NFL: Why the Indianapolis Colts are set up for success

Frank Reich’s creative play-calling

We all remember those prolific Colts offenses with Peyton Manning at the helm and not only did I believe Luck should have been Rookie of the Year due to the responsibilities he had for his team and how he pulled off late game heroics, he put up prolific numbers throughout his first five years outside of that injury-riddled 2015 campaign.

However, while he did so with a defensive-minded head coach during that stretch once Chuck Pagano came back to them after chemotherapy in 2012, I thought Bruce Arians was the only coach who ever drew up an offense to help Luck reach his potential.

I never had that much trust in Pep Hamilton or Rob Chudzinski as offensive coordinators. So when the Colts tried to bring in Josh McDaniels as head coach, but were left standing at the altar, they decided to go with former Eagles OC Frank Reich.

Twelve weeks into the season, I truly believe Reich deserves Coach of the Year consideration for what he has done with this Colts offense. If you want to know the impact Reich can have on an offense, instead of looking at Indianapolis scoring 29.5 points per game (fourth in the NFL), just look at where the Eagles are compared to last season. Their offense is completely stagnant for large portions of games, while Reich keeps defenses off balance with constant movement and a multitude of looks.

Indy mixes things up with a variety of formations. They might start the game off with an empty set and then come back with 13 personnel the very next snap. And while they do run simple toss and dive plays out of those sets, they can also go play-action and attack vertically.

Reich also likes to run a lot of two-by-two sets with twins on one side and two tight-ends to the other. He will start working the receiver side first and then come back to running towards the strong side when the defense stops respecting it. With all the motions and different alignments, he forces defenses to give away coverages and he tests the principles the opposing defensive coordinator has installed by creating weaknesses for them, that they have to correct and adjust mid-game subsequently.

The biggest difference for the Eagles this year has been the decline of the running game and when you watch the Colts you can see what Reich brought with him. He uses clever run designs with multiple pullers and misdirection to freeze defenders. He sets the opposition up with inside zone plays to make them flow one way and then comes back to use that pursuit against them by creating easy blocking angles on trap and counter runs.

Reich also has the offense running jet sweeps with speedy guys like Nyheim Hines and then comes back to fake them and toss the ball the other way to make the guys on the second level hesitate and allow his backs to get to the edge.

Once the running game is established, they excel at drawing up deep bombs off play-action, often with clear-out routes, and then come back with checkdowns towards the vacated areas for free chunk plays of 15-20 yards. The zone game opens up bootlegs with tight-ends coming across the formation, crossers on different levels on comeback routes on the outside.

They also have little wrinkles-like screens towards receiver stacks and moving tight-ends into the backfield, but more importantly than all of that, Reich understands how to stress defenses by exploiting their own principles.

On this second-and-twelve play around mid-field, the Colts come out in a two-by-two set with a tight-end to the right. T.Y. comes in a short motion that way and runs a spot route to take away Jalen Ramsey, who is supposed to cover the deep third to that side.

However, when there’s only one receiver over there, the Jaguars run a combo-coverage, in which Ramsey basically plays the wideout man-to-man if he releases inside. Since Nyheim Hines is running that little swing route that way as well, Barry Church doesn’t think about carrying the tight-end fading down the field and he is wide open for a 53-yard touchdown. This is just one of many examples in which you can see Reich’s understanding of defensive tendencies and how to take advantage of them.

Over the course of their five-game winning streak, the Colts have scored an average of 34.6 points per game, they are rushing for an average of 147 yards, they are converting about 55 percent of their third downs and 76 percent of their red-zone trips. Their offense has been more balanced than ever with Luck right on pace for 30 attempts per game over that stretch, after attempting a ridiculous 62 passes earlier this year versus Houston.

That’s called efficiency. While they air it out a lot by nature (I mean why wouldn’t you with a quarterback like that?) and they have to put up points considering their defense allows just under 25 a game, I love how Reich and the offensive line have taken pressure off their franchise QB.