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Is the Defense Pathetically Bad?


Smonroe

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15 hours ago, NewColtsFan said:


Huh?   
 

“No one is testing the secondary, they are running ball.”    

 

That was true the first two weeks, but Williams just threw over 50 passes and the Bears ran about just 20 times.    Did you miss that?   
 

He's a rookie. Wait till they meet a balanced team with a good qb.

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12 hours ago, Defjamz26 said:

I don’t think the run defense will continue to be as bad as it has been. However, I do think the pass D is worse than it has appeared so far. First two games the run defense was so bad that it covered up for the Pass D a lot. I don’t t think the Colts are actually able to stop the pass if they want to. I think they rely purely on the pass rush to get there. 
 

What you saw from Jones is the high of Bradley’s D. When everything goes according to plan, CBs are supposed to read the QB and make breaks on the ball for either PBUs or INTs. The problem is that rarely happens. The big issue is how horrible they are at defending 3rd down and how many in opputune big plays they give up. They allowed a 100+ yard receiver and 97 yard TE against the Bears.  Thats not going to cut it.

 

We are 27th in The league for opponent 3rd down conversion at 50%. Awful

 

31st In the league for rush yards allowed per game. Awful

 

21st in the league for passing yards per game allowed. Bad

 

24th for passing TDs allowed. Bad

 

31st in the league for yards a game with 398!!! Awful

 

To answer the original question, it is awfully bad. Near the bottom for every major defensive category. Some blame goes to the offense but that wasn’t the issue in the Houston game, so it a moot point.

I saw a glimmer of hope with our defense until I saw the stats after 3 games. Thanks for this post. It's still early and I think a big factor could be crowd noise disrupting Fields.  We fans must out-loud the Pittsburgh faithful that will be there in numbers with their terrible towels.  The 3rd down conversion rate is just stinky hot-dog water. If we allow every 3rd down to be a short 3rd down, they will run over us all day until we shade up the linebackers, then we pay on the soft zone pass coverage.  It's very problematic because Fields can also run and a spy is necessary on many downs.  But the key to this game is hitting short routes with Downs & Co. , hit a long route or two to soften that stout Pittsburgh D up, and taking advantage of their depleted roster.  They are more banged up than we are.

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21 hours ago, Dingus McGirt said:

If i read the box score correctly - Chicago ran 84 plays to the Colts running 54.  Jeez-Louise.

 

Yep. Colts defense got a goal-line stop, two INTs and a sack FF that put them in at CHI's 15-yard line.

 

It took all of that for the Colts to win 21-16. Hard to expect 4 TOs per game from more efficient offenses. And that plays ran disparity will really hurt them as we get into the season.

 

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2 hours ago, Indianapolis-Colts-Fan said:

No one will convince me Bradley is the answer. The only one who wants the man running this defense is Ballard. Not even Gus himself wants to be here. 
 

when he wanted to leave, where was the “you’re either 100% in or you’re out” Ballard at? 

 

The question I have is - Is Gus playing that defense because of lack of talent?  Or, say he had a shut down corner and a ball hawk safety, would he still have them give a 12 yard cushion on 3rd and 8?

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Our defense looks to be painfully regressed from last year. Also, when our offense can only stay on the field for 20 minutes a game, the defense is going to be playing gassed. We aren’t good. Going to be a long season unless things somehow correct themselves and everyone starts clicking again. 

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Just now, Smonroe said:

 

The question I have is - Is Gus playing that defense because of lack of talent?  Or, say he had a shut down corner and a ball hawk safety, would he still have them give a 12 yard cushion on 3rd and 8?

 

One only has to look at Bradley's history to see that he has always been ultra conservative. The main exception was for a couple years in Seattle, the early LOB days, but if you go back and watch them closely, you'll still see a lot of the same conservative stuff.

 

But I think there's a more important question: If our defensive coordinator's best answer on 3rd and 8 is to let receivers run to open areas of the field with zero resistance, is he doing his job? What does he bring to the table? 

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6 hours ago, Superman said:

 

One only has to look at Bradley's history to see that he has always been ultra conservative. The main exception was for a couple years in Seattle, the early LOB days, but if you go back and watch them closely, you'll still see a lot of the same conservative stuff.

 

But I think there's a more important question: If our defensive coordinator's best answer on 3rd and 8 is to let receivers run to open areas of the field with zero resistance, is he doing his job? What does he bring to the table? 

The ONLY other exception that I can remember from Bradley is the Ravens game last year.  We blitzed a lot (comparatively) and we pressured on 3rd downs I believe.

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12 hours ago, Restinpeacesweetchloe said:

Points are always more important then yards 


True.  But comparing our D to others is irrelevant.   It’s the old “if all your friends jump off a bridge…”

 

Time of possession, even if they don’t score or just kick a FG, leaves little time for our offense to score.  
 

I want to see what happens if the offense starts to click, and we can get a little bit of a lead.  Will Gus still play a soft zone and let them get right back into it?  Or will he let them attack? 

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19 hours ago, Indianapolis-Colts-Fan said:

No one will convince me Bradley is the answer. The only one who wants the man running this defense is Ballard. Not even Gus himself wants to be here. 
 

when he wanted to leave, where was the “you’re either 100% in or you’re out” Ballard at? 

When did he want to leave?

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9 minutes ago, Restinpeacesweetchloe said:

I heard they jumped up to 15 but I don’t know what metric they were using. Maybe yards per rush.

Correct.  They are 15th in yards per attempt.  31st in total rushing yards.

Glass half empty:  they are still 32nd in 1st downs allowed.

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21 minutes ago, John Hammonds said:

Correct.  They are 15th in yards per attempt.  31st in total rushing yards.

Glass half empty:  they are still 32nd in 1st downs allowed.

 

And that is the most important stat.  If you can't get them off the field, you can't get your offense on it.

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2 hours ago, Smonroe said:


True.  But comparing our D to others is irrelevant.   It’s the old “if all your friends jump off a bridge…”

 

Time of possession, even if they don’t score or just kick a FG, leaves little time for our offense to score.  
 

I want to see what happens if the offense starts to click, and we can get a little bit of a lead.  Will Gus still play a soft zone and let them get right back into it?  Or will he let them attack? 

You would play soft zone and let them burn the clock.  The majority of teams do that especially if that team has a front four that can get after the quarterback like we do.  The field starts to get smaller for the offense and increases the chances for a turnover by the defense.  Gives the defensive backs a chance to jump the ball and make a play.  I see a lot of teams do that.  Works even better with a lead imo.

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3 hours ago, Smonroe said:


True.  But comparing our D to others is irrelevant.   It’s the old “if all your friends jump off a bridge…”

 

Time of possession, even if they don’t score or just kick a FG, leaves little time for our offense to score.  
 

I want to see what happens if the offense starts to click, and we can get a little bit of a lead.  Will Gus still play a soft zone and let them get right back into it?  Or will he let them attack? 

 

That is generally true, but with an inconsistent young quarterback, it might be the ultimate strategy. Reduce possessions, force turnovers, and try to hit the big plays offensively to stay in ballgames to give ourselves the best chance to win. 

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2 hours ago, John Hammonds said:

Good news!  As of this week, Colts are no longer dead last in rushing defense!  Ok, we're 31st.  But it's not last!

 

Overall yardage, yes. Yards per attempt, we are 15th. 121 attempts through 3 weeks, most in the league by 10 carries. 

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33 minutes ago, ColtStrong2013 said:

 

Overall yardage, yes. Yards per attempt, we are 15th. 121 attempts through 3 weeks, most in the league by 10 carries. 

Yup.  There are two ways to reduce the number of rushing attempts:

  1. Stop the attempts that they make, and stop their first down conversions, so they don't get more opportunities
  2. Score enough to be ahead, forcing them to pass instead of run
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1 hour ago, richard pallo said:

You would play soft zone and let them burn the clock.  The majority of teams do that especially if that team has a front four that can get after the quarterback like we do.  The field starts to get smaller for the offense and increases the chances for a turnover by the defense.  Gives the defensive backs a chance to jump the ball and make a play.  I see a lot of teams do that.  Works even better with a lead imo.


Fourth Q for sure.  But what if we get a 14 point lead in the first half?  I think that’s the time to be aggressive.

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3 hours ago, John Hammonds said:

Yup.  There are two ways to reduce the number of rushing attempts:

  1. Stop the attempts that they make, and stop their first down conversions, so they don't get more opportunities
  2. Score enough to be ahead, forcing them to pass instead of run


yeah I don’t see us scoring enough to get a lead consistently. I hope I’m wrong. I also think they are closer than what the paper looks like on getting those stops on third down consistently. I would wager that we are closer to consistency on defense than on offense. 

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2 hours ago, Smonroe said:


Fourth Q for sure.  But what if we get a 14 point lead in the first half?  I think that’s the time to be aggressive.

I could see being a little more aggressive with an early lead but for me that would be a few more blitzes.  I still prefer the zone pass defense because with a fast and importantly experienced group I think they can read plays and make a break on the ball and go for the interception.  Better vision going downhill so to speak.  I think it’s harder to get an interception in man unless it’s a poorly thrown ball.  Right or wrong that’s my personal preference.

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1 hour ago, richard pallo said:

I could see being a little more aggressive with an early lead but for me that would be a few more blitzes.  I still prefer the zone pass defense because with a fast and importantly experienced group I think they can read plays and make a break on the ball and go for the interception.  Better vision going downhill so to speak.  I think it’s harder to get an interception in man unless it’s a poorly thrown ball.  Right or wrong that’s my personal preference.

 

I just want the CBs to press every now and then.  Letting the receiver waltz off the line and be open for 5 - 8 yards for an easy pitch and catch is no defense.  Especially when they're near the goal line.

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Bringing this post back, maybe to eat a little crow.  I still think they were pathetically bad the first three weeks of the season.  As we all pointed out, some of it had to do with time of possession.

 

They were not great against Pittsburgh, especially in the second half, but they were good enough.  Considering the guys that were out, it was a good effort.

 

Still, they gave up nearly 400 yards again and seemed to take the foot off the gas pedal at times.  And we have to admit that the Steelers made a few unforced turnovers.

 

But if the offense can continue playing like they did when AR was in the game, controlling the clock and running the ball, the defense should be good enough.

 

In today's NFL, that's about all you can ask for sometimes.

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I would like to give a shout out to Jones as well.  I think he’s playing extremely well.  He’s given up completions but his coverage is tight and solid.  The receivers are finding a way to make catches.  Hopefully the law of averages start to move in his direction on the close ones.  I think he’s going to be a good one.

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7 minutes ago, richard pallo said:

I would like to give a shout out to Jones as well.  I think he’s playing extremely well.  He’s given up completions but his coverage is tight and solid.  The receivers are finding a way to make catches.  Hopefully the law of averages start to move in his direction on the close ones.  I think he’s going to be a good one.


And he’s really good at that “availability” ability too!

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On 9/25/2024 at 7:56 AM, BeanDiasucci said:

The Colts blocked him from interviewing with other teams in February 2023. https://horseshoeheroes.com/2023/02/07/colts-head-coach-blocking-gus-bradley-leaving/

So maybe this is his way of payback, lol??? I will sink the Colts with bad play calling. The sad thing is I don't think he is trying to be bad. He just is!!

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2 minutes ago, Restinpeacesweetchloe said:

Are we being to hard on the defense?

 

 

We just played a team with a QB who had been in the building for two weeks, and he only had two incompletions the entire game, and we lost. We played a rookie who had been struggling to move the ball, he put up over 300 yards on us (and a couple turnovers). Justin Fields kind of had his way with the defense in the second half, and if not for a couple of fluky turnovers, the Steelers probably do better than 24 points.

 

We've played one good QB, and so far, we're 14th in points/game, 29th on 3rd down, 26th in the red zone, 20th in scoring percentage, 19th in points/drive, 23rd in completion percentage against (68.9%, up from 65.1% last season), 23rd in net yards/attempt (which accounts for sacks), 26th in passer rating against. I won't even mention the rushing stats, but we know they're not good (trending much better, but still not good). What's saving the defense right now is a decent sack rate, a decent pressure rate, and a pretty high turnover percentage (8th best).

 

The sack rate is still kind of troubling, it's about the same as last season, but I think the pressures are coming faster on critical downs. We also struggled to get into pass rush situations in the first two games, and have been looking better the last two games, so I feel like this is trending in the right direction, but it's still a small sample size. This production could be sustainable. The turnover rate, probably not. I expect the turnovers to come down when we play better QBs and offenses.

 

Two months from now, we will have played Stroud again, Josh Allen, Aaron Rodgers, and Jared Goff. (Darnold is in there also, and he's been very effective with the Vikings so far.) Let's see what it looks like after that.

 

IMO, the defense has been better the past two weeks, but still giving up a lot of yards, and they struggle to get stops in the second half. It seems like the run defense stuff was a fluke, but we'll see. We're still not good in coverage, and it's only when the pass rush is working that we're able to make good things happen.

 

So I don't think we're being too hard on the defense. The defense is probably below average, and that's after we've faced three mediocre/inexperienced QBs in a row. 

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20 minutes ago, Restinpeacesweetchloe said:

It’s probably too small of a sample size. But it is interesting we are better than Texans. I would like to see where we are in the entire league.

Considering how young we are and  the number of defensive starters who have been lost due to injury I think they have done a great job after a slow start.  I’m expecting the younger guys to continue to improve and when injured players return I think the defense is going to be solid down the stretch.

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On 9/24/2024 at 12:56 PM, Superman said:

 

One only has to look at Bradley's history to see that he has always been ultra conservative. The main exception was for a couple years in Seattle, the early LOB days, but if you go back and watch them closely, you'll still see a lot of the same conservative stuff.

 

But I think there's a more important question: If our defensive coordinator's best answer on 3rd and 8 is to let receivers run to open areas of the field with zero resistance, is he doing his job? What does he bring to the table? 

Then isn't that a head coaching issue? After 3 years and nothing changes. Shouldn't Shane pull the trigger and fire Bradley.  If he doesn't, isn't he failing in his duties as a HC?  Just saying. U have been saying that a new D coach would bring some positive results. Let's say u r right and although u r not an  NFL coach, I  do respect your knowledge as it pertains to football. Shane must see it but isn't he  being negligent  by allowing it to continue?

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