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    • Colts fail in the only way they were built not to, vs. running
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    Colts fail in the only way they were built not to, vs. running

    Vaseline Posted on

    INDIANAPOLIS — The newly redesigned turf at Lucas Oil Stadium got a chance to get up close and personal with the Colts’ defenders on Sunday as they scrambled to make a tackle after a few tries.

    The Colts lost a 29-27 season opener to the Texans, giving up 212 rushing yards, the most in a game since the Jeff Saturday era. They allowed Joe Mixon to rush for 159 yards, the most of any running back since Derrick Henry in the 2020 season, when fans weren’t in the stands.

    They gave the Texans their most rushing yards in five years.

    And they did it by running between guards, evading tackles, executing reverses and quarterback scrambles, to the point where four different ball carriers averaged at least 5.3 yards per carry.

    After the game, the answers to the question of why it was so hard to find were just like those stops.

    “They did a good job of putting us in tough situations,” linebacker Zaire Franklin said. “… We did a good job of keeping the explosive plays down.”

    Linebacker EJ Speed ​​​​said, “I don’t even know why they had all the yards. I didn’t even realize it. I was just trying to execute on all my third-down situations.”

    Defensive tackle DeForest Buckner said, “That was a good game from them. We just have to do a better job of clearing blocks.”

    Only Kenny Moore II seemed to have a theory about how the other unit could have gained the upper hand.

    “They gave us a lot of different things,” Moore said. “Kudos to them for figuring out where we needed to be, where we needed to have a certain guy or how a certain guy was going to play. Good game plan by them.”

    In the stunned silence came the answer that is most obvious after this kind of performance:

    “Going into the game, this was the way they weren’t going to beat us,” Franklin said.

    INSIDER: 10 thoughts from the Colts on Anthony Richardson, defense in a 29-27 season opener loss to the Texans

    This is the year of the “run it back” Colts, who are banking on buzzwords like continuity, chemistry and culture taking precedence over the buzz of signing a Danielle Hunter or Quandre Diggs-level player, as other AFC South teams do with quarterbacks on rookie contracts to maximize their moments.

    Indianapolis is building a team in the ultimate vision of general manager Chris Ballard, who wants the team to live in the trenches. It will have growing pains in some obvious areas, such as the secondary and the passing game.

    But what the Colts say they won’t allow other teams to handle them up front is that they’ve re-signed nose tackle Grover Stewart and defensive end Tyquan Lewis and extended Buckner for a combined $75 million guaranteed.

    That’s why they signed reserve nose tackle Raekwon Davis as their lone free agent on defense and picked up Kwity Paye’s fifth-year option worth $13.4 million even after drafting Laiatu Latu.

    And that’s why they’re keeping 10 defensive linemen on the 53-man roster, instead of just five cornerbacks. The Colts used all 10 of them on Sunday, accounting for more than 20% of the game day roster, while designating Dallis Flowers as a healthy scratch. That decision reduced them to just two cornerbacks who could play outside in nickel.

    In that sense, the lack of explanation for what went wrong may be the only acceptable thing. Because for the Colts to be taken seriously in 2024, this has to be a Week 1 anomaly, just another crazy event in an unpredictable league where everyone’s a pro and every dog ​​can have his day. That even goes for a Texans running back, on a team that finished 29th in rushing efficiency last season and responded to those dismal numbers by dumping a fullback and trading for Stefon Diggs in order to throw more.

    RELATED: Why the Colts Should Have Signed Justin Simmons — and All the Risks Chris Ballard Faces by Not Doing So

    That’s where this Colts defense should be attacked. It’s hard to match Diggs, Nico Collins and Tank Dell with a quarterback like Stroud who can beat zone coverage with quick passes or run scrambles to throw man assignments into a blender. And the Texans did just that on Sunday, as Stroud completed 24 of 32 for 234 yards, two touchdowns, zero interceptions and a 115.9 rating.

    That side of the Colts should be a give-and-take with the pass rush, which can create its own explosive plays through that army of defensive linemen. And that’s what happened Sunday, when the Colts also collected four sacks and 10 quarterback hits.

    But only one of those sacks came in the second half, when the Texans ran 45 plays, or two more than the Colts offense ran the entire game. Those 45 plays gave the Texans control of the ball for 24 of the final 30 minutes. The Texans came into the Indianapolis building taking the blueprint the Colts used in wins over the Steelers and Raiders last season and shoving it down their throats.

    And they did it with a run game designed by Chris Strausser, the offensive line coach they fired because of their performance in the 2022 season.

    “Our O-Line dropped their (expletive) when they had to,” Diggs told Texans reporters after the game.

    As TJ Watt and the Steelers learned in this building last December, even the most favored pass rush can’t win if it can’t dictate the terms.

    Likewise, a young quarterback who alternates periods of inaccuracy with explosive plays can’t make up for the 24 minutes lost in the second half. Anthony Richardson hit a 60-yard post route touchdown to Alec Pierce and a 54-yard touchdown strike to Ashton Dulin, showing he’s capable of answering a score on a single play.

    But the Colts can’t get to a point where the youngest starting quarterback in the NFL feels like he has to do it all the time. That’s when bad habits set in, and there’s no need to take care of your body and live to see another play.

    History shows that this will be a mirage. Buckner is a three-time Pro Bowler. Stewart is one of the best nose tackles in the league. Franklin has set the franchise tackle record two years in a row. Paye, though he has lost weight, is still considered one of the best edge-setters in the game.

    But whether the Colts can correct their course enough to turn what was a weakness on Sunday into a huge strength is the question that will determine how Ballard plans to win in 2024.

    For him, for them, and for Richardson, this has to be one of those season openers that just happens here, the kind of thing that can’t be rationalized, a part that’s detached from the whole and that in that moment is gone forever.

    Contact Nate Atkins at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @NateAtkins_.

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