INDIANAPOLIS – This couldn’t have happened without Josh McDaniels.
McDaniels isn’t the reason the Indianapolis Colts are suddenly the hottest team in the NFL, stealing that title from Houston and Dallas by knocking off both in the past eight days, snapping the Texans’ winning streak at nine last week and on Sunday ending the Cowboys’ streak at five with a 23-0 domination of America’s Team.
But McDaniels was the first domino to fall, taking the Colts’ head coaching job in mid-January and then backing out, allowing the Colts to hire the right coach in Frank Reich. And it was McDaniels – who isn’t good for much, but apparently can pick a coaching staff – who saddled Reich with the right defensive coordinator, a man Reich knew very little about when he came to Indianapolis: Matt Eberflus.
Eberflus came here from the Dallas Cowboys, of course, moving to Indianapolis in January to work for McDaniels, which makes this result on Sunday so perfect. The Cowboys were shut out for the first time since 2003, and it was a Matt Eberflus defense that did it.
If you recall, Frank Reich was on the Colts’ initial list of eight candidates to replace Chuck Pagano, but Reich wasn’t one of the five to interview for the job before it went to McDaniels. In other words, his only path to this job was the one that unfolded, with McDaniels accepting the position and other candidates going elsewhere, including Matt Nagy to Chicago and Mike Vrabel to Tennessee, and when McDaniels backed out three weeks later the Colts were forced to start over. General Manager Chris Ballard took a harder look at Reich, and the rest is history.
And this is history we’re watching, the Colts starting this season 1-5 but now sitting at 8-6 with a legit shot at reaching the 2018 NFL playoffs. Since the NFL changed its divisions in 2002, just one team – the 2015 Kansas City Chiefs – have started a season 1-5 and reached the playoffs. And those Chiefs weren’t operating with a Mr. Potato Head coaching staff like the one here in Indianapolis, cobbled together by two head coaches. By the time Reich took the job, he was handed McDaniels’ defensive coordinator (Eberflus), offensive line coach (Dave DeGuglielmo) and defensive line coach (Mike Phair).
About those three assistants …
Taken a look at the Colts’ offensive line lately? It has played so well, leading the NFL in sacks allowed per pass attempt (2.9 percent) and approaching historic greatness – five consecutive games without allowing a sack earlier this season, the NFL’s longest stretch since 1991 – that the franchise has no idea which lineman to nominate for the Pro Bowl. So it’s pushing all five, from left to right: tackle Anthony Castonzo, guard Quenton Nelson, center Ryan Kelly, guard Mark Glowinski and tackle Braden Smith.
The Colts’ defensive front, meanwhile, is almost as ludicrously, damn near unbelievably improved as the offensive line. Denico Autry is playing at a Pro Bowl level, Margus Hunt isn’t far behind, and good heavens are you watching how good Ohio State rookie Tyquan Lewis (two sacks Sunday) is playing after coming off the injured reserve list in November?
“Crazy how it works out,” Reich's telling me after this 23-0 blanking of the Cowboys. “Things happen for a reason.”
He’s talking specifically about Eberflus, but only because I asked him about his defensive coordinator. Reich has praised Guge and Phair this season, but Sunday was Eberflus’ day, and my focus, because this was the Colts’ first shutout since 2014, and the defense has been superb all season, and again:”
It shouldn’t be working this well, this forced marriage of Reich and Eberflus.
“I’ve seen a lot of coaching staffs change, kind of like this one did,” says Colts linebacker Najee Goode, a seven-year NFL veteran who was with Reich the past two seasons in Philadelphia. “And I’ve never seen one work this well. I’ve seen them not work.”
Because it’s not supposed to work, not like this, not with Reich handing over the defense to a man he’d never met, a coordinator he didn’t hire, a guy he was told by Ballard that he didn’t have to take as his defensive coordinator.
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