Colts' Matt Eberflus Explains Why Defense Is Struggling Against Bootlegs

Through three weeks, opponents are taking advantage of the Colts' pursuit on defense, using bootlegs to get open looks, according to defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus.

Aside from the general struggles the Indianapolis Colts' defense has had through three weeks, defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus highlighted one area that must improve if the Colts want to continue to have a fighting chance defensively: defending the bootleg much better. 

Through three weeks, the Seattle Seahawks, Los Angeles Rams and Tennessee Titans have all taken advantage of the aggressiveness of the Colts' defense to hit them with bootlegs with the quarterback, moving the pocket in the process and creating open throwing lanes and options to run for Russell Wilson, Matthew Stafford and Ryan Tannehill. 

While the Colts' defense is built to pursue the football and be aggressive, Eberflus and his defenders know that one way to combat the defense is to use bootlegs. So far, teams are doing a much better job of executing and using the bootleg than the Colts are at defending it. 

“When you pursue he way we do, they use that, those types of plays," Eberflus said during his media availability Tuesday. "Last week, they started the game with a screen because they thought we were going to pursue to the run and then throw a screen out there so we get a lot of those as well. It just comes down to the rudiments of the game. We always have basically some elements to the boot that we want to cover – the flat route, the over route, the shoot route and then the secondary contain. On the backside there’s always some kind of a trash play on the backside so we want to make sure we achieve that on every single play. Then, sometimes the defensive end gets blocked like on the one we had last week. He got blocked, he’s got to work across the face and then we have to re-contain with the linebacker faster. There’s always those elements to every single boot play.”

Tennessee worked the bootleg to perfection on Sunday, allowing Tannehill to scamper for 28 yards on a bootleg to his right, gashing the Colts' defense with no defender in sight for the first 10-15 yards. 

Right now, it feels like there's always one little thing that goes wrong defensively for the Colts on a given play that leads to a splash play for the opponent, whether that's a defensive end failing to work across his blocker's face, or overpursuing to the football and getting moved completely out of position. 

The 0-3 start is certainly not all on the Colts' defense, but they're not playing up to the standard that the unit set in 2019 and 2020 under Eberflus, not even close. 

Hopefully the Week 4 matchup against Jacoby Brissett and the Miami Dolphins is a get-right game for the Colts' defense. Everybody knows they need one, especially this early in the season. 

Have thoughts on Matt Eberflus' take on how the defense is struggling against bootlegs? Drop a line in the comments section below and let us know how you feel. 

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