Colts' Defense Eyeing Magic Number of Takeaways Ahead of 2021 Season

Take a look at the number of takeaways by past Super Bowl champions and you'll see a common number: 25-30 turnovers forced.

That number alone seems pretty high, but for the Indianapolis Colts' defense under defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus, that target number is even higher: 40.

Forty takeaways is something that hasn't been attained since at least 2014, which is as far back as ESPN's takeaways stats go. In fact, the closest a team has gotten to 40 takeaways in a regular season dating back to 2014 is the Carolina Panthers in 2015 with 39. The Pittsburgh Steelers recorded 38 in 2019.

No team has hit 40. The Colts are hoping to change that.

“It’s one of those things where you’re shooting for perfection and you’ll catch excellence, the old saying," Eberflus said. "I think that when you set the bar high like that, it’s on their mind. It is achievable, we can achieve it. It’s been done in the past. I think the highest for the Colts I want to say is the high 30s quite a few years back. We’re shooting for that. It’s a goal that we have, but again, we understand the mission is to go out and do it one game at a time. We understand we have to do that but again, it’s going to be hard to reach but we have to seize the opportunities like I talked about before. You can’t miss those opportunities.

"That’s just the NFL greats of the history of the NFL, that 40 number," Eberflus added. "That’s just there. It’s one of those numbers that’s really super high, and a few teams have achieved it and we’re just trying to search for that.”

With the secondary returning intact and an improved pass rush up front, the Colts should be able to improve on the 27 takeaways recorded last season under Eberflus.

For now, the Colts are focusing on increasing takeaways in training camp, working on stripping the football and getting hands on passes in the secondary as Eberflus tries to instill the mentality of taking the ball away defensively.

“So first, our mentality is going to sound like a downer a little bit, but it’s never good enough. We’re always missing strip attempts, we’re always missing opportunities where we want to seize those opportunities because they come around and you have to seize them," Eberflus said. "We’re always working on our guys with that. So, we’ll always show the guys the great plays they make on the ball, like today they made a couple and it’s about strip attempts. So, every single time we’ll talk about, ‘Hey you missed four strip attempts and you had three or four good ones.’ That’s really important to us and that’s part of our principle that we believe in, the takeaway part of it. We’re working on it day-to-day but it’s never good enough.”

Have thoughts on the target number of takeaways for the Indianapolis Colts in 2021? Drop a line in the comments section below letting us know how you feel!

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