How Did the Colts Adjust for Julius Thomas Against the Denver Broncos?

When facing the Denver Broncos on Sunday night, the Indianapolis Colts faced an athletic tight end with basketball background. 

Yes, another Jimmy Graham, Antonio Gates-type. The kind that has given the NFL, and especially the Colts, difficulties for the last decade. Thomas is one of the top three tight ends in the fantasy football world (along with Graham and Rob Gronkowski) and is a rising young star. It was well known that he could be a key piece that would give the Colts fits. 

But "fits" doesn't quite describe what Thomas was for the Colts on Sunday. A "thorn in the side" doesn't quite work, either, maybe more of a spiked battle axe in the side. 

Thomas went for five catches for 90 yards and three touchdowns in the first half alone on Sunday night, finishing with seven catches on eight targets for 104 yards and three touchdowns. It was a mismatch on paper, especially after the Colts allowed Jimmy Graham to grab some big catches in Week 3 of the preseason, and the weakness played out in the game. 

But what I'm interested in is the split: Thomas was phenomenal in the first half, but caught just two passes for 14 yards in the second half. Sure, the Broncos were ahead for the entire second half, but Thomas is a big target that should have been used to move the chains and conserve time, and that only happened once in the second half. 

A big part of it was downfield passing. Thomas's biggest plays came as a downfield threat in the first half: Thomas gained 34 and 35 yards on long throws by Manning in the second quarter. That downfield passing slowed to a bare minimum in the second half, as Manning and the Broncos ran the ball on 11-of-26 plays and used quick screens and underneath passes to chew up the clock. The Broncos offense always revolves around those short passes, to some degree, but the second half was a very concerted effort. 

However, the change wasn't completely due to the Broncos' conservative game plan. The Colts also made some notable adjustments that helped keep Thomas smothered.

In the first half, Thomas caught four of his five catches against one-on-one man coverage, including both of his 30-plus-yard catches and all three of his touchdowns. This 35-yard touchdown against D'Qwell Jackson was one such demoralizing play. 

Thomas also beat Jerrell Freeman twice in man coverage and LaRon Landry once at the goal line with a great fake outside.

Thomas presented the ultimate problem for Indianapolis: The Colts' linebacker with the physicality to handle Thomas' size was too slow (Jackson) and their linebacker with the quickness to keep up (Freeman) couldn't handle his size. LaRon Landry is physical and has size and speed, but his coverage instincts have never been, well, an asset. 

Jack Dempsey/Associated Press

The man coverage, especially in the red zone and when allowed a free release off of the line, was not going to work. 

But, it seemed that the Colts recognized this, and used more disguised zone schemes on Thomas in the second half, especially in the middle of the field. It helped that they never got in a passing situation in the red zone, but the Colts were able to limit Thomas with the strategy. 

Take a look at some of these looks the Colts gave Thomas in the second half, compared to the man coverage in the first half. 

NFL Game Rewind

On the above play, the Colts showed a fire blitz, with every linebacker and the strong safety pressing the line, while the free safety (bottom of the screen) and corners had man assignments. On the snap, both inside linebackers, the two interior linemen and the safety (Landry) drop into zone coverage over the middle, hindering any space Thomas would have to work. Landry also jams Thomas at the line of scrimmage, rather than giving him a free release up the field. 

The play was an incomplete pass to Sanders on the left side, and Manning didn't look at Thomas or anybody else, but it was a good example of the different looks the Colts gave Thomas, and Manning, in that second half. 

NFL Game Rewind

Here's another one, in which the inside linebacker, Freeman, lines up over Thomas in a zone look. Here, Thomas is split out, but instead of giving Thomas the one-on-one matchup with Freeman, as they did in the first half on the left sideline, the Colts have a zone look with the three defensive players lined up over the two offensive players. With Thomas running the post, Freeman is underneath to clog a passing lane and pick up any underneath route, while Greg Toler and Mike Adams have the deeper zones, and they bracket Thomas closely. 

The only time Thomas did any damage in the second half was when the Colts inexplicably lined up with just LaRon Landry over a two-receiver bunch on the right side, leaving Thomas with plenty of green space to attack when Manning sent an audibled screen pass to him. 

It was a very poorly designed play by the Colts, given the situation and personnel for Denver, but they spend most of the second half attacking Thomas in a well-designed way. 

The Colts will still struggle with athletic tight ends in man-to-man coverage, but by using some zone schemes to vary the looks, most teams won't be able to hurt them like Denver did. Jackson and Freeman are both good zone defenders, and they should be able to handle the responsibilities much more easily than tracking a tight end 30 yards downfield, especially when bracketed by a defensive back. 

While most of the Broncos' offensive struggles were self-inflicted in the second half, the Colts made a smart adjustment when it came to Julius Thomas, an encouraging thing to see from an inconsistent defense.

All statistics and snap counts come from Pro Football Focus (subscription required) and Pro Football Reference unless otherwise noted. All training camp observations were obtained firsthand by the reporter unless otherwise noted.

Kyle is an NFL and Indianapolis Colts analyst for Bleacher Report and the editor-in-chief of Colts Authority. Follow Kyle on Twitter for more stats, analysis and general NFL analysis.