Insider: Why beating Lamar Jackson is a sign of how far Colts pass rush has come

BALTIMORE — The Colts defensive line faced a measuring stick on Sunday: Lamar Jackson.

The most electric running quarterback in the league. A darting, dashing devil of a target in the pocket. A nightmare for defensive linemen to corral, much less bring down for a sack.

The perfect test for this Colts defensive line, a group that is supposed to finally realize general manager Chris Ballard’s long-held, if never realized, vision for the Indianapolis pass rush.

“We’re eight, nine deep of guys that can rush the passer and play the run,” Colts middle linebacker Zaire Franklin said. “I definitely feel like we’ve got one of the best units in the league.”

Ballard has always talked about that goal, about wanting a defensive line deep enough to send eight or nine rushers in waves after quarterbacks, keeping everybody fresh deep into the closing moments of the game.

Two seasons ago, the Indianapolis general manager stripped the line down to his two studs, defensive tackles DeForest Buckner and Grover Stewart, and used his first two picks on defensive ends Kwity Paye and Dayo Odeyingbo, the start of a vision he hoped the Colts would realize down the line.

But there was short-term pain from that decision.

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None hurt worse than the last time Indianapolis traveled to Baltimore’s M&T Bank Stadium to take on Jackson and the Ravens. A Colts team with its back against the wall after a slow start hit the Ravens hard to start the game, only to allow Jackson to come roaring back in the second half and overtime, directing four consecutive touchdown drives to pull off a comeback for the ages.

The pass rush could have kept Jackson from pulling off his miracle that night. One sack, one stop in the second half likely would have sealed it for the Colts.

That night, the play never came.

“Finishing, that’s been our biggest thing,” Buckner said.

The truth is, the Colts didn’t have the horses to slow down Jackson that night. Buckner and Stewart, the defense’s two best players for the past couple of seasons, were there, but they had little help on the outside.

Paye, a rookie, was hurt. Odeyingbo was still recovering from an Achilles surgery. The LEO position played by Samson Ebukam, the role for a speed rusher off the edge, didn’t truly exist in former coordinator Matt Eberflus’ defense.

Al-Quadin Muhammad led Colts defensive ends with 60 snaps played in that 2021 game; he’s now on the practice squad. Tyquan Lewis played 59. The rest of the defensive end snaps went to Kemoko Turay (31) and Ben Banogu (12), a pair of speed rushers who never lived up to their second-round billing in Indianapolis due to injury (Turay) and ineffectiveness (Banogu).

Indianapolis couldn’t get any pressure on Jackson down the stretch that night. Even with Jackson rolling around, extending the play — the Ravens quarterback averaged 2.86 seconds from snap to throw that night, a number that indicates he was holding onto the ball a little longer than most NFL quarterbacks — the Colts didn’t record a single sack in the final four drives, failed to come up with any plays to stop Jackson’s momentum.

Fast-forward two seasons, to Sunday afternoon’s showdown in Baltimore, another underdog Indianapolis team trying to match Jackson blow-for-blow. The Ravens star made plays, to be sure — he rushed 14 times for 102 yards and two touchdowns, completed 22 of 31 passes for 202 yards, directed two go-ahead scoring drives in the middle of the second half.

But Indianapolis refused to let Jackson take over, to will his team to a win the way he’d done on that painful night two years ago, repeatedly giving a sluggish Colts offense chances to get back in the game after the Ravens staked a 17-16 lead.

Baltimore was driving again on the next series after that lead, facing a third-and-5 at its own 49, when Zaire Franklin came flying into a collapsing pocket and sacked Jackson, forcing a punt. The next series, the Ravens tried to run out the clock, only to send two runs into the waiting arms of Stewart, then seeing a short, creative play to Zay Flowers blown up by Paye.

Finally, Indianapolis tied the score, but there was time left on the clock for Jackson to work his usual magic.

And he almost did, firing enough strikes to set up a 61-yard field goal attempt for Justin Tucker. A kick that came up a couple of yards short.

Yards Tucker might not have needed if Paye hadn’t seen Jackson darting out of a collapsing pocket again, chased him down and dove to pull him down for a 10-yard sack with just 23 seconds left, placing Baltimore behind the sticks.

“You see him hit the ground and get frustrated,” Buckner said.

The Colts came up with two more stops in overtime, stops fueled by the pass rush and Jackson’s lack of comfort within the pocket, even though Baltimore’s game plan had its star quarterback getting the ball out of his hands in an average of 2.43 seconds Sunday, the kind of quick game that usually renders pass rushers ineffective.

Not this Indianapolis defensive line.

Not so far.

This time, the Colts gave 49 snaps at the defensive end position to Paye, a former first-round pick; 46 snaps to Ebukam, the team’s most expensive free-agent signing this offseason; 37 to Odeyingbo; 12 to Lewis; and eight to Jacob Martin, a veteran who has 17.5 sacks lifetime.

For once, Indianapolis didn’t have to ask Buckner and Stewart to make every single play up front.

“Grove and I were talking about it, we were kind of like, ‘Golly. … we kind of felt like we were just out there today,’’’ Buckner said. “Everybody else came alive.”

Ebukam strip-sacked Jackson in the first half to end one Ravens drive; veteran defensive tackle Taven Bryan was credited with another sack for pushing the pocket on a play where Jackson lost the ball for a key fumble deep in his own territory in the first half.

Bryan is in Indianapolis to keep Buckner fresh, something the Colts have long wanted to do.

“When you get 99, when you get Buck fresh in the middle of a drive … ain’t too many things scarier for an o-line than a fresh 99,” Franklin said.

The defensive line’s depth has kept the Colts attacking deep into games so far, the way Ballard always envisioned.

“We’re fresh, fresh as can be,” Ebukam said. “Everybody can just keep going.”

Indianapolis has 12 sacks now, tied for second in the NFL, even though the Colts have opened the season by playing Jacksonville and Baltimore, two of the league’s quickest-throwing offenses this season.

And the more the Indianapolis pass rush gets home, the harder it gets for opposing offenses to focus all of their attention on Buckner and Stewart, the go-to game plan for opposing offensive coordinators the past two seasons.

“The more guys keep doing it, the more confidence they start to gain, the more Grove and I will get freed up,” Buckner said. “They can’t just focus on us two in the middle.”

For the first time in a long time, the Colts look like they might finally have the depth to make the pass rush count this season.

To trade blows with a player like Jackson down the stretch.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Colts: Beating Lamar Jackson shows how far pass rush has come