Film Room: Why the Colts Are So Successful on Opening Drives.
The Indianapolis Colts under Head Coach Frank Reich have always yielded positive offenses. Even with the constant turnover at the quarterback position, the team has rarely finished ranked outside of the top 15 in DVOA in offensive production and efficiency.
One area in particular where Reich's teams have excelled in is on opening drives. According to Warren Sharp (of Sharp Football), the Colts lead the NFL with 15 opening drive touchdowns since the start of 2020. Notice on this list how the Colts are the only team over 11 that have had two different starting quarterbacks over this span:
With the Colts leading the league in a statistic that is very indicative to good play calling, I decided to take a look at Reich's success in this area. Today, I dive into a few reasons why this is a strength in Reich's play calling repertoire.
Why an Opening Drive is So Important
I spoke with a friend of mine that has a prior relationship with Reich when they both worked with the Eagles. He wishes to remain anonymous, but he did give me a little bit of insight into the process that coaches go through when scripting an opening drive.
He said it best in one statement... Opening drives are basically a Q/A with the opposing Defensive Coordinator. This is the perfect way to describe the beginning of a game. Reich is a talented advanced scout that trusts what he sees on film. The opening drive essentially serves as a test to see how well he scouted this opponent.
If his read on an opposing defense is that they are a heavy press-man team that likes to blitz (for instance), he will draw up an opening script that incorporates a ton of run and pass plays that take advantage of that.
The opening drive is the best time to take advantage of the pre-game scouting report because the opposing defense hasn't had any time to adjust. The first drive is purely reactionary, and a talented play caller/advanced scout like Reich can easily use this to his benefit. That is why his Colts' teams have been able to thrive in this area.
Let's not just take my word for it, though. Here are a few of my favorite examples over the past two years to illustrate this point that I am making:
2020 Week 16: Pittsburgh Steelers
By far and away Reich's best work on an opening drive over the past two years came against the Pittsburgh Steelers late in the 2020 season. The Colts did ultimately lose this game, but this first drive was a masterclass against a tough defensive unit.
To set the stage, the Colts were down to their backup offensive tackles (Chaz Green and Will Holden) against one of the better pass rushes in the league. The Steelers were an aggressive defense in 2020, blitzing at the third-highest rate in the league (a blitz rate of 40.3%). Reich's pre-game read was that this was a defense that likes to attack and be aggressive up front.
So, what does Reich do? He drew up an opening script that used the Steelers' aggressiveness against them. He incorporated a ton of misdirection, like a backside toss play, and a few wham/trap runs that allow the defensive line to get penetration.
In the pass game, he utilized pick plays and drag routes to create quick outlets against the blitz. This worked for two chunk plays on the drive, one to Michael Pittman Jr and one to Zach Pascal. The end result was an easy, walk-in score for Jonathan Taylor in the red zone.
2020 Week 4: Chicago Bears
Sometimes the task is much easier than facing the vaunted Steelers' defense. That was the case early in the year against the Chicago Bears. Now, the Bears had a solid front-seven in 2020, but their secondary was fairly young and inexperienced.
Reich seemingly figured that the Bears would sit in man coverage early in this outing, as he drew up quite a few man-beaters to start the day. The first throw to Zach Pascal is one of his favorite timing routes against man coverage and the second clip is just a phenomenal double move call on the outside against a rookie corner.
The drive is capped off by a beautiful mesh route in the red zone that gives Mo Alie-Cox an easy touchdown. While Reich likes to keep it balanced on his opening drives, he is certainly willing to exploit a weakness in the secondary, like he did in this game.
2021 Week 8: Tennessee Titans
Another example of Reich taking advantage against a team through the air came in week eight against the Tennessee Titans this past year. The Titans had one of the better pass rushes in the league, but they were susceptible to quick passes with mesh/pick concepts.
The best example was the first play of the game to Jonathan Taylor. This was a beautifully simple design to get a superstar player out in space with the ball in his hands. The entire play was just swinging Taylor out of the backfield with the outside receiver running a slant to draw the outside corner inside.
After that, Reich followed it up with an excellent whip route design out of bunch and an RPO-pass to Pittman Jr along the sideline. These are perfect play calls to take advantage of man coverage defense that likes to stay aggressive. The result was a well earned score on fourth down in the red zone.
2021 Week 11: Buffalo Bills
It is hard to craft an article about Frank Reich's play calling without talking about his masterclass game against the Buffalo Bills. The Colts thoroughly beat down one of the best teams in the league, and Reich's gameplan (along with Taylor's dominance) was a main contributing factor.
Reich added a simple wrinkle to his opening drive in this game, but it was one that had an immediate impact on the run game. On the opening drive of the game, the Colts ran the ball seven times. On six of those runs, the Colts sent somebody in motion prior to the snap.
While this seems like an obvious thing to do in today's NFL, the Colts have traditionally ranked in the bottom half of the league in pre-snap motion over the past two seasons. However, that didn't stop Reich from incorporating a ton of it into this opening drive script.
The result was the Bills' defense being absolutely confused and disorganized after the snap, and that half second of hesitation was all Taylor needed to have a monstrous day. This was the perfect start to what ended up being a massive win for the team.
The Bottom Line
While Frank Reich is far from an infallible play caller in the NFL, he does have an excellent process that typically produces good results. His advanced scouting is among the best in the game, and the Colts' opening drive success illustrates this well.
With the addition of a talented, experienced quarterback like Matt Ryan to the offense, I fully expect this number to stay among the best in the league. NFL defensive coordinators know that Reich is an outstanding play caller, and it is easy to see early in games. This is one advantage that the Colts will always have with Frank Reich as their Head Coach.
Follow Zach on Twitter @ZachHicks2.
