Colts need to diversify their defensive scheme

Late in the season, the Colts got victimized over and over on the defensive side of the ball. They need to diversify their scheme to fix those issues.

The Colts got crushed late in the season on defense because of miscommunication and bad schemes in certain situations. There were several plays late in the season where the defense would give up massive chunk plays, which was uncharacteristic of this defense.

A big part of it was miscommunication in the secondary, especially the safeties. Malik Hooker and Khari Willis weren’t on the same page most of the time once Willis took over full-time as the starter. That’s where the majority of the big plays happened.

The team had issues with scheme too. They were too often in man-to-man when they should have been in zone and vise-versa. They just couldn’t get the right scheme out there for the personnel that were out there on offense.

Part of that is on the coaching staff for not having the team prepared for the game. But a bigger part of it is the poor play of the secondary. Rock Ya-Sin didn’t trust his technique and got burned because of it. Same thing happened with Pierre Desir after he got hurt.

Better scheme would help mask those issues. It won’t totally fix the problem, but it will keep them from getting burned as bad as he has been. Those schemes should be more press coverage in cover 2. That way, the defense can jam receivers at the line of scrimmage and allow the pressure to get to the quarterback.

Blitzing more would help as well. They need to get to the quarterback sooner to protect their secondary. That might be the best way to improve the defense next season. We will see if the staff makes some changes.