o


It was a tale of 2 halves, with the 1st half being being excellent (minus the final 2 minutes in which the Jets scored their first points of the game), and the 2nd half being awful.

That said, there were multiple occasions in the 2nd half in which the Colts' offense put the Colts' defense in precarious situations, and played a large part in 10 out of the 20 points that the Jets scored in the 2nd half ...... one of the Jets' TD drives started at the Colts' 25-yardline, and one of the Jets' FG "drives" consisted of 3 plays for -2 yards which started at the Colts' 38-yardline.

o

Did you even watch the first 25 minutes dude? Rogers was throwing passes like he wanted to get his receivers killed. The Jests offense looked like it was being run by a minor league, washed up QB. Which they were.

I'm not going to say the Colts didn't at least play legitimate NFL defense during that period. But it was far from excellent.

o

No, I didn't. I turned the game on at halftime.

I only saw that the Jets didn't get a 1st down until there was 1:30 left in the 2nd quarter, that the Jets had punted 4 times and turned the ball over on downs in a 5th possession, and finally scored a TD on their 6th possession.

I presumed that 5 stops in 5 possessions and holding the Jets to 0 first downs for almost the entire half was because of excellent defense on the Colts' part, but I guess I was wrong.

o

o


(vs. LIONS, 11/24)



I thought that the Colts' defense hung in there against an excellent offense, but they were not great, which is what the team needed for a chance to win.




Possessions: lllllllllllllllllllllll 10

Punts: lllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllt 4

Turnover on Downs: llllll, 1

Clock Ran Out: llllllllllllllllll, 1

TD: llllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll,OOOO, 3

FG: llllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll.OOOO,t)l 1

o

Defense played admirably despite the Bradley scheme and the amount of time they had to be on the field today.

o


(vs. PATRIOTS, 12/01)


Overall, I thought that the Colts' defense was really bad in this game.




Possessions: llllllllllllllllllllll.., 9

Punts: lllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll.. 1

INT: llllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll) 1

Missed Field Goal lllllll,)) 2

FG: llllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll., , 3

TD: llllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll ll 2

o

Defense was bad today. Run defense was atrocious. It was like the first half vs. GB... they just weren't executing almost all game.

Fortunately, they clutched out the big 3-and-out at the end. TOP continues to be a season-long issue (for both defense and offense).

Bradley: "Gotta tip my hat to the Patriots, they showed us some things we hadn't seen on film." "They executed an NFL offense and we didn't game plan for that."

That is the issue with "bend, but not break". You have long drives that exhaust the players on defense, so they end up breaking later in the game as they become fatigued.

Speaking of this... I noticed the Bills giving up a high completion rate, so I was looking at some stats a few days ago (these don't include today)...

Opponents' completion percentage: Colts 30th (69.7%), Bills 27th (68.9%).

But in TOP: Colts 31st (26:22), Bills 17th (30:04).

So that's a discrepancy. Fairly similar in terms of giving up the pitch-and-catches, but massive TOP difference. So I look at 3rd downs...

Defensive 3rd-down percentage: Colts 28th (44.6%), Bills 21st (40.8%).

Offensive 3rd-down percentage: Colts 23rd (36.0%), Bills 8th (42.0%)**.

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Not a massive difference in DEF 3rd-downs, but Bills are a bit better. The latter, though, seems to fit with the intuition... Bills are very good at sustaining drives, we are not. Defense gets tired. So then if you look at scoring defense by half...

Colts are actually 8th in 1st-Half scoring defense, Bills are 22nd. But in the second half, the attrition seems to set in and it flips. Colts are 24th in 2nd-Half scoring defense, Bills are 3rd.

Take it even further to 4th-Quarter Scoring defense... Colts drop to 26th.

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This doesn't explain today when they were just bad from the jump. But over the long sample, it makes sense.