INDIANAPOLIS -- Safety Mike Adams arrived in Indianapolis knowing what made the Colts successful.
It started with Peyton Manning and has carried over to Andrew Luck. The Indianapolis Colts' success was dictated by the offense.
The goal, according to Adams, was to close the gap between the two units. You probably had a better chance of winning the lottery than counting on the defense to win a game for the Colts in recent years.
"I love Andrew to death," Adams said, "but I don't want that to take away from what we do. I want to make plays and make it easy for Luck and the offense."
Easy is what it has been for the Colts defensively over the past five weeks. They continued their dominating play Sunday when they shut out Andy Dalton and the Cincinnati Bengals 27-0. It was Indianapolis' first shutout since beating Tennessee 23-0 on Dec. 28, 2008.
"This is a new era," Colts defensive lineman Cory Redding bluntly said. "We have some special guys in this locker room. This is a special team."
The Colts held the Bengals to 135 total yards on offense, their lowest total since that Tennessee shutout. The Bengals were only 1-of-13 on third down and punted on 11 of their first 12 possessions -- the one in which they didn't ended the first half. And remember how Dalton entered Sunday with a league-low two sacks? The Colts sacked him four times.
"Hats off again to our defense," Colts coach Chuck Pagano said. "Unbelievable job. I don't care, any level, to shut somebody out is extremely difficult in the National Football League. I don't know how many total yards they had, but zero points up on the board, four sacks. I don't know who got them. I don't really care as long as we keep playing at this level on that side of the football."
The Colts had no idea where the sacks were going to come from once linebacker Robert Mathis was lost for the season with a torn Achilles.
Vanilla and predictable is the last thing defensive coordinator Greg Manusky wanted his unit to be. He wanted to dictate how the game would be played and use a scheme that allowed the Colts to supply pressure in all directions.
It didn't matter if it came from the linebackers, a cornerback or a safety blitz. Manusky wanted the quarterback to be confused, always looking around for where the pressure would come from.
"Making a play can come from anywhere on the field," defensive lineman Ricky Jean Francois said. "When Manusky is making great defensive plays, he might get somebody out of the popcorn stand to make a play. As long as Manusky keeps giving us plays and we keep perfecting our job and keep doing what we need to do and not do the next person's job, we can be a serious defense."
The Colts made Dalton look like a marginal quarterback by loading the box with as many as nine players several times, leaving cornerbacks Vontae Davis and Greg Toler isolated one-on-one on the outside. Toler and Davis were glued to the Bengals receivers, as the unit had nine pass breakups. Davis, not known for his hitting ability, even laid Bengals running back Giovani Bernard out on a pass attempt in the flat.
That's confidence. And the numbers don't lie when talking about how dominant the unit has been the past five weeks.
The Colts have 20 sacks in that span. They have forced nine turnovers. They have held their last four opponents to 4-of-41 on third down.
And they're doing it not only without Mathis. Safety LaRon Landry missed his third game because of a suspension, defensive lineman Art Jones has missed the past five games with an ankle sprain, and cornerback Darius Butler has missed the past two games with an ankle injury.
"When we lost Robert, a lot of guys didn't know what our identity was going to be," linebacker D'Qwell Jackson said. "We're slowly finding our identity, and it's coming from everyone, it's coming from every angle. The secondary is doing their job, linebackers are able to blitz and get pressure on quarterback. Defensive line is playing phenomenal. It starts with them and Greg Manusky."
