Gus Bradley's Colts Defense- Building a Successful Game plan for the KC Chiefs Offense

Coach Gus Bradley had one of the better performances this year against a very potent Chiefs offense. He held Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs to 20/35 completions for 262 yards. They also shut down the Chiefs run game holding them to less than 2 yards per carry, 19 carries for 32 yards not including Mahomes who scrambled 4 times for 26 yards. Mahomes QBR rating was a very low 78 on the day, his lowest of the season.

They also held Kelce in check limiting him to 4 catches for 58 yards.

So what did Gus Bradley do that made this game plan successful.

So some of the the game plan was as follows:

• bracket Kelce and double him when possible. Take him away and make someone else beat you.

• Send 3 and 4 man pressures with a spy(especially when playing man)

• Mix in some 5 man pressures with man coverage
  

  In the pass game:

Bracket
They ran some bracket concepts against Kelce doubling him with inside outside concepts. They did it with zone coverage and man to man concepts.

They ran some other concepts but mostly ran some double teams making someone else beat them. This was very effective.

Example #1

zone bracket(You can see the concept below in cover 3 with the sam and ILB essentially doubling Kelce. Kelce is in the middle between the hashes with 2 players around him. Mahomes sees it and works off him downfield.

Kelce does beat the coverage but it’s too late as Mahomes came off it and threw the go route. It's incomplete.

Again, Kelce isn’t open early which forces the read and Mahomes goes deep on it. His initial eyes were on Kelce.

Example #2 (bracket)

On a crucial play late in the game, they bracket Kelce again. Also, they spy him which we get to next with a 3 man rush with a LB playing him.

The bracket concept gets Mahomes eyes on Schuster.

The man on the bottom of the screen is effective. The spy causes some disruption and changes the passing lane.

The double on Kelce took him out of the equation and they went to the other option, Schuster who was well defended and they get the interception to seal the game.

Example #3

They play 2 man with the weak safety doubling Kelce. They also spy with a LB that does a nice job on Mahomes.

They have a spy on and are sending a 3 man rush. The spy is with LB EJ Speed. They decide to spy him with a more athletic LB.

They force the scramble and get the great pressure as everything is covered downfield.

Example #4

Again, they take Kelce away but Mahomes makes a ridiculous throw downfield. He scrambles and makes a play that should have been knocked down.

Sometimes great players make great plays! That’s a great play coming off his read and throwing on the run.

Spying Mahomes

They spied Mahomes often with 3 man pressures and also with 4 man pressures. They took advantage of the Speed of their LB EJ Speed and used him as a spy guy. This was effective as he often waited and let Mahomes scramble and was waiting for him. This was evident on the 3rd down below.

5 man pressures with Man Coverage

They sprinkled in some 5 man pressures against Mahomes. This was effective as they forced him into some quick decisions. They didn’t do it often but the few times they did it they got home on it. The coverage was man free with the safety playing the RB with the will pressure.

They got a matchup on Mckinney which they created with the game below.

You can see the blitz below with the will LB.

The concept gets home with excellent coverage down field. Here is the tight version. Watch the LB block the tackle and execute the stunt nicely.

You can see the pick by the LB below and he frees the DE up for the sack.

THE DE comes clean and does a tremendous job as he beats the RB.

In the 2nd example, they free release the RB and the Will LB comes clean and does a great job getting pressure. Another efficient snap by the Colts defense.

3rd down Efficiency

They held the Chiefs to 3/10 efficiency on 3rd down. That is way below their 48% average on the year. They mixed in some man free and 2 man concepts and the concept was very effective.

I hope you enjoyed this article and see how Gus Bradley had the blueprint for slowing the Chiefs down in 2022.

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