Gus Bradley Talks Colts Defensive Issues

Source: Michael Hickey / Getty

INDIANAPOLIS – After a historically bad start to the season from a run defense standpoint, Gus Bradley is once again faced with some adversity.

Following consecutive seasons under Bradley of being ranked 28 ^th in points allowed, it’s now the Colts run defense issues contributing to a variety of unit problems.

On Tuesday, Bradley addressed the run defense against the Packers, with the Colts 264 rushing yards, the worst mark for the franchise in the last decade.

“I think we owe and have a responsibility to kind of talk through this, not only with our team, but just here,” Bradley began on Tuesday, during his weekly Zoom media session. “First of all, give Green Bay credit. It’s a challenging offense. There’s some eye control issues, a lot of shifts and motions and things like that. The issue is not just one thing. There’s a few things, right? It starts with me as a play caller, getting us into the right call, executing the call, things like that. I take full responsibility for that. I think also though you have to look at there’s a bust on a play, there’s a missed tackle on a play. So there’s a few things that we looked at, ‘Alright, its’ a shared responsibility. It’s not just one thing. We have to correct all these things and get them right.’

“That’s what we saw, especially in the first quarter. The first quarter was about as poorly as you could play. It wasn’t very good. Obviously, they had a lot of explosives, and it was on the perimeter. We had to settle down a little bit. I thought mid-way through our guys settled down and I think the stats showed that part of it. I can give you the stats, ‘Hey we got better in the 2 ^nd half and all that.’ But it is what it is. That’s what our focus is on right now, correcting these things. It always comes back to fundamentals and execution. We just have to have execution better.”

How bad as the Colts run defense been through two games?

They are dead last in the NFL in allowing 237 rushing yards per game.

Not a single other NFL is allowing more than 199 rushing yards per game.

Of the 64 games played so far in the NFL, the Colts have allowed the worst (261 yards to the Packers) and 5 ^th worst (213 yards to the Texans) rushing games this season.

What was Bradley’s message when his defense reconvened to go over the film on Monday?

“If you are not demanding it, you are accepting it,” Bradley shared. “These things need to get right. There’s accountability throughout. I’ll take the shared responsibility. They have to take shared responsibility and together we will get it done. It’s a long season. Sometimes through challenging times like this it can bring you close together.

“You earn the opportunity to rush the quarterback by stopping the run and we haven’t earned that opportunity yet.”

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Whereas a Week 1 explanation of defending Houston’s pass game was somewhat plausible (granted, there’s no explanation for what happened in the 4 ^th quarter), the same rationale couldn’t be applied to Malik Willis and the Packers .

What is the domino effect of the Colts being the only team allowing more than 200 rushing yards per game in 2024?

It is (understandably) impacting so many other defensive areas. The Colts rank 29 ^th in third-down defense, 29 ^th in quarterback rating allowed, have just 1 takeaway and rank last in the NFL in passes broken up.

Opposing offenses are getting into plenty of third-and-manageables against the Colts, allowing quarterbacks to be highly efficient and that is contributing to the lack of defensive playmaking.

Asked on Tuesday if his scheme many label on the ordinary side needs evolvement, Bradley offered the following.

“Somewhat,” the veteran defensive coordinator said.

“What I’m battling is we have evolved. You are seeing more 5-down (defensive front). You are seeing more changes in the front, changing the run fits. At times, it might be getting too cute. It might be saying, ‘Hey, let’s just line up.’ That’s really what happened starting at 8 minutes into the second quarter (against the Packers). ‘Alright, let’s get base (personnel) and do the same thing over and over again, where we know exactly how to fit and play ball.’ I think you saw them play faster because of that and more aggressively. Let’s try to get the perfect call, let’s get this and it was the same run, but it was fit differently in 4 or 5 different defenses. Once we went to one defense and you are going to get the same look, now it comes down to just execution, we did execute better.

“So it might be more that, than the other way.”

While the Colts have actually increased their blitz rate a decent amount in 2024, it’s hard to truly feel that with the vast issues in the run game.

Bradley took some blame on Tuesday for his linebackers not playing fast enough early in the season. The Colts defense does rank near the top of the league in missed tackles through two weeks. And this is coming at a time where Bradley knows the Colts defense need to be the more consistent unit, having to complement expected volatility from a young quarterback.

For those curious about the Colts rotating consistently up front—they’ve played 10 defensive linemen in each of their first two games—Bradley said he was pleased with the interior depth from Sunday, noting most of the bigger gains were out to the perimeter.

Job security questions about Bradley have been asked dating back to the end of last season.

And such a start in 2024 has only added more gasoline to the topic.

Will it take the least productive offense in the entire NFL in the Chicago Bears to change that?

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