The Indianapolis Colts remain a team whose identity is mainly tied to Andrew Luck, but there’s more to this franchise this season than its star gunslinger. And for Colts head coach Frank Reich, it’s time that people start paying more respect to the team’s defense that has done an admirable job despite the lack of recognizable names on the unit, per Joel A. Erickson of the Indianapolis Star.
“You hear people say we don’t have a bunch of Pro Bowl defensive players, a ‘big-name’ player,” Reich said. “I don’t know about all that. All I know is we have good players.”
The Colts’ defense has been a work of wonder this season. The way it has improved since last season helped determine them as a legitimate Super Bowl threat and not merely as a long shot to win it all.
In 2017, the Colts were 30th in the league with 25.2 points allowed per game and 29th in total defense with 367.1 total yards surrendered per contest. Those numbers changed dramatically in the 2018 campaign, as Indianapolis went from those aforementioned rankings to 10th in scoring defense (21.5) and 11th (338.4). The Colts’ pass defense has been deadly, too, as they had 15 interceptions in the regular season – good for ninth in the NFL.
Defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus has been credited for the success the Colts are having on defense, and after doing a magnificent job in the 21-7 road win over the Houston Texans in the AFC Wild-Card showdown, Indianapolis’ stop unit will be facing its toughest test yet of the season in the form of the high-flying Kansas City Chiefs offense this coming Saturday.
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