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Outside of a couple of sacks, the Colts played a pretty clean half of football. Marlon Mack has been eating the Jaguars defense alive.
When you think about Frank Reich and his play-calling, it is reasonable if you wonder why he chose to not run the ball (which has been working really well) on the second to last offensive possession when Indianapolis had all three timeouts. I get the two-minute offense and inserting Nyheim Hines but could the Colts have continued to pick up meaningful yards on the ground? If they still had a threat of the run on the field, could it have made it more difficult for Jacksonville to have Josh Allen and Yannick Ngakoue to pin their ears back?
Either way, Jacoby Brissett has looked calm in the pocket in his return. He has made some nice throws and Indianapolis has continued to make an effort to get Eric Ebron more involved in the offense. Given the lack of proven talent at wide receiver, that’s probably not an awful idea.
While the Colts offensive line has looked good in the ground game, there have been too many sacks given up lately on speed rushers around the edge. There are a lot of factors that lead to this, including how deep the quarterback drops and his first steps once he gets into his stance, but there have been real struggles by Braden Smith and Anthony Castonzo in getting edge rushers wide enough to keep the pocket clean. This is something that needs to get cleaned up as strip sacks and negative plays are harder for the Colts offense to overcome, particularly in its current state.
Outside of an embarrassing breakdown in protection that allowed Nick Foles to connect with D.J. Chark Jr. for a first half touchdown, the defense has look pretty good. Kenny Moore II has been playing lights out. Rock Ya-Sin picked up the first interception of his career. Marvell Tell III nearly had one of his own and continues to look awfully good, particularly given the circumstances of what he has been asked to do in switching positions.
The key for Indianapolis at this point is to continue what they started. Let’s see the ground game reignited early. Let’s see the defense continue to stifle Jaguars receivers and perhaps see some more activity from the pass rush. Don’t make mistakes and play a clean game and Indianapolis should get an important win.