Sad news: The head coach of the Colts received sad news regarding his top…
The Colts’ defense significantly improved in 2021, putting pressure on Lamar with 17 pressures on 45 passing attempts and 16 pressures on 35 this year.
Once again, the new and improved defensive line played well and prevented Jackson from becoming overly at ease in the pocket. This team might explode next week against the Los Angeles Rams, a more favorable matchup.
granting Matt Gay the biggest kicker contract in free agency history during the previous offseason
I have to give the Colts’ decision-makers credit for signing Matt Gay this past offseason, even though it was more of a Chris Ballard decision than a Shane Steichen one.
It’s that simple: Gay is the reason the Colts prevailed on Sunday. He converted four field goals of 50 yards or more, including the game-winning and game-tying kicks. I cannot recall a kicker’s performance in Colts history that was more pivotal.
The cornerbacks were facing the receivers one-on-one as the Ravens were blitzing like crazy. Steichen noticed that, and the Colts receivers were wide open and deep multiple times.
Additionally, there were multiple times during the game when Minshew went to his checkdown too quickly, which is fine because that is his style of play, rather than throwing it deep to a wide open receiver. Braden Smith also lost his guy on one play in particular, where if he had held on to him, Pierce was wide open for six.
Benching Darrell Baker Jr. and activating Julius Brents.
In order to stop yards after the catch, the Colts secondary typically plays a soft zone defense that heavily relies on physical tackling. Darrell Baker Jr.
was a healthy scratch against the Ravens after he appeared to slack off on a few plays against Houston. Julius Brents, a rookie cornerback, started in Baker Jr.’s place. Juju participated in 74% of the plays, recorded four tackles, recovered a forced fumble, and broke up a crucial pass against Mark Andrews. At 6 feet 3 inches and 200 pounds, Brents is a great fit for the Colts’ current defense.
For the second week in a row, no significant poor decisions were made, which makes my job much harder here but makes me extremely happy about Shane Steichen. The playcall on the game’s last play, when the ball was on the Baltimore 49-yard line, was the one thing I did not understand. If the Colts had apparently run a screen pass that resulted in an incompletion, I could have understood a kneel-down and simply going into overtime.
