Looks like the defense has regressed back to normal

[superrep1967]

20 minutes ago, richard pallo said:

A young Kahil Mack wearing a horseshoe would look pretty good right now.  He's helped put the Bears in the drivers seat.  Of course that ship has sailed but it's fun to think about what could have been. 

Yes, for sure how do you think the Raiders fan feels like right now. 

[superrep1967]

1 hour ago, Four2itus said:

Hooker is not playing at the level he was before injury, nor Geathers, and we were already barely getting it done on pass rush. Pass rush and man to man play in the back seven both feed off each other. We have some pieces, and continued development will happen. Our main issue is depth. When a player gets dinged or winded, what do we have? 

 

Barring health, I see hope for the future if CB continues to pick talent the way he has...and the staff continues to develop players. I wouldn't say we are regressing, but merely facing the ups and downs of a thin group of defensive talent.

Yeah, Geathers is nowhere near as good as he was he's a totally different player now much worse. 

[NewColtsFan]

21 minutes ago, superrep1967 said:

Yeah, Geathers is nowhere near as good as he was he's a totally different player now much worse. 

Yeah....

 

And guess graded outt as our 5th best defender this week?

 

Yup!    The guy you think is worse.

 

[DougDew]

The secondary needs to tackle better.  Almost by definition, good QBs and receivers are going to find holes in zone coverage unless every single DB is a top 15 pick, so all of the DBs, CBs and both Safeties, need to have tackling skills high on their resume.

 

The d line needs more disruptive players.  Well, at least one would be a good start.

[DougDew]

2 hours ago, lollygagger8 said:

When Blake Bortles looks like a franchise QB against your defense, your defense sucks. 

 

No pass rush + zone coverage 98% of the time = No Bueno 

 

I think the loss of Fairley and Mitchell is really understated.

Maluet or whatever his name is, is not good at all. Geathers has been disappointing. Heck, Hooker hasn't been what he was. Not that our CB position is great (Moore has been playing well) but our safety position has went from a strength, to a weakness awfully fast. 

I know people don't agree with me, but I've thought Fairly and Hairston were our two best players in the secondary and I don't see anything to change my thinking so far.

 

I like both Leonard and Walker, and still like Al Woods, but everybody else on the D is replaceable, IMO.  Just speaking from their level of play so far and not their potential, if you get my drift.  

 

Has Ridgeway been chronically injured all season?

[1959Colts]

...Maybe it's time to bring Lenzy Pipkins back again?

 

https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2018/11/12/lions-waive-lenzy-pipkins/

[Defjamz26]

For the first time it looks like this board is in agreement about something. Yes this D is horrible. It’s all around, but the play of the secondary really sticks out. I’m not sure what the plan is in terms of scheme. If it’s to take away the deep ball, that’s great but they’re getting shredded on everything else. Those 7-10 yard completions add up. And the receivers are wide open every time. Nothing is being contested. The opponents drive the ball down field at will because every 1-2 passes goes for a first down.

 

Zone coverage doesn’t mean you play off and let everything be completed but try and keep it short. Your corners are supposed to break on the ball when they see it’s coming to their zone. But we also don’t need to be running zone 24/7. Third and long situations we should be in man coverage.

 

And the D-line isn’t much better. We very desperately need a pass rushing DT. Maybe two. I’m not a fan of the over/under fronts with a big NT. I’d rather have two big body athletic DTs that can play both the run and pass. Ballard has his work cut out for him in 2019.

[Bluefire4]

One guy in particular who I thought played awful yesterday was Quincy Wilson. They used him as linebacker at times yesterday in zone and he missed tackles, fell asleep on assignments, and didn't break on the ball even when it was obvious where Bortles was throwing.

 

Anthony Walker and Clayton Geathers stood out to me in this game because they actually made solid tackles around the LOS.

[NewColtsFan]

3 hours ago, rockywoj said:

Basically, as I see it, the Colts are in need of 2 elite CBs and an elite SS.  Ergo, the secondary is 3 players short of becoming formidable.

 

As a whole, I think the defense needs to add 3 DBs, another LB, and another elite DLineman.

 

I don’t know how many times it needs to be said....    but it’s worth saying again...

 

Ballard has repeatedly said this defense does not need “elite” level corners to be successful.   It needs good zone corners which we clearly don’t have yet.    

 

But we don’t need elite level corners.   Just better than what we currently have...

 

[#12.]

The talent won't change in the final seven weeks, so if you want to make a playoff run in the final seven, Eberflus will have to change things up.  It started with the Jets - the quick rhythm and short passing game - we can't stop it, and until we do, we'll continue to get nothing but.  

[Coffeedrinker]

40 minutes ago, Defjamz26 said:

Third and long situations we should be in man coverage.

 

 

Third and long is when they should play zone.  Typically the QB takes deeper drops, holds on to the ball longer and gives the dline more time to get back there and disrupt the throw.

 

I do agree about CBs breaking on the ball once it's thrown.  Moore is good at doing that.  Desir is good at doing that if it's side to side, he's not good at running forward to break on the ball.  Wilson is not good at that at all, and it's why even back in the offseason I mentioned I didn't think Wilson would be a good fit for a zone D, he is good at running with a WR but he doesn't have good field awareness and he doesn't play the ball well in the air.

[shasta519]

I will say it again...what this defense also needs is more Ss...two to be exact. One of those should be an athletic top-tier SS to pair with Hooker. And the other should be an athletic SS type that can play the hybrid S/LB position. Geathers and whoever else they run out there isn't getting it done.

 

Upgrading and adding to the S position lets them run nickel like they want to...but gives them the athelticism and tackling to make it work. 

 

No more of the nickel with an extra CB stuff...they get killed on short passes cause they can't tackle.  

 

As for CB...I want tall, long CBs that can jump and have good ball skills. It should be difficult to throw over them and risky to throw in their zone. They should be able to tackle...but I don't even really care about speed or man coverage (which is what gets drafted early). 

 

[horseshoecrabs]

I really think the defense next year will be the main focal point on moving on. We had to dedicate the offense this year for Luck's sake. The fact that the offense is now being productive and with a few tweaks next year will be awesome, Brings back the focus to next year's FA and draft be geared more for the defense. Remember that we are in a rebuilding process and it seems that we are heading in the right direction. I  have a gut feeling that next year's FA and draft will be a defensive focal point.    

[IinD]

I don't think this is a total shock to anyone here. Most predicted we'd be a shootout team and that's basically what we are unfortunately.

 

You really can't make chicken salad from chicken (you know what). Regardless of scheme, we need more talent. Good thing is we definitely have parts we can keep and make use of unlike the last couple of years where almost everyone was replaceable.

[ColtsBlueFL]

16 hours ago, stitches said:

I really really really don't like how vulnerable this defensive scheme is to modern offenses and to even horrible QBs like Blake Bortles.

 

16 hours ago, lollygagger8 said:

When Blake Bortles looks like a franchise QB against your defense, your defense sucks. 

 

Bortles has been clocking the Colts Defenses since he came in as a rookie to replace Chad Henne in the second half way back in 2014 (I saw that game at Everbank Live). That's a 2 completely different Defense schemes/different players/ different player types.  Bortles career stats vs. the Colts-

 

187/302 (62 percent), 2,384 yards, 14 touchdowns and three interceptions.

 

But his record against the Colts is 4-5

 

Which is sad, because they are mostly a run the ball first Offense. But since 2015, Bortles has not thrown less than 30 passes (often notably more) except for 1 game (27) against the Colts.

 

 

[shasta519]

1 minute ago, horseshoecrabs said:

I really think the defense next year will be the main focal point on moving on. We had to dedicate the offense this year for Luck's sake. The fact that the offense is now being productive and with a few tweaks next year will be awesome, Brings back the focus to next year's FA and draft be geared more for the defense. Remember that we are in a rebuilding process and it seems that we are heading in the right direction. I  have a gut feeling that next year's FA and draft will be a defensive focal point.    

 

Agree. And the talent pool seems to aligns quite nicely with the Colts needs. The 1st couple of rounds should have a lot of DL talent...including possibly a franchise type player. 

 

Also, there seem to be some nice options at WR in the draft. 

 

FA has Landon Collins...which the Colts should be trying like crazy to sign. Same with Lawrence if he gets there.

 

Not to mention they have all of that cap space to explore trades for players already under contraact or nearing the end of their rookie deals.

 

Should be a very fun offseason. After seeing how Luck has played, I see little reason why the Colts shouldn't spend a good chunk of what they have and try to get back to the Super Bowl. Outside of AC (and maybe Hilton), it's going to be several years before anyone else needs a new deal. 

 

 

[BOTT]

3 hours ago, Nesjan3 said:

Im going to attribute a lot of the problems to our D coordinator Uberfus who was Mcdaniels guy. I think he will be gone after the year.

Poor talent in a poor scheme = disaster.

 

i doubt it happens but I hope Eberflus is gone too.

[Mr.NotSoCreative]

We can wind the clock back 4-5 weeks and the defense was easily the strength of this team. What has happened? 

[NewColtsFan]

3 hours ago, Nesjan3 said:

Im going to attribute a lot of the problems to our D coordinator Uberfus who was Mcdaniels guy. I think he will be gone after the year.

 

I’m sorry, but this is incorrect.

 

Eberflus was NOT McDaniels’ guy.   He was and is Ballard ‘s guy.   McDaniels couldn’t pick Eberflus out if a police lineup.

 

When Ballard hired JM he told McDaniels about ME and how he wanted him to be the new DC.   McDaniels didn’t care about that side of the ball, so he agreed.   He made the call and extended the offer.   But he’s always been Ballard’s guy.  They met a few years ago and Ballard said ME made a huge impression on him and he always wanted to hire him.

 

If you’re not happy with the defense now, it’s not on ME,  it’s on the lack of talent.   We need much more talent on that side of the ball. 

 

Unless theres been a falling out that we dont we don’t know about, I wouldn’t get my hopes up for a change at DC.   Not going to happen.   Especially after one year with little talent.

[horseshoecrabs]

5 minutes ago, Mr.NotSoCreative said:

We can wind the clock back 4-5 weeks and the defense was easily the strength of this team. What has happened? 

The offense has gotten better.

 

[cbear]

The pass defense is bad.  Run defense is not too bad and waaayyyy better than what we've had in the past. 

 

Agree about the pash rush being non existent, but not sure why the drop off.  

[BOTT]

2 minutes ago, cbear said:

The pass defense is bad.  Run defense is not too bad and waaayyyy better than what we've had in the past. 

 

Agree about the pash rush being non existent, but not sure why the drop off.  

Water finds its own level

[Mr.NotSoCreative]

9 minutes ago, horseshoecrabs said:

The offense has gotten better.

 

Heaven forbid we get all of the units to click at the same time. 

[#12.]

41 minutes ago, BOTT said:

Poor talent in a poor scheme = disaster.

 

i doubt it happens but I hope Eberflus is gone too.

 

We're in this defense for the foreseeable future.  It's the defense Ballard wants.  Hopefully they find a way to make it work reasonably well.  

[BOTT]

14 minutes ago, #12. said:

 

We're in this defense for the foreseeable future.  It's the defense Ballard wants.  Hopefully they find a way to make it work reasonably well.  

McDaniels and Eberflus. Ballard might want to think about letting frank make that decision. Lol

[Stephen]

2 hours ago, NewColtsFan said:

 

I don’t know how many times it needs to be said....    but it’s worth saying again...

 

Ballard has repeatedly said this defense does not need “elite” level corners to be successful.   It needs good zone corners which we clearly don’t have yet.    

 

But we don’t need elite level corners.   Just better than what we currently have...

 

I prefer elite  corners so we can play like the 85 bears or 2000 ravens. Even the 13 Seahawks  or 15 broncos would be nice

[Mr.NotSoCreative]

 

We can wind the clock back 4-5 weeks and the defense was easily the strength of this team. What has happened? 

[Mr.NotSoCreative]

Just now, Mr.NotSoCreative said:

Which teams have elite defenses?

 

[Mr.NotSoCreative]

Just now, Mr.NotSoCreative said:

 

After thinking about some of what we would consider the best teams in the NFL, it is all about out scoring the opponent. Even the Rams, Chiefs, etc are giving up yards and points. 

[Trueman]

First of all , people need to chill on the Eberflus hate. The dude is working with almost nothing and it's his first year being a coordinator.  The decision to run the scheme we're running is made above his pay grade. Ballard chose the scheme , and got the guy to run it. 

Second , this how I look at our current defense :

Building blocks:

RE- Turay
DT- 
DT- 
LE- Lewis

WLB- Leonard
MLB- 
SLB-

CB-
FS- Hooker
SS- 
CB-

Potential pieces: Muhammad, Ward, Stewart, Walker, Adams, Franklin, S.Moore, K.Moore, Hairston, Wilson.

Stop gaps/whatever's : Hunt, Autry, Woods, Sheard, Phillips, Ridgeway, Goode, Desir, Geathers, Mitchell, Farley, Odum , C.Moore.

So yeah, there's work to be done. We need talent everywhere - some places more than others. The quickest way to make our defense better is to upgrade the DL. 
 

[BOTT]

14 minutes ago, Trueman said:

First of all , people need to chill on the Eberflus hate. The dude is working with almost nothing and it's his first year being a coordinator.  The decision to run the scheme we're running is made above his pay grade. Ballard chose the scheme , and got the guy to run it. 

Second , this how I look at our current defense :

Building blocks:

RE- Turay
DT- 
DT- 
LE- Lewis

WLB- Leonard
MLB- 
SLB-

CB-
FS- Hooker
SS- 
CB-

Potential pieces: Muhammad, Ward, Stewart, Walker, Adams, Franklin, S.Moore, K.Moore, Hairston, Wilson.

Stop gaps/whatever's : Hunt, Autry, Woods, Sheard, Phillips, Ridgeway, Goode, Desir, Geathers, Mitchell, Farley, Odum , C.Moore.

So yeah, there's work to be done. We need talent everywhere - some places more than others. The quickest way to make our defense better is to upgrade the DL. 
 

One would assume Eberflus was chosen because of his preference to the Tampa 2.   The colts can get more talent,  but that scheme will always be a liability IMO.

 

maybe Eberflus adjusts the scheme as he gets more talent, but I think that is just wishful thinking on my part.

[Trueman]

10 minutes ago, BOTT said:

One would assume Eberflus was chosen because of his preference to the Tampa 2.   The colts can get more talent,  but that scheme will always be a liability IMO.

 

maybe Eberflus adjusts the scheme as he gets more talent, but I think that is just wishful thinking on my part.

Right. I just don't think people should think the scheme would change if we got rid of Eberflus. I'm almost certain we'd just get another guy to run the same thing. 

I think (hope) some wrinkles will be added (we're playing a historic amount of zone) once we get better players. How much remains to be seen. If we add a freak like Derwin James , maybe that would allow us to get a little more creative. I dunno. 

I'm not a big fan of the scheme either. It's reminding me too much of the Peyton era. My hope is that Ballard just gets bigger/better players than Polian did and doesn't ignore positions -- anything more (like running a cover 3) and it's gravy. The days of Raheem Brock at DT doesn't really fire me up. 

[Boiler_Colt]

Eberflus isnt going anywhere, so stop. The scheme works just fine if you have the right players. The Dallas D is pretty darn good. I'm starting to think it's just extremely simplified because we are so young, at least that's the hope.

[krunk]

5 hours ago, 1959Colts said:

...Maybe it's time to bring Lenzy Pipkins back again?

 

https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2018/11/12/lions-waive-lenzy-pipkins/

I will take him over that damn Maulet

[krunk]

At the beginning of the year we were a very good tackling team. That has dissapeared along with the pass rush. The quick short passing game has neutralized a lot of the rush, but there's also times we just don't get there. And it it stings even worse on these 3rd and longs we give up.

[neug3246]

I thought that the colts would play more cover 3 at the beginning of this season. Also when Wilson was drafted wasn't he supposed to be more of a press corner?? I too hate this soft zone  the colts play and wish we play more man but hey I'm not gonna change that. I do think we will get the players needed to get this D looking like how CB wants it to look it just takes time so I will be patient with it and see how this next draft/FA looks like.

[LJpalmbeacher2]

If or when this D acquires more talent it probably will still struggle with current scheme. Anytime a Defense doesn't want/need good to elite corners, especially in a passing league, the defensive concept is way off base AND NEEDS RETHINKING.

A more aggressive type of defensive scheme needs to be implemented and good luck waiting for that to happen.

[rockywoj]

6 hours ago, NewColtsFan said:

 

I don’t know how many times it needs to be said....    but it’s worth saying again...

 

Ballard has repeatedly said this defense does not need “elite” level corners to be successful.   It needs good zone corners which we clearly don’t have yet.    

 

But we don’t need elite level corners.   Just better than what we currently have...

 

Regardless of how many times you feel the need to say what you said ...

 

Ummm, methinks that Ballard, and in fact EVERY GM in the league, tries their hardest to uncover and acquire “elite” talent.  That doesn’t mean they are willing to go out and break the bank paying elite salaries for the elite talent.   That is why one tries to build through the draft ... the hope and intention of drafting what turns out to be elite talent.

 

It would be quite ridiculous, really, to think the a GM would go, meh, we don’t need to draft this elite guy at CB, instead let’s take this other simply good guy. Kind of like, why take Quentin Nelson, when we could have just traded back again and got a lesser talent at OG.  You GRAB the guys you deem as being THE best talent available when it’s your turn to pick ... and you hope and pray they turn out to become the best of all prospects at that chosen position.

 

So, back to my point, I think the Colts are lacking talent in the secondary, to the tune of needing to upgrade the defensive backfield by adding two better corners and a better SS (or have the existing players take a big leap forward); add another stud on the D-line; and maybe another stud LB.  On the offence, I think they still need to add a quality starter level OLineman at either RG or RT, depending on where Braden Smith ultimately settles in at.  As well, it seems quite glaring that another WR is needed that brings WR1 talent to the table.  So, I’d be looking to upgrade 7 spots total, while hoping all the other players get better as well.

 

 

[Four2itus]

Considering the main need we had going into the draft....getting a wall in front of Andrew...and it appears we accomplished that, I am giddy. CB made it his primary focus. Even then, Ballard pulled a major defender at LB in the 2nd round, and even more players, yet to be proven. But here the fans are, noticing inconsistencies with the D. 

 

My guess is, that had Ballard went all in on defense, we would have a surging defense, and our offense would have its struggles....whereas the same people would be noticing inconsistencies with the O. How about we celebrate the fact that the Colts have a REAL offensive line, and that defensive talent is coming soon. 

 

For those without long term Colt fan perspective, we are headed in the right direction. Enjoy it. It can change in the blink of an eye. Count your football blessings. 

[BOTT]

7 hours ago, Boiler_Colt said:

Eberflus isnt going anywhere, so stop. The scheme works just fine if you have the right players. The Dallas D is pretty darn good. I'm starting to think it's just extremely simplified because we are so young, at least that's the hope.

It's not like the colts were playing the chiefs.  They looked lousy against the jags, whose talent on offense is equal to that of the colts defense.