem is not solved. 

[TAPLOOK]

They were frauds.

[Defjamz26]

We just really got outclassed tbh. But you can't not put that on the defense. 51 points and your offense gives you 34? I'm not condemning anyone but that can't happen. You let the opponent score 50 and you're probably not going to win the game. Like I said there were other contributors too, but asking Luck and the O to score 50+ is asking too much.

 

Gotta look at the tape and go into the next game * off with a chip on our shoulder.

[RockThatBlue]

We just really got outclassed tbh. But you can't not put that on the defense. 51 points and your offense gives you 34? I'm not condemning anyone but that can't happen. You let the opponent score 50 and you're probably not going to win the game. Like I said there were other contributors too, but asking Luck and the O to score 50+ is asking too much.

Gotta look at the tape and go into the next game * off with a chip on our shoulder.

34 points is usually enough points to win. Most of the blame is the defenses fault other than how bad our offensive line was.

[krunk]

The Steelers are so used to playing Baltimore year in and year out, I also think they knew in advance how to handle the bulk of our pressures when we did Blitz.   As far as the 4 man pressures they were just non-existent today.  I've been saying all along we need to find a way to improve in this area, but we are just not there yet.  Finally, I have zero idea how we kept leaving Heath Miller wide open at every opportunity we had to get them off the field on 3rd down.  It just absolutely baffled me!

[Bird dog]

I thought the defense played to there potential , not really sure you can expect any more!

[Defjamz26]

The Steelers are so used to playing Baltimore year in and year out, I also think they knew in advance how to handle the bulk of our pressures when we did Blitz.   As far as the 4 man pressures they were just non-existent today.  I've been saying all along we need to find a way to improve in this area, but we are just not there yet.  Finally, I have zero idea how we kept leaving Heath Miller wide open at every opportunity we had to get them off the field on 3rd down.  It just absolutely baffled me!

 

Covering TE's is still an issue. Not only can our LB's not cover them, but we also fail to actually cover them. It'll have to addressed in the draft I feel. If you don't get a young, speedy guy who is instinctive then teams are going to exploit us like this every time.

[adamthyst]

I think it's the injuries and the Steelers reading the heck out of us. 

[Shane Bond]

I was surprised with our defense today.

[Superman]

They were frauds.

 

LOL

 

What does this mean? We cheated our way to a shutout last week?

[Superman]

Covering TE's is still an issue. Not only can our LB's not cover them, but we also fail to actually cover them. It'll have to addressed in the draft I feel. If you don't get a young, speedy guy who is instinctive then teams are going to exploit us like this every time.

 

I agree. We need a rangy linebacker. Freeman is okay, he's not the one getting beat, usually. 

[ruksak]

I don't know if I've ever seen a defense play the pass any worse. How does a guy like Miller get open by 10-15 yards over and over again? 

 

If was almost comical watching our pass rushers slam into the Pitt Line, as if they were boys playing against men. 

[sweetsurrender]

We won't go far without better play but we have to see what is going on with Davis. He makes everyone else's job easier. But really, it is not like Pitt has this blistering offense. I don't what happened. It seemed as though they were not prepared. Seems to have a couple of games every year.

[Defjamz26]

I agree. We need a rangy linebacker. Freeman is okay, he's not the one getting beat, usually. 

 

Freeman is probably better in coverage. I'd probably trust him against a TE more than I would Laron. While I like what D'Jax brings to the table, we at least need someone we can rotate in occasionally, especially on passing downs.

[jusbadd2]

I think I will do as "Cowboy Bob" used to say, "If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all".

[Indianapolis-Colts-Fan]

Colts looked slow. I saw freeman half heartedly jogging towards ball carriers on multiple occasions. I believe this D is capable, but seriously guys, stop acting like we suck and have sucked all year, as if we were just confused by our performance vs the bengals. The whole team acted like they didn't want to be there.

Don't panic. But you will. You will.

[Valpo2004]

There was simply no pressure on Ben.  I think be barely even touched him.  Even when we Blitzed they picked it up.

 

And he sliced and diced the secondary easily.  

 

I don't think he was ever even forced to throw the ball away to avoid a sack.  

 

Any reasonably competent NFL QB is going to shred the defense given that much time, I don't care if your #1 and #2 corners are Sherman and Revis.

[King Colt]

"On any given day" someone said. It has been a while since I have seen four quarters of superior protection of a QB. Well if there is any good to come from this it may be no one will play with a big ego for the rest of the year. BUT, our protection of Luck was disgraceful.

[Rich Cannon]

1. Injuries

2. Might have been a little high on themselves after last week.

3. Steelers owned the line.

4. Steelers were on fire today. A lot of credit needs to be given to them.

 

Agreed, im not going to panic like some on this board and say our o line stinks, steelers had an answer for our blitzing its called great pass protection lol.  

[chrisfarley]

We missed Landry today, physical approach is his type of game.

Forget Landry, we missed having a defense in general.

[Coffeedrinker]

Our game plan was to let them score a bunch of TDS and hope the celebrating tired them out. 

Hilarious.

 

Unfortunately, they were in much better shape than the Colts thought.

[Coffeedrinker]

I agree. We need a rangy linebacker. Freeman is okay, he's not the one getting beat, usually. 

Now, I'm just talking about the Steelers game but Freeman looked horrible.  He was getting beat in the passing game, he was poor in the running game. he was not good at all yesterday.

[OffensivelyPC]

One of hte better QBs in the league had a career night.  I mean, our defense wasn't playing well and we didn't get much pass rush.  But worse defenses have done better against even Peyton Manning.  You just can't defend 80% completion rate for 500 some yards and 6-0 TDs/INTs.  When a guy (and his offense for that matter) is just THAT in the zone, you're not going to win.  Like, they kicked us in the teeth on a night that wasn't our best night.  Yeah, we could hvae played better, but even if we did, would it really have mattered?  They aren't 20-some points better than us, it was just their night.  It happens.  Just forget it and move on to the next guy.  We'll be fine.

[chrisfarley]

A big thing that disturbs me is that we have a consistent tendency of putting up these type of performances on the road.  We have not been a good road team this year on defense. Denver, Houston, Pittsburgh each revealed major holes in our defense.  The only exception was Jacksonville and that's because they are bad.  Whatever this thing is with road games we need to get it fixed now to get where we need to be in the playoffs. 

Agree 100 percent.  Pagano needs to be responsible, and I'm sure he is being that way, i don't even want to see any post-game comments because it would just irritate me more.  You hit the nail on the head.

[TAPLOOK]

LOL

 

What does this mean? We cheated our way to a shutout last week?

 

 

It means they aren't as good as everyone thought they were and that things always level out. Did you really think they were the best third down team in the NFL? Did you think they were a good sack team? The other shoe just dropped.

[lollygagger8]

Vontae Davis happened. 

 

 

When our secondary can't cover the receivers, our long developing blitz schemes no longer work. 

 

 

The part I don't understand, is why we put Butler on the outside and Gordy in the slot. This makes zero sense. Gordy should've been outside and Butler left in the slot. 

 

 

I would've rather just seen Purifoy come in for Davis and left everyone else in the same spot. 

[OffensivelyPC]

It means they aren't as good as everyone thought they were and that things always level out. Did you really think they were the best third down team in the NFL? Did you think they were a good sack team? The other shoe just dropped.

We dont' have to be the best team in 3rd downs and  sacks, we just have to be very good and reliable, and we are.  One bad game doesn't erase everything we've done so far. It just forces us to refocus on how to make ourselves better so that this doesn't happen in the playoffs.

[Stephen]

 y

[Stephen]

 y

That defense looks friendly. I wonder how many tds I can throw lol

[YOUR GM]

It just wasn't a very smart gameplan against a strong mobile QB known for extending plays. Blitzing him is the last thing you want to do, especially after losing our top man-coverage corner early. We had Brown in check for the most part before Vontae got hurt.

All that being said, it was just a bad game. I'm not thrilled we gave up 50 but I'm also not overly concerned. I just think we lost our composure on both sides of the ball, compounded by the injuries, and a snowball effect ensued from there

[YOUR GM]

It just wasn't a very smart gameplan against a strong mobile QB known for extending plays. Blitzing him is the last thing you want to do, especially after losing our top man-coverage corner early. We had Brown in check for the most part before Vontae got hurt.

All that being said, it was just a bad game. I'm not thrilled we gave up 50 but I'm also not overly concerned. I just think we lost our composure on both sides of the ball, compounded by the injuries, and a snowball effect ensued from there

[YOUR GM]

It just wasn't a very smart gameplan against a strong mobile QB known for extending plays. Blitzing him is the last thing you want to do, especially after losing our top man-coverage corner early. We had Brown in check for the most part before Vontae got hurt.

All that being said, it was just a bad game. I'm not thrilled we gave up 50 but I'm also not overly concerned. I just think we lost our composure on both sides of the ball, compounded by the injuries, and a snowball effect ensued from there

[The Fish]

I don't know if I've ever seen a defense play the pass any worse. How does a guy like Miller get open by 10-15 yards over and over again? 

 

If was almost comical watching our pass rushers slam into the Pitt Line, as if they were boys playing against men. 

In truth, we probably have, but not too often. 500 yards and 51 points is about as bad as bad can be.

[3nk1du]

Well first we need to stop lying to ourselves Colts Defense never has had pass rush outside Mathis and we were doing just fine because Davis can shutdown a #1 WR and Toler can slow the #2 WR and we kind of have a good playcall last week where the pressure were coming from everywhere but yesterday the blitz pakage was  bad executed or bad play call(i saw most of the blitzes crashing on the OL), i think we didn't play the game with effort the defense got ripped and we lost the rotation after JRF went down, i think Redding, D'Qwell Jackson, Mike Adams played too many snaps for their age, also when Davis was healthy(first series) we played Zone and Roethlisberger released really quick the ball vs our zone, then Davis went down and we played the usual 1 on 1 but Butler, Gordy, and with an less blame Toler (he was covering Brown good enough to give the DLine time to pressure the QB) got torched.

 

Then the OL played absolutely awful all the time Andrew had pressure on his face, Gosder was especially awful and many times the interior got confused with the switches and when they blitz they could stop the first charge 1 sec then they got pushed back by the Steleers defense. 

Much of the blame goes to Luck for the pick-6 idk if Nicks didn't do a good route or Luck just went full foolish on that play.

 

I have seen many plays where Luck have to release the ball quick to an assigned WR(bubbles and screens) but i have yet to see one work many of those plays the DE could pick it and the DB is always stopping those plays after 1 yrd.

[ruksak]

Well first we need to stop lying to ourselves Colts Defense never has had pass rush outside Mathis and we were doing just fine because Davis can shutdown a #1 WR and Toler can slow the #2 WR and we kind of have a good playcall last week where the pressure were coming from everywhere but yesterday the blitz pakage was  bad executed or bad play call(i saw most of the blitzes crashing on the OL), i think we didn't play the game with effort the defense got ripped and we lost the rotation after JRF went down, i think Redding, D'Qwell Jackson, Mike Adams played too many snaps for their age, also when Davis was healthy(first series) we played Zone and Roethlisberger released really quick the ball vs our zone, then Davis went down and we played the usual 1 on 1 but Butler, Gordy, and with an less blame Toler (he was covering Brown good enough to give the DLine time to pressure the QB) got torched.

 

Then the OL played absolutely awful all the time Andrew had pressure on his face, Gosder was especially awful and many times the interior got confused with the switches and when they blitz they could stop the first charge 1 sec then they got pushed back by the Steleers defense. 

Much of the blame goes to Luck for the pick-6 idk if Nicks didn't do a good route or Luck just went full foolish on that play.

 

I have seen many plays where Luck have to release the ball quick to an assigned WR(bubbles and screens) but i have yet to see one work many of those plays the DE could pick it and the DB is always stopping those plays after 1 yrd.

1 thing that's being overlooked is how poorly our LB's claimed their coverage assignments. 

 

I feel our coaches let us down more than anything when it came to blocking assignments on offense. The playcalling was asking for too much time for routes to develop.