The Colts have proven year after year that it takes a very special kind of defense to shut down their offense. Our defense is getting better, but they aren't quite to that point yet. I think the key to winning this game is repeating last years game plan - Keep the ball out of Peyton's hands! So how good is the Colts defense? Lets take a look: Overall Defense: Yards per game: 303 (11th in NFL) Points per game: 15 (10th in NFL) 3rd down % allowed: 44.8% (25th in NFL) Total 1st downs: 37 (21st in NFL) Rush Defense: Rush yards per game: 123.5 (23rd in NFL) Rushing 1st downs: 17 (29th in NFL) Rush yards per attempt: 4.1 (19th in NFL) Rush TDs allowed: 1 (12th in NFL) Pass yards per game: 179.5 (7th in NFL) Passing 1st downs: 18 (6th in NFL) Yards per pass attempt: 5.53 (3rd in NFL) Percentage allowed: 66.2% (26th in NFL) Pass TDs given up: 1 (2nd in NFL) Opposing QB rating: 72.9 (8th in NFL) Obviously this is only after 2 weeks so it may not mean a whole lot. BUT, I think its safe to say that the illusion that "Bob Sanders makes the Colts run D impenetrable" is a poor argument. They may be much better than the last place against the run they were last year, but they are very vulnerable. I'd gladly take a 4.1 yards per carry average they are giving up.
looking at this defence it seems intimidating until... you look at who they've played. Something's wrong with the NO offence of last year, maybe it's no Joe Horn but anyway... then there is Tennesee. the Jacksonville game was impressive until the Jags played Atlanta next week and only won by a pitiful 3 points. the offence should work fine even without Johnson.
The D plays entirely different with a running threat at QB. We'll probably see more D like in week 1 when we play the Texans. I liked the tackling for sure. So much better than last year. Keiaho will be back at LB too, just like week 1. This will be a great test for both teams.
The thing that we're saying is that NO's offense has sucked so far, so how you played that game isn't a good indicator of what will happen on Deep Steel Sunday.
