DeForest Buckner is in his 11th NFL season, and he’s still the most disruptive player on the Indianapolis Colts’ defense. On Sunday he gets Cam Ward, a second-year quarterback whose sack problem is back after a four-sack afternoon against Houston.
The rest of the Colts’ defense has been leaky. Indianapolis ranks 27th in points allowed and has the NFL’s worst run defense by EPA per rush. Buckner is the exception, and this matchup is where he can tilt the game.
Buckner is winning from the inside
Buckner has 4.0 sacks, eight quarterback hits and four tackles for loss through five games, per Pro Football Reference. That’s nearly half of the team’s 10 sacks.
PFF credits him with 14 pressures on 142 pass-rush snaps, eighth among 131 interior defenders, and a 76.1 pass-rush grade that ranks 11th. Only two defensive tackles have rushed the passer more often. He’s 75.5 sacks into his career, and he’s getting home at a rate that looks a lot like his Pro Bowl seasons.
He’s also found ways to help when he doesn’t get home. Buckner has batted down two passes, a handy trick against a quarterback who has thrown a lot of short stuff this season.
The flip side is his 49.4 run-defense grade, so Tennessee may try to run right at him. That’s a bet on Tony Pollard against a veteran who has spent a decade blowing up handoffs.
Cam Ward’s clock is running long
Ward has completed 98 of 155 passes for 896 yards with three touchdown passes and three interceptions. His average time to throw is 3.03 seconds, and 16.7% of his pressures have turned into sacks, per his PFF player page. He carries a 65.0 overall grade, 22nd of 34 qualifying quarterbacks.
That combination is exactly what an interior rusher wants. Ward took 55 sacks as a rookie, and Robert Saleh acknowledged the hangover last month. “So I’m sure there’s some PTSD there,” Saleh said in a Sept. 30 press conference.
Ward isn’t hiding from it. “But I think it would be different if we executed plays, if I executed plays, at a high level,” he told the Titans’ website this week.
Ward can make a free rusher pay with his legs, though. He has 11 scrambles for 55 yards and two rushing touchdowns, per PFF, which means Buckner can’t simply fly upfield. The Colts need him to push the pocket straight back into Ward’s face and let the edge rushers close the lanes.
The Titans’ interior of Peter Skoronski, Austin Schlottmann and Atonio Mafi played every snap last week, and the line held up until the second half. Then Houston’s rush took over. If Buckner collapses the pocket early and Ward starts drifting, the noise under the Lucas Oil Stadium roof does the rest.
Kickoff is 1 p.m. ET on FOX. Win this matchup and the Colts likely hand Tennessee its sixth straight loss.
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