The Indianapolis Colts’ defensive front had it’s best performance in some time on Sunday against the Houston Texans, and not by coincidence, that also happened to be DeForest Buckner’s first game back from injury.
Buckner had been sidelined the previous five games on injured reserve with a high-ankle sprain that he suffered in the Colts’ Week 2 loss to Green Bay.
In his return on Sunday, Buckner’s impact was felt not only on the stat sheet, but by his teammates as well with the opportunities he helped create for them.
Buckner would play 43 snaps, just five shy of Dayo Odeyingbo’s 48, which were the most along the defensive front. The Colts made sure to have Buckner on the field during those obvious passing downs, but he was also an important presence against the run as well.
Individually, Buckner was credited with three pressures, including on sack from Pro Football Focus. By ESPN’s pass rush metrics, Buckner had a win rate of 35 percent on Sunday, meaning that one over one-third of his pass rush snaps, he beat his blocker within 2.5 seconds.
As Seth Walder noted, this was the highest win rate by any defender in Week 8 during the early window of games.
In the run game, Buckner recorded two tackles, and out of 58 defensive tackles, he ranked 15th in run-stop rate–the best on the team.
Collectively, and with the help of some stunts and blitzes from defensive coordinator Gus Bradley, the Colts pressured CJ Stroud on 45 percent of his dropbacks.
For some context, this was the Colts’ highest-pressure rate on an opposing quarterback of the season and Stroud was among the most-pressured quarterbacks in Week 8.
In the run game, meanwhile, Joe Mixon was held to a modest 4.1 yards per rush–half a yard below the defense’s season average.
This performance from the Colts’ defensive front is a product of the DeForest Buckner-effect. In addition to the obvious impact plays he makes on his own, his presence creates one-on-one matchups and advantageous matchups for other Indianapolis defenders to take advantage of.
We all know that this defense very much missed Buckner while he was on injured reserve, and Sunday’s game was proof of that.