In previous seasons, opposing quarterbacks would spot the Indianapolis Colts on their schedule and they would start having nightmares a few nights before the game.
Dwight Freeney from the left. Robert Mathis from the right. Both ignoring the speed limits that were customary for the bulkier players at their position. Both of them confounding their would-be blockers, both of them bruising the quarterback and making him cough up the football at the darndest times.
Not this year. Indy's dynamic duo, supported with good inside pressure from players like Raheem Brock and Montae Reagor are still being noticed, but they're also being neutralized. It's gotten so bad that Indy is now dead last in the entire NFL in sacks.
I was looking down through the team’s sacks stats last night after noting that rookie Mario Williams of the Texans has as many sacks as Robert Mathis at this point of the season (see yesterday’s Colts Blog).
The Colts have just 11 sacks so far this season, which puts them on pace for just 22 for the year unless they figure out a way to be more successful the rest of the way in this important category.
Here's how that compares to recent seasons:
2005: 46
2004: 45
2003: 30
The 30 they logged in 2003 is the lowest total by a Colts team so far in this decade. And they could finish about a third below that total at this pace. Almost half of the teams in the league already have 20 or more sacks for the year. Right now. Today.
It wouldn't be so frustrating if the Colts hadn't invested so heavily in their defensive line and already proved in the past that they can be one of the league's elite and most exciting units in this category. Or maybe even if the lower sack production this year was a result of them being more conservative and resulted in better performance against the run, it would make sense and would be a good trade off. But as you well know, that hasn't happened.
One thing that is certainly different is the Brock-Mathis move where each is now playing full-time. And if you take a look at their sack production this year, so far it hasn’t paid off.
Mathis has 4.5 which puts him on pace for 9. He had 11.5 last year while working just part-time as a pass-rush specialist. While Brock had 6.5 in each of the last two seasons splitting time at LDE and LDT, he has just 2 so far this year working primarily at RDT, putting him on pace for just 4.
And then you have Dwight Freeney sitting at 0.5 for the season. Has his production been hurt by having Brock next to him instead of Reagor? Or are teams just simply figuring out how to do a better job of handling the Colts’ speedy edge rushers who combined for 22.5 of the team’s 46 sacks last year while Indy hasn’t been able to figure out the appropriate counterpunch?
Another factor could be the team’s rotation of players, which this year not only appears to be more frequent, but also shifts where they attack from. Moving Mathis to Freeney’s spot or vice-versa, and seemingly inserting a wider variety of players at DT this year doesn’t appear to be having the desired impact. In fact, seeing more backups at DT may be giving teams the confidence that they can handle those players with single-blocking, freeing up an additional player to help with Freeney and/or Mathis.
And then there are the rules that have changed this year to protect the quarterbacks better. As you saw last week, Dwight Freeney pulled up a bit and simply shoved Tom Brady on a potential sack opportunity rather than running through him. Brady pumped, and if he had actually thrown the ball, Freeney was obviously going to be in danger of drawing a flag had he leveled him. But it was just a pump, and Brady survived the attack as a result of the hesitancy.
This certainly begs the question of whether or not the Colts have become too conservative in this area, limiting the potential of their own talent. Has the fear of drawing a flag put restraints on star players like Freeney and Mathis? If so, the Colts’ coaching staff may want to re-think that philosophy. Because players like Buffalo DE Aaron Schobel haven’t seen their sack production drop off this season despite the rule changes. Schobel (the cousin of Colts DE Bo Schobel) comes into Indy this weekend with 7 sacks this season, putting him on pace for 14. That’s better than the 12 he had at the end of last year, and very close to his entire 2004 output of eight sacks. And as mentioned above, almost half the leagues' teams already have 20 or more sacks for the year. San Diego, a sure playoff contender, has 31 already this season and Seattle has logged 30. Maybe nobody told their players about these new rules. Or maybe they simply decided not to let the rules hold their players back like we saw happen to Dwight Freeney last week.
Although a more aggressive approach might draw a few more flags, it could be worth it in the long run. More negative-yardage plays through sacks would force the Colts' opponents to go to the air even more to make up the lost yardage. And with the way the run defense has been challenged this season, that plays right to the strength of the Colts defense. Just as the Colts offense has started taking more chances with medium and deep passes over the last few weeks, maybe it’s time for the Colts to take a few more chances with their aggressiveness in attacking the quarterback.
That said, the team is 8-0 with the way they have gone about their business this year. So maybe this is the new look and philosophy for the Colts defensive line. But if that's the case, maybe they don't need to invest huge dollars into speedy defensive ends anymore.
Bottom line, when you look at the numbers, it sure does look like something’s broken in this important area that not only creates momentum shifting negative-yardage plays, but also potentially game-changing forced fumbles.
Let's hope they figure it out soon and take better advantage of the talent they've got as they make their run for the playoffs.
Note: This story was updated to reflect the Colts being credited with 11 sacks instead of 10 as originally stated. Based on the NFL's stats, they have only credited 10 sacks to individual players at this point. But they've credited the team with 11 sacks, which is still the lowest in the league.
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