Colts’ defense should stick with zone coverage

In the last few games, the Colts have gotten burned for some big plays on defense. Most of that has been when they have decided to play man-to-man. They should stick to zone.

The Colts got burned on four deep passes in Houston on Thursday night. Three of those passes were against man-to-man coverage. Pierre Desir got burned twice, and Rock Ya-Sin got burned once. These were all massive plays in the game.

They were all when the Colts tried to play man-to-man coverage. This defense is primary a Cover 2 zone defense. They excel the most when they keep the offense in front of them. That’s also what most of the secondary is built to do for this team.

When they got burned on those plays, they let a quarterback who doesn’t do well against zone coverage get exactly what he wanted. The coaching staff has to be smarter to know when to play zone and when to play man-to-man. That shouldn’t have happened.

I’m not saying the Colts should never play man-to-man. What I am saying is that it should not happen in critical situations in the game. Zone is what they play best, so zone is what they should stick with, especially against a really good wide receiver like Houston had in Hopkins.

Moving forward, the Colts should keep their man coverages to a minimum late in games. That will keep their caches of getting burned for big plays to a minimum The Colts can’t afford to give up big plays if their own offense doesn’t have any.