Reflecting on Key Colts Players: Week 5 vs Cleveland

The Colts win streak came to an end on Sunday after a 32-23 loss to the Cleveland Browns. There was no doubt that this would be a tough game for the Colts to win, especially with several of the team’s top players sidelined due to injury. Over the weekend, I offered a player on offense and defense that I thought would need to make big impacts if the Colts had any plans of winning. You can find that article linked here.

Let’s see how my players performed.

DEFENSE

Bobby Okereke (LB)

Okereke was certainly one of the bright spots for the Colts on Sunday. Last week Okereke injured his thumb and had to have it wrapped for the game against the Browns. There was no way to tell how it would affect him, but it is safe to say that it did not hold him back.

Okereke led the team in total tackles with 10. Eight of which were solo. He also had one pass defended, and most importantly, intercepted Baker Mayfield which would lead to a field goal by Rodrigo Blankenship, making it a one possession game.

In the absence of the injured Darius Leonard, you could not have asked for a better performance from Okereke. The first half seemed a little shaky here and there for the defense, but they really got it together in the second half and a lot of that credit should go to Okereke. Another solid game for the second year linebacker.

OFFENSE

Le’Raven Clark (LT)

Let’s just say, the Colts were really missing Anthony Castonzo this week.

Clark played in every offensive snap on Sunday, but was consistently being dominated by Myles Garrett, especially in the first half. The broadcast showed several replays of Garrett bullying Clark and applying pressure on Rivers.

Everyone expected this coming into the game, there isn’t much you can do about it. Garrett is just an absolute beast on the field. One prime example of Garrett’s impact was when he pressured and forced him to throw the ball away while in the end zone, this of course resulted in a safety.

Watch how Garrett pushes Clark back like it’s nothing until he eventually finds Rivers who had no choice but to throw the ball. Rivers ended up throwing to an area of the field where no Colts players were, and the Browns got two points and the ball back.

This was not the only example of this happening on Sunday, just maybe the most costly of them all. I said the Colts would need Clark to have a huge game, and this is exactly what I meant by that. The constant pressure on the quarterback forced Rivers to make some pretty awful decisions with the ball. You’re not going to win too many games when a guy like Myles Garrett can disrupt an offense the way he did on Sunday.