Sunday, we looked at the Colts 2009 Offense on 3rd Down plays, breaking them down by distance and Run vs. Pass, and the Colts were just fantastic. leading the league in all the passing categories, and overall. I think we all knew this would be the case.
However, there are 2 sides to a football team, so let's take a look at the Colts 2009 Defense. Overall, the Colts defense was 104/231, or 45.0%, which was not very good at all. The eye test would agree with these numbers, as it sure looked like the Colts struggled mightily at times. Let's again take a game-by-game look at the defense, and see where exactly the struggles came from...
Here's a game-by-game breakdown for the Colts Defense in 2009:
| Opponent | Week | Short (1 - 3) | Medium (4 - 7) | Long (8+) | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Run | Pass | Run | Pass | Run | Pass | ||||||||||||||
| Conv | Att | Pct | Conv | Att | Pct | Conv | Att | Pct | Conv | Att | Pct | Conv | Att | Pct | Conv | Att | Pct | ||
| Jaguars | 1 | 5 | 6 | 0.833 | 1 | 1 | 1.000 | 0 | 0 | 0.000 | 0 | 3 | 0.000 | 0 | 0 | 0.000 | 0 | 5 | 0.000 |
| Dolphins | 2 | 6 | 6 | 1.000 | 2 | 2 | 1.000 | 0 | 2 | 0.000 | 7 | 9 | 0.778 | 0 | 0 | 0.000 | 0 | 2 | 0.000 |
| Cardinals | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0.000 | 1 | 3 | 0.333 | 0 | 0 | 0.000 | 0 | 1 | 0.000 | 0 | 0 | 0.000 | 3 | 9 | 0.333 |
| Seahawks | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0.000 | 2 | 3 | 0.667 | 0 | 0 | 0.000 | 3 | 6 | 0.500 | 0 | 0 | 0.000 | 1 | 6 | 0.167 |
| Titans | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0.000 | 2 | 5 | 0.400 | 0 | 0 | 0.000 | 2 | 6 | 0.333 | 0 | 0 | 0.000 | 1 | 3 | 0.333 |
| Rams | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0.000 | 2 | 3 | 0.667 | 1 | 1 | 1.000 | 1 | 3 | 0.333 | 0 | 2 | 0.000 | 0 | 4 | 0.000 |
| 49ers | 8 | 2 | 2 | 1.000 | 0 | 1 | 0.000 | 0 | 0 | 0.000 | 0 | 2 | 0.000 | 0 | 0 | 0.000 | 0 | 5 | 0.000 |
| Texans | 9 | 2 | 3 | 0.667 | 2 | 2 | 1.000 | 0 | 0 | 0.000 | 5 | 7 | 0.714 | 0 | 0 | 0.000 | 1 | 4 | 0.250 |
| Patriots | 10 | 2 | 2 | 1.000 | 2 | 4 | 0.500 | 0 | 0 | 0.000 | 2 | 3 | 0.667 | 0 | 0 | 0.000 | 1 | 5 | 0.200 |
| Ravens | 11 | 1 | 3 | 0.333 | 0 | 1 | 0.000 | 0 | 0 | 0.000 | 3 | 7 | 0.429 | 0 | 0 | 0.000 | 1 | 2 | 0.500 |
| Texans | 12 | 1 | 1 | 1.000 | 1 | 2 | 0.500 | 0 | 0 | 0.000 | 2 | 3 | 0.667 | 0 | 0 | 0.000 | 0 | 2 | 0.000 |
| Titans | 13 | 2 | 2 | 1.000 | 3 | 4 | 0.750 | 0 | 0 | 0.000 | 1 | 3 | 0.333 | 0 | 0 | 0.000 | 2 | 6 | 0.333 |
| Broncos | 14 | 1 | 3 | 0.333 | 1 | 2 | 0.500 | 0 | 1 | 0.000 | 4 | 7 | 0.571 | 0 | 0 | 0.000 | 0 | 4 | 0.000 |
| Jaguars | 15 | 2 | 2 | 1.000 | 2 | 3 | 0.667 | 1 | 2 | 0.500 | 3 | 5 | 0.600 | 0 | 0 | 0.000 | 2 | 4 | 0.500 |
| Jets | 16 | 3 | 4 | 0.750 | 1 | 2 | 0.500 | 1 | 3 | 0.333 | 2 | 4 | 0.500 | 0 | 0 | 0.000 | 0 | 3 | 0.000 |
| Bills | 17 | 2 | 4 | 0.500 | 0 | 0 | 0.000 | 1 | 3 | 0.333 | 2 | 3 | 0.667 | 0 | 0 | 0.000 | 0 | 4 | 0.000 |
| Total | 29 | 39 | 0.744 | 22 | 38 | 0.579 | 4 | 12 | 0.333 | 37 | 72 | 0.514 | 0 | 2 | 0.000 | 12 | 68 | 0.176 | |
| Opponent | Week | Run | Pass | Total | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Conv | Att | Pct | Conv | Att | Pct | Conv | Att | Pct | ||
| Jaguars | 1 | 5 | 6 | 0.833 | 1 | 9 | 0.111 | 6 | 15 | 0.400 |
| Dolphins | 2 | 6 | 8 | 0.750 | 9 | 13 | 0.692 | 15 | 21 | 0.714 |
| Cardinals | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0.000 | 4 | 13 | 0.308 | 4 | 14 | 0.286 |
| Seahawks | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0.000 | 6 | 15 | 0.400 | 6 | 15 | 0.400 |
| Titans | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0.000 | 5 | 14 | 0.357 | 5 | 14 | 0.357 |
| Rams | 7 | 1 | 3 | 0.333 | 3 | 10 | 0.300 | 4 | 13 | 0.308 |
| 49ers | 8 | 2 | 2 | 1.000 | 0 | 8 | 0.000 | 2 | 10 | 0.200 |
| Texans | 9 | 2 | 3 | 0.667 | 8 | 13 | 0.615 | 10 | 16 | 0.625 |
| Patriots | 10 | 2 | 2 | 1.000 | 5 | 12 | 0.417 | 7 | 14 | 0.500 |
| Ravens | 11 | 1 | 3 | 0.333 | 4 | 10 | 0.400 | 5 | 13 | 0.385 |
| Texans | 12 | 1 | 1 | 1.000 | 3 | 7 | 0.429 | 4 | 8 | 0.500 |
| Titans | 13 | 2 | 2 | 1.000 | 6 | 13 | 0.462 | 8 | 15 | 0.533 |
| Broncos | 14 | 1 | 4 | 0.250 | 5 | 13 | 0.385 | 6 | 17 | 0.353 |
| Jaguars | 15 | 3 | 4 | 0.750 | 7 | 12 | 0.583 | 10 | 16 | 0.625 |
| Jets | 16 | 4 | 7 | 0.571 | 3 | 9 | 0.333 | 7 | 16 | 0.438 |
| Bills | 17 | 3 | 7 | 0.429 | 2 | 7 | 0.286 | 5 | 14 | 0.357 |
| Total | 33 | 53 | 0.623 | 71 | 178 | 0.399 | 104 | 231 | 0.450 | |
Some thoughts:
- Third and Short runs have lots of room for improvement. Almost 75% conversions is not the best way to get teams off the field. It's hard to pinpoint exactly what needs to improve, but it should be a point of improvement this year.
- Keeping with Third and Short runs, take away the first two games (11/12), the Colts were 18/27, or 66.7%. This would rank just behind the Jets, at 19th in the NFL. Hopefully Coyer and the defense figured out what they were doing wrong, and corrected it. I'd take stopping 1 of every 3 short yardage run all day and twice on Sunday.
- Want to know how important First and Second downs are to the Colts defense? Just look at the Pass percentages for each distance: not very good for anything 7 yards and under, but excellent in 3rd and Long. You think a pair of Defensive Ends have something to do with this?
- After starting out the season allowing 11/14 rushes on 3rd down, the next 3 Colts Opponents only ran once on 3rd down. Some of it was due to the fact that all 3 teams were playing from behind, but they weren't at the beginning of the game. Seems like some bad scouting, or just bad coaching.
- The 49ers didn't convert a 3rd Down when passing the ball. Nice work by the defense, and certainly helped the struggling offense that day.
- Overall, there are plenty of places for improvement, especially in short/medium yardage. The medium yardage Passing stats really don't look good, but I'm hoping the release of Tim Jennings and Kelvin Hayden being 100% will significantly help those numbers.
Up next we'll look at the Offensive Numbers for the whole NFL, and see the how the Colts stacked up against everyone else in all these categories.