Darius Leonard helped the Colts fight through adversity Sunday, and he didn’t give up, despite the scoreboard.
Even though the Colts went down for the count on Sunday, Darius Leonard didn’t hear no bell.
The motor of the Indianapolis defense was without most of his assistants on Sunday, with double-team-drawing DeForest Buckner and Denico Autry both out due to COVID protocols, and linebacker Bobby Okereke nursing an ankle issue. This led to Derrick Henry and the Titans gashing the Colts to such an extent in the first half that both teams largely took the last 30 minutes off.
But not Leonard. No, no.
Leonard knows that, in the NFL, you never take anything for granted, and every game bleeds into the next, which seems important for a 7-4 Colts team that still needs to fight for every inch in the playoff race. And in the postgame scrum, a fired-up Leonard detailed exactly why he never stopped battling in this one.
Darius Leonard: "I fight to the end. Only dummies quit... In these kind of situations, you find out who's gonna fight."
— Stephen Holder (@HolderStephen) November 29, 2020
Only. Dummies. Quit. I smell a t-shirt?
This was an unfortunate blemish on the Colts’ otherwise-impressive 3-2 November against some top-notch opponents, and it was a downer that the team didn’t really come to play just two weeks after demolishing the Titans on their own turf.
Sure, there were plenty of excuses. Enough absences to fill a phonebook will derail any team’s ambitions, a list that only got longer as the game continued and Anthony Castonzo disappeared.
But it’s good to know that Leonard, the man who dictates the direction of this defense, wasn’t among those who counted Indy out — even as this particular game was unraveling.
Darius Leonard is HEATED. More than I've ever seen him before.
— Stephen Holder (@HolderStephen) November 29, 2020
And I love it.
After what we just witnessed, it’s comforting to know that, yes, the Colts can run just as angrily as Derrick Henry.
This was a doomed contest from the first snap unless things went completely haywire for the Titans. But the guys in that locker room don’t view things that way, and if they do stray, they’ll be whipped into shape by a furious Leonard before next week’s kickoff.
Couldn’t be a better leader.
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