Colts Defense Gives Hope to Browns Today
The Cleveland Browns face off with the Indianapolis Colts today at First Energy Stadium. The Colts sit a game up on the Browns, but what seems like light years ahead of them. The Colts rule the lousy AFC South while the Browns are fighting it out in the tough AFC North, where everyone is 7 – 5 or better. We covered the Colts offense and how much trouble it can give the Browns (New Window, worth a read).
Now we want to take a look at the Colts defense, the side of the ball that gives the Browns some level of hope for today.
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The Colts currently rank 25th in yards against the pass and 12th against the run. Both of those numbers are likely skewed a bit given the type of games the Colts play in. With Andrew Luck, and the top passing game in the league, the Colts have scored a ton of points this season. The Colts lead the league in points per game average at 31.8. That puts teams in position to throw the ball to try to keep up or catch up with the Colts.
Their pass defense has been bad outside of Vontae Davis, who is out today, but the offense has done more than enough to make up for it. The run defense hasn’t been great but they have had the 5th fewest rushes attempted against them. While the Browns are a high volume rush team, with the 4th most rushes in the league (a mere 23 behind the leading Dallas Cowboys).
The defense gives the Browns a two fold hope. The Colts run defense is giving up the 4th worst rush per attempt average, 4.5, and they lost their top cover corner. The Browns will have a chance to be balanced on offense, while still putting up points to keep up with Luck and the Colts offense.
The Colts defense is lacking playmakers on all levels. Corey Redding is a solid, if unspectacular, defensive end in their 3-4 system. We all know D’Qwell Jackson, he makes tackles 3 or 4 yards down the field. Bjoern Werner is a young guy that some have hopes for but he only has 4 sacks all season. Greg Toler is a fine second corner but will likely get eaten up by Gordon without a ton of help today.
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This Colts defense gives up the 11th most yards and the 15th most points per game even though their offense forces teams into the less efficient, more turnover prone pass attack quicker than most in the league. They rank tied at 12th for most takeaways and have the 2nd best 3rd down defense in the league. They are timely.
The Browns will look to keep the offense in better form with the run game. Instead of facing 3rd and 6 or longer, Kyle Shanahan will look to get the Browns into manageable 3rd down position. This will help keep the run game active while running time off the clock.
The Colts bend but don’t break defense could help the Browns clock management goals. Instead of looking for the big splash plays, which would give the ball back to Andrew Luck, expect Hoyer to be conservative in his approach. The Colts defense lends to this working out for the Browns.
As it is the Browns have a tough test in front of them. They have to outscore Andrew Luck and his potent offense. Thankfully the building of the Colts offense has hurt their ability to build a solid defense at the same time, you only have so many resources. The Browns have hope in today’s game and it is all because of the Colts defense, with a dose of the Browns offensive skills and the defensive playmakers.
We expect a closer game than most. The Browns have to do their best to take advantage of a very limited Colts defense and try to limit the impact plays made by the Colts offense.
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What do you think about the Browns hopes given the Colts defense?