For years the scheme could be both exhilarating and exasperating, almost as if the defense had a split personality.
The Colts’ 4-3 system under Tony Dungy was capable of terrorizing quarterbacks and stacking turnovers — it was a defense built to finish off games with the sizable leads Peyton Manning and the offense so often provided. And for the most part, it worked. A franchise doesn’t rip off seven straight 12-win seasons and a Super Bowl title without both sides of the ball playing its part.
But some stretches would leave fans fuming, defensive disappearing acts that, in the early 2000s, left plenty wondering if the unit would ever be good enough to help Manning get over the hump.
Three months in the winter of 2007 spoke to all of it, the very bad and by the very good. In early December the Colts were trampled in Jacksonville, 44-17, after allowing a franchise-record 375 rushing yards. The Jags would’ve run for 400, my colleague Bob…
