Indianapolis Colts
X-Factor: The Secondary
I’m not going to assume the Indianapolis Colts defense has all of a sudden turned into a juggernaut out of nowhere after they shut down Peyton Manning and the Denver Broncos offense last week.
Manning obviously wasn’t right. The Broncos say he played with a torn quad. To me, it looked like he played with a broken arm. Who cares at this point?
Indianapolis is going to have to play an even better game against New England than they did against Denver, and it starts with the Colts secondary.
During the regular season, Indianapolis had the 11th-best pass defense in the league, and they held Manning to less than 200 passing yards in the Divisional round.
New England has the ninth-most passing yards in the league and one of the best receiving corps in the game. With a matchup nightmare Rob Gronkowski at tight end, the Patriots have a distinct advantage over the Colts linebackers and safeties who have had trouble covering tight ends all season.
After watching Tom Brady slay the Baltimore Ravens in the second half of last week’s game, do you have any doubt Brady isn’t going to light up the Colts the same way?
When the Patriots and Colts met in Week 11, Brady threw for 257 yards, two touchdowns, and two interceptions in the Patriots 42-20 victory. After not running the ball once in the second half against Baltimore, the Patriots will likely live or die by Brady’s arm the rest of the playoffs.
Indianapolis has to jam the Patriots receivers at the line of scrimmage, like they did against Denver, and try to get Brady to go three-and-out. It’s the only way the Colts can win the game.
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