Last week, the Indianapolis Colts faced a struggling team with a rookie quarterback, and the results were as expected. They held the Tennessee Titans to under 200 yards passing and won easily.
But in the first two weeks of the season, Lou Anarumo’s defense was supposedly taking on more formidable passing attacks in Miami and Denver. Denver’s Bo Nix was sensational as a rookie last season, and Miami’s Tua Tagovailoa has been quite good in the past, though you wouldn’t know it to see him now.
The Colts' defense was just as good, if not better, in those games than they were against Tennessee.
So Indy must have a great pass defense, right? After all, they are in the top ten in many key pass defense categories. Sometimes, statistics only tell part of the story.
Indianapolis Colts must improve their pass rush to hang with the better teams in the league
The sample size is still very small, but it may turn out that the three teams Indy has beaten so far simply don’t have very good passing attacks. Tennessee is dead last in passing yards, while both Denver and Miami rank in the bottom third of the league.
That is about to change. Beginning with this week’s game against the Rams, three of Indy’s next four games come against teams with top-ten passing attacks. Even if the secondary continues its solid play, the Colts will need more up front. Can Anarumo figure out a way to deliver more pressure?
There may be some scheme fixes, but this primarily begins and ends with the players winning their individual matchups. Indianapolis currently has four edge rushers who were either drafted in the first or second round.
Only one of them has a Pro Football Focus (subscription required) pass rush rating above 70. That is 2024 first-round pick Laiatu Latu, who sneaks in with a 71.1 grade. If you are unfamiliar with PFF’s scales, that is a decent number, though far from stand-out. It places Latu about 30th in the league among all edge rushers.
And he’s the Colts’ top man. The other edge rushers, including 2023 free agent pickup Samson Ebukam, all score below 60, which is mediocre at best.
In most systems, the edges are supposed to be your best pass rushers. But that’s not always the case. Unfortunately for the Colts, the interior linemen are not generating a lot of pressure either. Neville Gallimore has been the best coming from the inside, but he is a backup.
Amarumo has dialed up a few blitzes from the secondary, and they have worked, but you can’t be sending Nick Cross or Kenny Moore too often, or it will hurt the integrity of your coverage unit.
Indy needs more from Latu, Ebukam, Tyquan Lewis, JT Tuimoloau, and especially from Kwity Paye. But so far, none have been able to mount a consistent pass rush. So should Anarumo start calling more blitzes?
That’s a slippery slope. It takes men out of coverage. Good quarterbacks love to see the blitz coming because they know they will have room. Besides, it’s not like Indy hasn’t been blitzing. Their 23.4% blitz rate is pretty much dead center in the league overall. The problem is that those blitzes are not turning into pass pressure.
The Colts blitz/pressure ratio is underwater for the season. That means they blitz more often than they pressure the quarterback.
This week’s opponent, the Los Angeles Raiders, is the exact inverse. Both teams have a blitz rate in the low 20s, but the Rams get to the QB 21.4% of the time while the Colts only get there 15.9%. That is not sustainable when you face quarterbacks like Matt Stafford and Justin Herbert.
I don’t know if blitzing is the answer. But more creativity coming from the pass rush would help. Twists and stunts would potentially confuse less experienced linemen, which could come in handy when the Colts face Houston later this season. Dropping linemen into short zones while linebackers or defensive backs go after the quarterback should become a more common look.
That is exactly how Latu got his first career pick against Miami in Week 1, when he essentially switched roles with linebacker Cameron McGrone at the snap. McGrone took an inside lane to rush, and Latu dropped into coverage.
Unfortunately, the play didn’t result in more pressure. It was just a bad play by a confused Tagovailoa and a great play by Latu.
The most likely solutions must come from the players themselves. Tuimoloau should grow more comfortable in his role and Ebukam could find his 2023 form. Lewis and Paye have both shown glimpses of what they might do down the road.
But as the Colts near the middle part of a potentially sensational season, glimpses aren’t good enough. The pass rushers need to show up on a consistent basis for this team to continue its early-season success.