Colts Notebook: Defense Exceeding Pre-Season Expectations

Joe Robbins | Getty Images

INDIANAPOLIS – No one, and certainly not this guy, could have realistically thought the Indianapolis Colts would be hovering around a top-10 defense in yards allowed and top-15 in points allowed with the month of December reaching the mid-way point.

But that’s the reality of the 2018 Colts, and how Matt Eberflus has gotten his defense to excel in a simple, yet effective, scheme, which relies on effort and stringent job responsibilities.

“I just think a lot of that is Matt’s personality and his unwavering conviction and belief in what we’re doing and in the players that we are doing it with,” Frank Reich said on Monday in trying to explain why the Colts have significantly improved in several critical defensive categories this season. “It’s a system that is proven, the attitude and the approach is proven and I just think Flus really embodies that. I think he embodies that. I think it’s very authentic and I think the guys see and feel that. I think that’s a big part of the reason. I think that’s a big reason why.”

Sunday might have been Eberflus’ finest hour(s) of the season, considering the opponent.

The Colts won in the trenches to stuff the Houston run game, Eberflus adjusted his pass coverage to successfully slow down DeAndre Hopkins and then used timely and effective blitzes to corral Deshaun Watson.

Without truly impactful talent up front, the Colts rank 6^th in rushing yards allowed per play (3.84 YPC).

Not bad for a guy who Frank Reich didn’t even really know before being hired.

“Chris’ (Ballard) endorsement was really strong,” Reich says of Eberflus, who was originally supposed to be coaching under Josh McDaniels in Indianapolis. “Just having a lot of ties to that system when Chris was in Chicago, so Chris was very persuasive and very strong in his conviction that Matt was the right guy. It really couldn’t have worked out any better.

“I know it’s crazy. It’s really an odd way for it to come together, but it literally couldn’t have come together any better. Personally, I just have a lot of respect for (Eberflus). (His) high character and integrity as a person, just stands for everything that we would want, (and he) carries himself the way we would want a coach to carry himself.”

Eberflus spoke on Tuesday about how the defense has been able to adjust some things lately and use a little more of the playbook, with the core of the system in place. Health, particularly up front with Margus Hunt, Denico Autry and Tyquan Lewis, has improved as well, which has helped the defense play better recently.

Besides that, here are a few other early in the week notebook items from the Colts’ coaches and a notable roster move from Tuesday:

• On Tuesday afternoon, the Colts waived tight end Erik Swoope, and did not make a corresponding roster move, leaving an open spot on their 53-man roster. With Swoope now gone, the Colts have just 3 tight ends on their active roster: Eric Ebron, Ryan Hewitt and Mo Alie-Cox, who hasn’t played in 3 weeks due to a calf injury. First, this obviously has to be a good sign on Alie-Cox returning soon (this week?). The Colts were playing Alie-Cox more and more before his injury. Second, Swoope’s role was pretty limited since returning two weeks ago from a month-long absence. In the last two weeks, with Jack Doyle and Alie-Cox not playing, Swoope has played only 23 of the 143 offensive snaps. Swoope caught 1 ball for 4 yards against Jacksonville. In the win over Houston, Swoope bobbled/dropped his lone target in playing only 9 snaps. Hewitt was on the field for 17 more snaps than Swoope last week. Swoope had 3 touchdowns in 7 games this season, but a knee injury in Week 7 really stunted his role. Having just 3 tight ends on the 53-man roster isn’t something the Colts have not done too much this season, but it is something many teams around the league do number crunching wise.
   


• Reich had some great detail into the balance of using no-huddle as a play caller (something they did during his playing days in Buffalo): “I just think when you do that you are building your personnel around that kind of a system. That’s not ultimately the vision of what we are trying to build. It’s a part of what we want to do. But that’s not the vision. We know it’s a weapon. We know it’s an effective weapon, especially with the quarterback that we have. But when you are not making first downs and when you are struggling…then there’s a limit to what you can do. There’s a limit to what you can do when you are mostly no huddle. We want to be more multiple than that. Really, the vision for our offense is to be more multiple. When you go no-huddle, T.Y. ends up in the same position all the time. By not being exclusively no-huddle, we can move guys around. We can put T.Y. where we want to. We can put Ebron (where we want). We can switch personnel groups. We can put offensive linemen in at tight end to throw deep play-action shots that we put in, to have an extra O-lineman in to do some extra stuff in the running game. Believe me, I love the no-huddle. I’ve done it for years as a player and as a coach, even when I was here before with Peyton. We did it as well as anyone could do it. But it’s just not ultimately the vision of who we are trying to be as an offense.” Reich made it clear using no-huddle exclusively is not how the Colts want to build their offense. It is something that Reich and Nick Sirianni did with the Chargers (and had success), but not the desired philosophy in this stop.
   


• When Denico Autry has been on the field this season, he ranks right up there in production with any other player on the team. Autry has 8 sacks in 9 games played this year. He’s been a good find by Chris Ballard in projecting him into being a full-time starter after just 18 starts in 4 seasons with the Raiders. “Chris and obviously his staff did a great job of really identifying him as a quality free agent (and) the kind of person and player that we want in the locker room, the kind of leader,” Reich says of the 5-year pro. “Then as a player, just fitting into our system of getting up the field, penetrating, having some versatility where he can play inside, but you can also put him outside if you had to. Then the other trait that you really need to see is somebody who has a motor. I mean, because that’s a big part of what we do and Denico has shown all those things.” Eberflus said on Tuesday that Autry’s motor, playing style and his versatility really stood out to him in prior evaluations.
   


• Here is what Eberflus said about the Malik Hooker ‘unnecessary roughness’ penalty from Sunday, which took away an interception, and led to a Houston touchdown: “The ball is there. He’s there and the man is there. And the guy is catching the ball in-flight. He’s in the air, so Malik is just going for the ball. The way it came out is the way it came out. I thought it was a really good play by him. I thought Clayton (Geathers) had a heads-up play. I thought the play was outstanding by both players.”
   


• Eberflus will see the Cowboys this Sunday, a team that he was a position coach for from 2011-17. Without question, the Colts will have some advantage in Eberflus knowing personnel tendencies from the Cowboys: “Am I familiar with the team? Yes, I am familiar with the team and I’m familiar with the coaches. A lot of them are my good friends and great guys…It’s a little bit different in that regard because I was with them for so long, but in terms of preparation for the opponent, it’s really not that much different.”
   


• Eberflus did touch on Dallas linebacker Jaylon Smith’s remarkable recovery to being an outstanding NFL linebacker. Smith, a Fort Wayne native, will be back in his home state this weekend taking on the Colts: “Jaylon’s a great young man,” Eberflus said of the Notre Dame product who has overcame a horrific leg injury to play in the NFL. “He’s a worker and he’s gifted. He had some adversity and he was the same guy every day in terms of his mindset and mentality all through the rehab. We had him there for an entire year where he was just basically a redshirt year. We got to coach him, work with him, assignment, alignment, keys, all those things. Then he came in the second year and his foot was not all the way back yet. He was literally playing the (2017) season with it taped up (points in the air at an angle), at 90 degrees and playing pretty good. That’s a tribute to him, his character and work ethic. Then this year, it’s starting to come back and this offseason his foot was all the way back. I’m happy for him. He’s playing well. He’s got a great family and he’s a fine young man.”
   


• It’s pretty crazy to think how the 3 ‘Josh McDaniels/Chris Ballard’ hires of assistants have led to 3 really solid units from those guys in 2018: Matt Eberflus, Defensive Coordinator; Dave DeGuglilemo, Offensive Line; Mike Phair, Defensive Line.
   


• How much has the absence of Jack Doyle and Ryan Kelly played into the Colts having just 91 rushing yards on 39 attempts the past two weeks? “Naturally that’s going to be a big part of it,” Sirianni said on Tuesday. “When you lose two guys like Ryan Kelly and Jack Doyle, they are so good at what they do and such a vital part to this team, there’s no doubt that has had an effect. Style of defense we’ve played the past couple of weeks, with the fronts, those are two really good defenses, with two really good defensive coordinators, that plays into it as well. This last game we got hot throwing the ball a little bit, so we stuck with what was going on and just continued to ride that. It’s a little bit of everything. But I’ve mentioned this before, it just takes one (run). It ebbs and flows sometimes. We weren’t necessarily on fire running the football going into those two back-to-back games where we hit those 200 yards on. It’s the ebbs and flows of what the defense gives you and what you can take and do everything you can to win the game.”