The Indianapolis Colts come to town this week for a Christmas night battle with the Arizona Cardinals and, because of how the Cardinals have played recently and the play of the Colts, many feel Indy will give Arizona its third consecutive loss.
In particular, it is the matchup against Colts running back Jonathan Taylor that has many believing the Cardinals won’t be able to stop him.
After all, the run defense has been their weakness this season. They are only 17th in total run defense, allowing 112.8 rushing yards per game. But they are 27th in yards allowed per carry at 4.6. They have faced the 11th-fewest rushing attempts.
Taylor leads the NFL with 1,518 rushing yards and 17 rushing touchdowns this season.
The Cardinals are prepared.
“We’ve played a bunch of good running teams all year. It won’t be any different Christmas night,” defensive coordinator Vance Joseph told reporters Wednesday.
He knows that stopping the run is their No. 1 priority defensively.
“This running game is really good,” he said. “The back (Taylor) is having a great year. When he’s playing good, they win. That’s our first issue to deal with is stop him in the run game.
“The run game is what they do well, and it’s got to get stopped.”
The Cardinals haven’t been awful all year against the run. They have had their moments.
They held Derrick Henry to only 58 total rushing yards and only nine in the first half in Week 1. They held the Cleveland Browns No.-5 rated rushing attack to 73 yards. The San Francisco 49ers are seventh in the league in rushing yards and the Cardinals held them to 39 yards in Week 9.
Joseph compares Indy’s attack to the Titans’ rushing attack, which still ranks fourth in the league even though Henry has been out since midseason.
“It’s Tennessee,” he said. “It’s a direct run game. They block and they run and they block and run.
“Stopping the run is going to be a premium this week. We have a good plan to do so but outside of the plan, we have to tackle, we have to get hats to the ball because he does break tackles and we have to be detailed in our run fits.”
We can expect them to stack the box and add an extra defender. to the front seven. Whether it is a fourth defensive lineman or a fifth linebacker, they have done that before. Most recently, they did it to the 49ers, but they chose not to rush against it, passing the ball more.
“This guy (Colts head coach Frank Reich) won’t do that. It’s going to be 35-plus handoffs. So stacking the box that’s your first move, to win with numbers. But this offensive line can move people and this back can find it.
“We need to be in our gaps with two hands free and two eyes to tackle this guy form or he falls for four and five yards.”
Joseph stressed that when it comes to the Colts, they have to win one of the runs in the series of downs. If they are getting 3-4 yards each time, they will just keep running.
“You have to get one of those downs knocked down for 1-2 yards,” he said. “If not, it’s going to be a long series for you.”
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