Matchups to watch revisited: Week 16 Colts at Cardinals

Colts’ edge rushers vs. Kyler Murray

Fantastic effort by the Colts’ edge rushers, who not only managed to keep Kyler Murray contained (excluding that one big carry), but also managed to generate a great amount of pressure. AQM and Kwity Paye got 11 combined pressures, while fellow rookie Dayo Odeyingbo managed 2 pressures of his own. Overall, a really solid showing by the edge rushers in a game where the Colts really needed that productivity.

Eric Fisher/Julie’n Davenport vs. Chandler Jones

This had all the potential to get ugly, and it certainly did. The duo of Fisher/Davenport allowed 4 total presures on 37 pass blocking reps. With Maxx Crosby looming large on the horizon, and with Fisher day-to-day with injuries to almost his entire body, the Colts just can’t go into a game with a playoff berth on the line while starting Davenport. I am not exaggerating here, the guy is most likely the worst tackle in the entire NFL. In fact, Davenport has the worst pressure rate by any tackle in the NFL this year (min. 20% of the snaps played) with an 11.1% pressure allowed. To put it into context, Fisher has a 4.71%, Smith has a 5.03%, and Pryor has a 2.60%.

Xavier Rhodes/Isaiah Rodgers vs. Christian Kirk

Kirk finished the game with 7 catches for just 48 yards, so it is fair to say that the Colts did a great job of shutting down the Cardinals #1 receiver. The Colts cornerbacks have really stepped up lately. Rhodes has been playing better after a rough start, Rodgers has established himself as a more than capable starting cornerback, and Rock Ya-Sin is starting to look like the guy Ballard spent a second round pick on.

Colts’ IOL vs. Miscommunications and mistakes

As we all saw with the fumbled snap resulting in a safety against the Cardinals, backup centers are prone to making mistakes in the exhange of the football. With an IOL formed entirely by backups, miscommunications and penalties were a key concern entering the game. Pinter kept all the exchanges clean, while the IOL commited just one penalty.

DeForest Buckner vs. Josh Jones

In the end, Buckner did not have the breakout game I expected from him, as he finished the game with just one pressure on Kyler and just one stop in the run game. To be fair, he was double teamed almost every play, and still managed to get some decent penetration. But overall, it was not a dominant game from DeFo.