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Sunday Quincy Wilson Color Rush Jersey , the Colts (7-6) and Cowboys (8-5) will meet at Lucas Oil Stadium.Wednesday triggered my brain into wanting more information. How good is the Dallas Cowboy defense?TL:DR They’re really good. Dallas’ defense 2nd in points against (Colts are 15th), 4th in yards against (Colts are 10th), 18th in turnovers (Colts are 9th), 3rd in rushing yards against (Colts are 8th), 29th in completion percentage against (Colts are 31st), 2nd in yards per rush attempt (Colts are 5th), 18th in percentage of drives resulting in an offensive turnover (Colts are 7th), and interestingly, the Colts and Cowboys are virtually and identically bad on 3rd down (27th and 26th).Is points per average drive a relevant statistic? If so, Dallas is 6th and the Colts are 13th.If you read my colleagues’ work, Dallas runs a similar defensive scheme to Indy with better talent. Dallas rushes 4 and drops 7 into coverage. Both allow passes to be completed and rely on limiting YAC (big plays after the catch). Both focus on shutting down the running game.There are some significant differences between the teams. For example, the Cowboys defense is the least penalized defense in the league, while the Colts are the most penalized defense in the league.Special teams is a little different story, though. The Colts are 2nd in yards per punt return against and the Cowboys are 20th. The Colts are 10th in yards per kick return and the Cowboys are 27th.On offense, the Colts are 8th in scoring offense (Cowboys are 23rd). The Colts are 2nd in 3rd down conversion (Cowboys are 13th). The Colts are 7th in red zone scoring percentage (Cowboys are 30th). Dak is the most sacked QB in the league (48) and Andrew is the least sacked QB in the league. Luck may be without T.Y. Hilton and Prescott has a new weapon in Amari Cooper. If one plays and the other doesn’t or one performs and the other doesn’t, this could very well be the difference in the game. For the Colts, if they can neutralize Cooper and Elliott on defense and leverage a matchup nightmare like Eric Ebron presents on offense if Hilton isn’t available, they may be able to squeak this one out.Here’s a tidbit to chew on: Dak has thrown 78.8% of the number of passes that Luck has so far this year, but has half the touchdowns. Is this a relevant statistic or is the difference really what happens when these teams get in scoring position? You decide!Given the data available, the Colts are going to have to leverage field position via special teams, take advantage of scoring opportunities on offense and generate an effective pass rush on defense to mitigate a near certainty that they’ll get called for more penalties in order to win what appears to be a very close contest (on paper).Any given Sunday Skai Moore Color Rush Jersey , right? The Indianapolis Colts knew exactly what they had to do in order to get themselves a playoff berth. Win, and move on to the Wild Card round in Houston. Lose, on the other hand, and their season is over right then and there.The Colts came out hot, dominating time of possession, and put up touchdowns on their first two drives of the game of 12, and 16 plays respectively. But, the Colts soon made their evening a lot harder than it had to be with a couple of terrible turnovers.In the end, the Colts were able to right the ship for the remainder of the game and pulled off a 33-17 victory to send themselves into the playoffs for the first time since the 2014 season. The Colts will head to Houston to take on the Texans in the Wild Card round of the playoffs next week. Here are a few takeaways from the Colts big victory on Sunday night football. Colts’ turnovers/senseless penalties cannot continue into the postseasonThis is no surprise to anyone who understands how important ball control is in the postseason. To this point, they haven’t really been an issue, but in a game that isn’t against the Tennessee Titans it very well could have meant the difference in the end result.Midway through the second quarter — just after the Colts decimated the Titans’ defense for two long scoring drives — Andrew Luck and the Colts offense were backed up against their own goal line. On the first snap, Luck held the ball forever, then pumped twice before leaping while attempting to hit Dontrelle Inman outside the numbers. Jayon Brown undercut the pass and went easily into the end zone to put the Titans on the board and cutting the Colts’ lead in half. On the Colts very next possession, after the Colts recovered a muffed punt inside of the Titans’ 10-yard line, Marlon Mack had a touchdown called back, then fumbled the ball away two plays later taking at least 3 more points off of the board for the Colts.Both of these turnovers were killers. A pick-six as well as another turnover in the red zone are not plays that you would consider to be ‘winning football’ by any means. These two situations did appear to be out of the norm in this game, but they’re important for the coaching staff to address during the week nevertheless.Additionally, the Colts committed 12 penalties for 96 yards, causing two touchdowns to be called back and countless long-yardage situations throughout the night. Mark Glowinski was flagged several times, and seemed to be getting caught at the most inopportune times for the Colts’ offense.Two costly turnovers added to nearly 100 yards worth of penalties is not exactly a great combination for a team that will have to go on the road in the Wild Card round of the playoffs. These mistakes simply must be fixed.Darius Leonard takes franchise single-season tackle record, breaks Jeff Herrod’s 160-tackle season from 1991Lost in the mix of watching a win-and-in game between these divisional foes was the Colts’ rookie stud linebacker Darius Leonard breaking the franchise record for tackles in a single season. After once being seen as the ‘worst pick’ in the 2018 draft, the Colts’ rookie second-round pick has taken everyone’s expectations and exceeded them all. Even if you were one of the few on the Leonard train following his being drafted https://www.coltsfanshop.com/Jack-Mewhort-Jersey , your expectations could not have been this high for the small-school ‘Maniac.’Leonard finished his rookie regular season with 163 total tackles which led the Colts easily, but also the NFL. Leonard was snubbed in the voting for the Pro Bowl, but he has to be the leader for rookie defensive player of the year honors, and should even be in consideration for defensive player of the year as well. Chris Ballard appears to have hit the jackpot with Leonard, and just as he was overlooked by several schools heading into college, he was again by analysts and other NFL teams even after being drafted. He simply cannot be overlooked any longer, and it’ll be quite interesting to see what he can do in the playoffs.Colts put together two of their better drives of the season to start gameThe Colts hadn’t started very quickly over the past few weeks. In fact, the Colts had only amassed 14 first-quarter points — before tonight — since Week 12. Tonight, the Colts got hot right away, and on their first two drives looked about as good as anyone could have hoped.They were also shutting down the Titans’ offense — I use that term loosely — allowing only 8 total plays through their first two drives. In their first two possessions, the Colts put together 28 plays, 192 total yards (6.8 yards per play), used up nearly 17 minutes of the clock and was piloted by Andrew Luck who went 13-of-15 for 142 passing yards and 2 touchdowns in that span of the game.I don’t know how interesting it is, but through those two drives, the Colts ran only one play that recorded negative yardage. 26 of those plays were for positive yardage and just 1 for no gain. That’s impressive offensive football, and the Colts needed that after their slow starts as of late.Now, this level of offensive play wasn’t exactly consistent throughout the game, but it was a nice explosion to remind Colts’ fans, as well as the rest of the NFL and their fans how good Andrew Luck and this offense can be when things are hitting on all cylinders.Other notesLuck finishes second in NFL with 39 touchdown passesMarlon Mack hits 100-yard rushing mark for fourth time this seasonColts allow less than 100 yards on the ground for 9th time this seasonDontrelle Inman leads Colts in receiving yardage, continues to be late-down target for LuckColts don’t get a single hit on Blaine Gabbert, but are never really threatened by his play