Following three losses to open the 2021 season, the Indianapolis Colts took a long look in the mirror and knew some issues had to be addressed behind closed doors.
Most of the time, these meetings will be called by one of the bigger names on the roster. After seeing the failings of the edge rush during the first three weeks, Kemoko Turay took it upon himself to approach DeForest Buckner—one of the most respected players in the locker room—to call a players-only meeting.
“Yeah, I talked to Buck about it, him being the leader. He called the meeting and talked to all of us. As you can see today, we all did our job,” Turay told reporters after Sunday’s win. “All the players. We’ve got to get together, we’ve all got to work together. The same meeting we had two years ago.”
Something clicked for the Colts pass rush against the Dolphins. It could have been the meeting that was called. It could have been Turay getting more comfortable with a higher snap count. It could have been the fact they were facing arguably the worst offensive line in the league. Likely, it was a combination of those factors.
Turay himself had a day, leading the defense with two sacks, two quarterback hits and two tackles for loss. Even though it was Buckner who called the meeting, it was Turay’s idea and he followed through on his promise to step up.
“It’s not my place, but the thing is it bothered me. I love this game,” Turay said. “The coaches emphasized that we need an end to do their job, we need an end back there, and watching Buck the first two weeks in the season and being out there just pressuring the quarterback, then it just, as an end, it’s hard for us not doing our part to help him out. We couldn’t just leave him hanging and stuff like that. So it bothered me last week, and we needed that talk.”
The Colts have been needing the pass rush to step up all season. It’s been that way for years now. Buckner can only do so much without getting help from the edge.
Now that they got their first win out of the way a month into the season, the Colts may need to lean on Turay more to make impact plays from the edge.
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