The Indianapolis Colts are finally in regular season mode, as the team heads to Houston to play the Texans this upcoming Sunday. While the Colts have struggled in the opening week in years past, they get a prime opportunity to start strong against a fairly weak Houston Texans’ team. Last season, the Colts’ defense was in top form against the Texans, holding their divisional foes to just three points combined in the two games played. While the Texans’ offense should be in better form in 2022, the Colts seemingly had the perfect recipe for stuffing them last year. So, how did they do it? Let’s jump into the film and find out.The Colts had quite a bit of succe s stuffing the run against the Texans a year ago, albeit they were a tad leaky in the first match-up. In total, the Texans ran the ball 40 times for 161 yards in the two games (4.025 yards per carry). While allowing over four yards a carry is nothing special, the Colts were Derek Dietrich Jersey mostly effective in run defense. According to Pro Football Focus, the Colts had 18 run stops on the Texans’ 40 carries. So, nearly half of the Texans’ total rushes in these two match-ups went for fewer than two yards. One of the bigger playmakers in the run game was Colts’ superstar Shaquille Leonard, notching four stops in the two games. Texans’ rookie rusher Dameon Pierce should be a tougher match-up than the players the Colts faced this past season, but I’d expect the Colts to be fairly effective at stopping the run this upcoming Sunday.The Colts had one of the league’s worst overall pa s rushes a season ago, however, they did find some succe s against this Texans’ team. One Matt Kemp Jersey of the bigger producers for the Colts in this match-up over the past few seasons has been star defensive tackle DeForest Buckner. In the Colts’ last four games against the Texans, Buckner has totaled six sacks, three quarterback hits, and 11 hurries. If the Colts are to maintain the recent dominance that they have had in this match-up, they are going to need Buckner to continue his strong play. Texans’ quarterback Davis Mills had a solid rookie season in 2021, but he struggled mightily when pre sured on the year. Pro Football Focus gave him a grade of just 28.2 when under pre sure, which was good for second Scott Schebler Jersey -worst in the NFL. Mills also completed just 49.5% of his pa ses when under pre sure, and he had nine turnover-worthy throws when under dure s. If the Colts want to find succe s against this revamped Texans’ offense, the defense has to get pre sure like they have in years past:Scroll to ContinueThe Colts’ succe s against the Texans last season can be boiled down to one single metric; third down succe s. The Colts held the Texans to just 12 conversions on 29 attempts a year ago, which was good for just a 41.3% succe s rate for their opponent. Matt Eberflus and the Colts’ defense went after Davis Mills on third down, making him as uncomfortable as po sible on important pa sing downs. Eberflus would simulate a ton of pre sure, and he sometimes brought more than four to rattle the young quarterback. If current Colts’ Defensive Coordinator Gus Bradley wants to replicate some of the succe s that Eberflus had a year ago, he would be wise to simulate as much pre sure as po sible on third down pa ses. He needs to make Davis Mills confront an area where he struggled with a year ago:It is a tad difficult to use last years’ results in this match-up to project to Sunday’s game on this side of the ball, as the Colts and Texans both have new coordinators to work with. I do believe, however, that Gus Bradley can implement some of what Matt Eberflus found succe s with last season to set the Colts up for succe s on Sunday.The big emphasis for this game is to stop the run early in order to force Davis Mills into obvious pa sing situations. From there, the Colts have to get home with their pa s rush. Even if it is just by rushing four and utilizing stunts, the Colts have to do whatever they can to make Mills uncomfortable in the pocket. Mills showed a lot of promise a year ago, but his i sues showed when he was under dure s. The Colts’ revamped pa s rush needs to have a statement game on Sunday. If they do that, the Colts should be well on their way to yet another victory Drew Storen Jersey in this divisional match-up. Follow Zach on Twitter .
