Grading The 2018 Indianapolis Colts
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INDIANAPOLIS – The grades are something most would be pretty happy to take home to mom and dad (at least I would).
All in all, it was a successful season for the 2018 Colts.
Here are some letter grades I would hand out after a 10-6 campaign, with a road playoff victory:
Passing Offense: A-
-The only reason this isn’t an ‘A’ is because I didn’t see enough from the wide receiver group in 2018. Everything else was a pretty resounding success for the passing unit. Andrew Luck returned fully healthy and had arguably the best individual season of his career. He had a career-high in completion percentage and passer rating, and improved in the efficiency parts of his game. The Colts protected the passer tremendously and finished the year as the best pass protecting unit in the league. Frank Reich’s play calling prowess, coupled with the things already mentioned above, led to the Colts being the NFL’s best team in the league on third down. For a first-year offense, it was a pretty darn good inaugural campaign in the passing department.
Rushing Offense: B-
-I knocked this down from a ‘B’ after what we saw against the Chiefs. That game was like taking a final exam for me so I have to move this unit down a notch after that awful rushing effort in the first half. The Colts finished the year 22nd in the NFL in rushing yards per carry (4.21 YPC) and 20th in rushing yards per game (107.4 YPG). Now, when the Colts had their horses in the run game—Marlon Mack, Anthony Castonzo, Ryan Kelly, Jack Doyle and Mo Alie-Cox—they found great success. But this is an all-encompassing effort from the 2018 season. Still, a letter grade of ‘B-‘ for the rushing offense is definitely better than I would have expected at the start of the season. Andrew Luck received 4 100-yard rushing games this season, all from Marlon Mack. From 2012-16, Luck played in only 3 games with 100-yard rushing efforts (1 by Vick Ballard, 2 by Frank Gore).
Passing Defense: C-
-Honestly, I think this is a fair grade for the passing defense in 2018. They were the 20th ranked passing defense, 23rd on third down, 21st in sacks per pass attempt and allowed the 2nd highest completion percentage in the NFL. General defensive philosophy contributes to several of these numbers—the unwillingness to commit many resources to the pass rush/wanting to be a defense that allows underneath stuff to be completed more so than other units. Now, the Colts did do a very good job in limiting big plays this season. But considering the lack of elite quarterbacks the Colts played in 2018 (no Brees, no Rodgers, no Goff, no Roethlisberger, no Rivers, no Ryan, etc), the passing defense numbers were slightly below average this season.
Rushing Defense: B+
-This was another positive surprise for the Colts in 2018. The Colts finished the NFL season 8th in rushing yards allowed per game (101.6 YPG) and 6th in rushing yards per carry (3.92 YPC). Again, this effort was probably at an ‘A-‘ level until the Colts allowed the Chiefs to gash them on the ground. In the regular season, the Colts were 1 of just 3 teams in the NFL to not allow a 100-yard rusher. Even with a bit of an unheralded defensive line group, Matt Eberflus got his defense to do a very nice job in stopping the run. The Colts also ranked near the top of the NFL in tackles for loss this past season.
Special Teams: A-
-I still stand by the notion that Rigoberto Sanchez should have been a Pro Bowler. The Colts were the top punt coverage unit in the NFL. Adam Vinatieri had a decent year kicking the football. The return units were a mixed bag, ranking 13th in yards per punt return and 29th in yards per kick return. First-year special teams coordinator Bubba Ventrone had a solid unit in 2018. I hold a lot of weight to what Sanchez and the punt coverage unit did in 2018. They flipped field position routinely, so that’s why I’m giving the special teams bunch a high letter grade.
Overall: A
-This season comes with grading the Colts on a curve. For some teams, a 10-6 year and losing in the Divisional Round of the Playoffs might fall more in the ‘B or B+’ area. But for the Colts, it deserves an ‘A’. I had this team at 7-9 for the 2018 season and the vast majority of people were assuming a season hovering right around .500. Not only did they have a 6-game improvement in the regular season, they also won a road playoff game. Even putting the record aside, the 2018 season was definitely successful. But the record, plus winning a playoff game only adds to that.
