One Colts’ cornerback provided a very honest assessment of how the defense was able to slow Dolphins’ QB Tua Tagovailoa.
The Miami Dolphins’ offense couldn’t do much of anything against the Indianapolis Colts’ defense in Week 1. Cornerback Xavien Howard provided a very honest assessment of why that was the case.
“We knew the guy, he gets the ball out pretty quick,” Howard told ESPN’s Stephen Holder. “And once we take away his first read, I feel like it’s panic mode after that. And it showed yesterday. We took away his first read and he was trying to get rid of the ball real quick.”
As a unit, the Miami offense mustered just 211 total yards in this game, averaging 4.6 yards per play.
Quarterback Tua Tagovailoa was 14-of-23 passing for 114 yards with a touchdown and two interceptions.
Under new defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo, the Colts deploy a heavy usage of disguised coverages to keep quarterbacks guessing. What the quarterback sees pre-snap likely won’t be what he sees when he hits the top of his drop with all of the late movement that takes place.
Adding to that, Anarumo baked in some extremely well-timed blitzes as well to add to the chaos.
To further illustrate the confusion and therefore hesitation that Anarumo’s game plan caused, Joel Erickson of the Indy Star noted that Tagovailoa’s average time to throw against the Colts was 2.64 seconds compared to his average time of 2.42 seconds in 2024 and 2.36 seconds in 2023–both of which were the fastest times in the NFL.
Howard was a late addition to the Colts’ training camp roster. He didn’t play during the 2024 season, but before that, he had spent his first eight NFL seasons with the Dolphins, which included being a teammate of Tagovailoa for a few of them.
