Injuries Aside, The Colts Defense Is A Mess

Source: Todd Rosenberg / Getty

The Indianapolis Colts suffered yet another defeat in Jacksonville on Sunday, falling 37-34 to the Jaguars. 

The Colts were severely shorthanded against the 0-4 Jags; quarterback Anthony Richardson and running back Jonathan Taylor missed the game for the offense, while on defense, multiple players like DeForest Buckner, Kwity Paye, Tyquan Lewis and Kenny Moore were absent. It would be easy then to blame the loss on the injuries, especially on the defensive side of the ball. 

Doing that, however, would ignore that by and large, the defense has been a complete mess since the beginning of the season. 

Through 5 games, the Colts defense is 25th in points allowed, and 32nd in yards allowed. At this rate, the team could be looking at near-historic levels of ineptitude.  

In Week 1, when the fully healthy Colts defense faced the Houston Texans, they let Joe Mixon run and company run for 213 yards on the ground. Against the Packers the following week, when the injury bug began to rear its ugly head, they let the Malik Willis-led Packers run for 261 yards. Against the struggling Bears offense in Week 3, Caleb Williams, who up to that point looked thoroughly overwhelmed, put up 332 passing yards. In their Week 4 win over the Steelers, they allowed 404 total yards. And finally, on Sunday against the Jaguars, they let a 0-4 team and their scattershot quarterback Trevor Lawrence post 497 total yards. 371 of those yards came through the air, a career-high for Lawrence.  

This is clearly unsustainable. Colts fans have been calling for defensive coordinator Gus Bradley to be fired for some time now, and it’s hard to fault them for that sentiment. Since his arrival, the Colts defense has ranked 28th in points allowed. In his first season, they were 15th in yards allowed but dropped to 25th in his 2nd. Yes, they have been rocked with injuries this year, but even when healthy they weren’t playing well. 

There were concerns about the Colts defense before the season began, especially in the secondary. The Colts chose to largely ignore those concerns; that falls on general manager Chris Ballard. Unfortunately for Bradley, he may be the one taking the fall if he cannot get this fixed.  

During the Monday edition of The Ride With JMV, John spoke to Stephen Holder of ESPN about the Colts and their defense. Listen to that conversation and more below, and tune into The Ride With JMV weekdays from 3-6pm on 93.5/107.5 The Fan! 

Injuries Aside, The Colts Defense Is A Mess was originally published on 1075thefan.com