National Football League

Colts' defense needs answers for miscues, injuries

Published Oct. 7, 2010 10:02 a.m. ET

foxsports

The Indianapolis Colts defense is a mess.

Injuries have decimated the secondary. Dwight Freeney and Robert Mathis are struggling to pressure opposing quarterbacks. The unit has given up more than 400 yards rushing in two losses and everybody knows what's coming next - more running.

''We've got to stop the run,'' defensive captain Gary Brackett said Wednesday. ''We know that week in and week out, everybody is going to run the ball on us until we stop it.''

That includes Sunday's opponent, Kansas City (3-0), the NFL's last unbeaten team. The Chiefs rank fifth in the NFL in rushing, led by the tandem of Jamaal Charles and Thomas Jones, and will almost certainly go with a run-first strategy.

And again the Colts (2-2) will be playing short-handed.

Safety Bob Sanders is expected to be out until at least December after having surgery to repair a torn biceps muscle in his right arm. Melvin Bullitt, Sanders' replacement, will miss the rest of the season after hurting his right shoulder in Sunday's loss at Jacksonville.

Starting linebacker Clint Session returned to the lineup against the Jags after missing back-to-back games - only after backups Ramon Humber (hand) and Kavell Conner (foot) needed surgery to fix fractured bones.

Now the Colts have added even more defenders to the injury list.

Pro Bowl safety Antoine Bethea and cornerback Jacob Lacey both sat out Wednesday's practice - Bethea with a hamstring injury, Lacey with a sore foot. Brackett (back), Session and cornerback Jerraud Powers (foot) at least managed to get in all of their work as the Colts continue to try to fill holes.

They re-signed safety Aaron Francisco, who was let go after spending last season in Indy, and promoted safety Mike Newton from the practice squad to the active roster.

Who will start? Coach Jim Caldwell isn't sure.

''We'll find out as the week goes on,'' Caldwell said. ''They'll have a chance to work with them and we'll see who emerges.''

That's the predicament Indy faces eight months after playing in the second Super Bowl of the Peyton Manning era.

The Colts are yielding nearly 150 yards rushing a game and an average of 5.0 yards per carry.

''The last few weeks there's been some inconsistency,'' Freeney said. ''It's not that we're just getting beat and can't fix the problem. We'll get it fixed, hopefully sooner than later.''

They'd better because the porous run defense is causing other headaches in Indy.

Freeney and Mathis - the league's most productive pass-rushing tandem since 2004 - have been less effective over the last two weeks.

The reason: Indy's defense is built to play with the lead. If opponents can score on the ground, Manning has fewer chances to score points, and Freeney and Mathis can't take advantage of teams forced to throw to keep up.

With a lack of pressure coming up the middle and a thin secondary that had six players go down with season-ending injuries in the preseason, well, the holes are becoming more apparent.

''It's a mistake here or a mistake there, but once we get all that fine-tuned, we should be OK,'' Bethea said. ''It's just a matter of limiting those mistakes.''

When the Colts were giving up 40 points per game during the preseason, players and coaches kept saying things would be fine. Now that they're giving up 23 points during the regular-season, have struggled to rush quarterbacks, stop the run and get off the field on third down, fans aren't the only ones pointing out the problems.

''We didn't get punched out the way we did in Houston,'' Colts President Bill Polian said during Monday night's radio show, referring to the Jacksonville loss. ''That's something positive to take from it, but there's obviously a lot of work to do on that side of the ball. We've got to get that straightened away. I think we have good players there, but they're not playing very well at this point.''

Colts players haven't lost hope and are promising to get things fixed.

''We'll continue to grow,'' Brackett said. ''And we'll get better on defense.''