As soon as Strickland got hurt it started to completely disintegrate. What a letdown (an understatement). Chest pains listening to the greatness of watermelon head and what an unstoppable machine he is on sports radio the next day. I still have agita.
I’ll never forget the year our defense couldn’t force not even one turnover. I wanna say it was 2013. All I remember about that season was that we were facing the Steelers after Big Ben has back to back 500 yard games and we finally got the first turnovers of the season then. This is head and shoulders above that defense Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
D can't stop a drive when it matters. Thank god the colts D was even worse. The foundation is there but if you can't generate a pass rush, you can't get off the field
29th in Pass Defense. And being 15th in Run Defense is helped immensely by the fact that teams pass more on them because they can so easily. The "D" shows flashes, and has some talent, but has some troubling issues like soft pass coverage and lousy tackling. Most importantly they're terrible on stopping 3rd downs.
Sometimes this pass rush is non-existent, like today, for example. How many times I watched as players were just within an elbows length of grabbing on to Luck and putting him on his back? I do think that this D is one real pass-rusher away from being very good.
In fairness I think a QB as good as Luck is very hard to get to...he knows how to move, when to throw it away, good P.A. to slow rush. They really do need a stud pass rusher, which would greatly improve the "D" as a whole.
This Colts offense is designed to get the ball out super quick. They improved the offensive line but they also want to keep Luck upright, coming off that brutal shoulder injury. With that said, the pass rush wasn't great today. Only Big Cat registered QB hits (he had 3). Anderson had a few nice pass rush plays off the edge too. Honestly the pass defense was fine today, being that Luck and this Colts team pass a TON. Yes they had some big targets missing, but the Jets didn't have two of their top corners today (and Maye left mid game). What I like about the defense is that they are forcing turnovers. Luck threw 3 picks today, last year this defense wouldn't have been able to come up with those plays. The improved play of guys like Lee, Adams and bringing in Williamson have given this team a sense that can make a play. I do feel the defense plays better when Bowles calls it...
The thing you have to like about this defense is how larcenous they have been. I like that guys on this defense consistently try to take the ball away. I see them going for strips on almost every tackle. I see corners and safeties constantly looking in the backfield at the QBs eyes. I like that stuff. This defense is far from great (mostly because we desperately need an edge rusher), but I would rather give up some yards/points while consistently taking the ball away then be 1st in yards/points allowed without any forcing any turnovers.
I didn't realize that Maye left the game. Any word on his injury? That's probably a good reason why the pass "D" fell off so badly in the 2nd half.
