Colts vs. Charges: Post-game defensive grades

The offense wasn’t the problem in the Colts’ opener. The defense couldn’t step up when they really needed to, and they lost in overtime.

Offense was the concern coming into Los Angeles for week one. But the offense played well for the Colts. In fact, it was the defense that struggled throughout most of the day. Here are the grades for each position group for their week one performance.

The defensive line had a very up and down game. They did have four sacks as a group. Justin Houston got his first one as a Colt. But they got pushed around at times in the run game, and had a couple of stupid penalties. One was an offsides on Houston. Another one was a roughing the snapper on Denico Autry during a field goal attempt that cost the Colts four points.

This was the performance I was most surprised about on the entire unit. Darius Leonard wasn’t flying around the ball like he usually is. He tied for the lead for tackles on the team with seven, but didn’t make any big plays like we’ve grown accustomed to.

Once the running backs got through to the second level, the linebackers struggled to tackle. Their coverage wasn’t very good either, as Austin Ekeler killed them in the passing game with 8 catches. This unit has to perform better in the future for the Colts to win games.

The only thing saving this unit from a worse grade is Malik Hooker‘s incredible one-handed interception in the end zone in the fourth quarter to give the Colts a chance. Other than that, this unit played exceptionally poor.

Rock Ya-Sin had a rough first game as a pro. He got the start opposite of Pierre Desir, and he got beat badly on a jump ball at the goal line which resulted in a Chargers touchdown. Desir wasn’t much better. Clayton Geathers got switched in and out with Khari Willis throughout the game.

You can’t allow over 400 yards passing and say these guys had a good day. They simply have to be better. If they aren’t the Colts are going to lose more games than they win, and it won’t be as close as it was on Sunday.