Stampede Blue
Indy’s defense put on an inspired showing earlier this morning.
Westfield, IN — After being victim to an explosive outing from Indy’s offense in the team’s first-ever night practice at Grand Park, the Colts defense rebounded in a big way this morning.
After returning All-Pros at each level of the defense — DeForest Buckner, Zaire Franklin, and Charvarius Ward — the Colts tightened up in today’s red zone-heavy practice. It began with the starting unit but continued with the reserves.
As a result, both quarterbacks struggled, with Richardson having by far his worst showing of camp thus far. To be fair, a dropback-centric red zone period is one of the most difficult sessions that a quarterback can be thrust into. Regardless, it was an overall poor showing from both signal callers.
Anthony Richardson kicked off the day with the starters, and this is where the shakiness began. On the opening play, he threw behind rookie tight end Tyler Warren, which resulted in an incompletion, despite Warren’s best efforts at yet another one-handed grab. Richardson then overthrew a wide-open Mo Alie-Cox while rolling left before concluding the period by getting picked off by Kenny Moore II on an underthrow. Daniel Jones and the second team followed that up with a poor showing of their own, going 1-3 through the air, with the lone completion being a quick RPO find to Anthony Gould.
In the following period, the first 7-on-7 session of the day, Richardson and the starters found a little breathing room to work with before ultimately finishing the period on a low note. He began with a quick connection to Jonathan Taylor in the flats, but then missed Ashton Dulin on a mesh concept, which saw Drew Ogletree free him up with the rub action. Richardson then connected with Josh Downs for 10 yards on a play that motioned him pre-snap into a texas route that lost the linebacker. The final two plays were both passes broken up by Kenny Moore II and Charvarius Ward, respectively. The play by Moore II came on a well-thrown 50-50 ball to Josh Downs in the corner of the end zone, a great effort by all parties involved.
Jones and the backups found their footing in the corresponding 7-on-7 session, going 2-3 through the air. An incomplete deep ball to Anthony Gould that Samuel Womack III broke up kicked off the period. Jones and Gould would connect on a quick-hitter in the flats the following play, before ultimately scoring on a ball fitted to Drew Ogletree on an intermediate out-breaking route.
Switching with Richardson for the following red zone team period, an 11-on-11 session, Daniel Jones continued his momentum found in the previous period with the starters. The starting offense scored twice in this session, both on play-action finds in the flats to Ashton Dulin and Tyler Warren, respectively. Each touchdown was preceded by big chunk gains that set up the offense for said easy scores. One of which was a...
