During a difficult phase in the Indianapolis Colts' schedule, the defense held its own.
In the last three games, the Colts have faced Houston, Minnesota and Buffalo, who have a combined record of 21-8, with the Bills and Vikings both ranked in the top half of the NFL –an advanced efficiency metric.
However, as noted by From Sports Illustrated's Horseshoe Huddle, the Colts' defense ranked 11th in EPA per game during that span and they had the sixth-best coverage EPA.
Contributing to this success was the pass rush's ability to pursue the quarterback, with a pressure rate of a whopping 53 percent. This was sparked at times by Gus Bradley being willing to blitz 30 percent of the time, and overall the defense forced six takeaways.
As always, there are numerous contributors who led to these results. Getting DeForest Buckner back in the middle of this defense was huge. In addition to his ability to fill the stat sheet himself, his presence creates opportunities for others.
This is also thanks to the growth of Nick Cross and Jaylon Jones in the secondary, as well as the emergence of Sam Womack, who have provided stability to a unit that entered the season with major question marks.
Bradley also deserves high praise. Overall, the defense is playing at a completely different level than in the first few weeks of the season. Ultimately, it's the players who make the plays, but Bradley pushed all the right buttons with the adjustments he made.
However, if there is still room for improvement, it will be in the fourth quarter. While the Colts' defense has held up well for the most part, they do start to lose some oil towards the end of these games, allowing 20 points in these three games this quarter.
“The points scored in the first quarter, second quarter and third quarter are all much better than they were, but the fourth quarter is not.” . “We gave up more points in the fourth quarter than last year and we have to focus on that now.
“It’s not up to our standard, it’s not good enough, and now it’s about getting our unit’s attention on it – we need to be better in the fourth quarter and the number of points we give up.”
Now when it comes to late game defensive performance, the Colts offense isn't much help to this unit. The lack of points and short drives that led to the Colts ranking last in possession this season took their toll on the defensive side of the ball.
The negative trickle-down effect is that the Colts' defense is on the field longer, which can wear down that unit, not to mention giving the opposing offense more opportunities to put up points.
At this point in the season, the Colts' defense had been on the field about 100 more plays than their offense – the equivalent of about an extra football game and a half of playing time.
“We’re looking at that part, how do we take care of our players,” Bradley said. “But the good defenses, the really good defenses, they love the opportunity to go out and play.
“And we have to continue to build that mindset so we can get another opportunity to go out there, but you have to build that mentality and look at it as another opportunity to get the ball back for our offense.”
Ultimately, the Colts are 0-3 as a team in this stretch, and at the end of the day that's what's most important. However, the defense is doing pretty much everything it can to keep the team in these games and give the offense a chance to regain the lead or get back into the game, but that side of the ball isn't coming through right now .