The Indianapolis Colts enter Week 14 in unfamiliar territory after a late season slide following a blistering start.
Back-to-back losses to Kansas City and Houston have prompted many to question whether this group was simply overachieving early or whether injuries have finally caught up with them.
While Jonathan Taylor remains the heartbeat of the offense and a playoff-proof weapon, the type of violent, downhill runner whose game translates no matter the temperature or venue, the real key to Indianapolis clawing back into form and marching deep into January lies somewhere else.
The Indianapolis Colts pass rush could get the team a deep playoff run
It’s in the trenches. More specifically, it’s in their pass rush.
Through 13 weeks, the Colts possess a top-five sack unit in football, and they’ve built it not through one superstar, but through layered, constant, heavy-handed pressure across the front.
At the center of it all is second-year sack artist Laiatu Latu, the UCLA product who’s become everything Indianapolis hoped for when they drafted him on night one last spring.
His numbers tell the story: 47 pressures, eight sacks, 33 hurries, and six quarterback hits.
But his film tells an even clearer one -- Latu wins early, wins late, wins around the corner, and wins with hands that control reps before tackles even get into their sets. He’s a tone-setter, a chaos engine, and he’s exactly the type of rusher who can swing a playoff game.
But he isn’t alone.
Kwity Paye has chipped in four sacks and continues to be a strong complementary force on the opposite edge. Inside, Neville Gallimore and DeForest Buckner -- each with four sacks -- anchor a duo that collapses pockets before quarterbacks even begin their progressions.
For Indy, they don’t have to blitz to heat people up. They don’t have to sell out with pressure looks or compromise the coverage shell. They simply rely on their front four to win, again and again.
And that’s what makes this unit so crucial as Indianapolis enters the postseason gauntlet in a few weeks.
As it does annually, playoff football exposes defenses that can't push the pocket. Give a quarterback clean turf under his feet, and it becomes seven-on-seven football -- pitch, catch, and pick your matchup.
But muddy the interior, get arms in throwing lanes, turn a quarterback’s steps from confident to rushed, and the entire operation breaks down. That’s especially vital if Indianapolis ends up without Sauce Gardner for any stretch, who is currently 'week to week' with the calf injury suffered against Houston.
A disruptive front can protect the back seven just as much as coverage can protect the front, and if the Colts make noise in January, or further into the New Year, it will be because Latu and the front four didn’t just show up -- they took over.