Can the Colts defeense be good enough?

The Indianapolis Colts fell one game short of the Super Bowl in 2003, losing to New England in the AFC Championship game.

Tony Dungy came to Indy with a reputation for building strong defenses and having vanilla offenses.

His Tampa Bay teams also made it to the conference title game, but ownership felt more offensive sparks were needed to get the team to the next level and Dungy was fired.

The year after Dungy was released, the Bucs won their first Super Bowl largely with the team their former coach had built.

When the Colts hired Dungy before the 2002 season, they were seeking to build a quality defense to go with their star-studded offense.

While the defense has improved under Dungy's watch, it was still not quite good enough to put the Colts in the Super Bowl.

In 2003, the Colts ranked a respectable 11th in the NFL in yardage defense.

At first glance, this looks more than respectable, but a breakdown of the numbers shows where the problems lie.

The Colts allowed 123.8 yards per game on the ground, tying them for 20th in the league.

In 19 regular season and playoff games, an opposing running back topped the 100-yard mark in a game nine times against Indy.

When you consider stats like that, it's amazing the Colts were able to win 12 regular season and two post-season games.

The Colt defense also registered only 31 quarterback sacks, a less than mediocre 23rd best in the NFL.

Essentially, if you can't stop the run or rush the passer with regularity, your defense is not going to be very effective when it counts.

This weakness is more likely to show against top opponents in playoff games.

That's why despite being ranked 11th in yards allowed, the Colts were ranked 20th in points allowed last year.

The defensive line has been much maligned for these failures.

Right end Dwight Freeney is a young stud pass rusher who has not even reached his full potential yet.

He registered 11 sacks last year with little help from his teammates and gives great effort at all times.

Freeney's weakness is that at 270 pounds, he lacks the bulk to hold up when teams run right at him.

Robert Mathis, a second year man out of Alabama A&M will be relied upon to add a pass rushing compliment to Freeney and will play in obvious passing situations.

Brad Scioli will battle Raheem Brock for the other starting end spot.

Brock tends to put all his emphasis on rushing the passer and is vulnerable to the run.

The tackles will rotate to keep people fresh, but Larry Tripplett and Montae Reagor are the likely starters.

Tripplett showed a lot of ability, but has yet to find consistency.

He will make a few sparkling plays a game, but will disappear for large stretches of time.

Reagor weighs 285 pounds and has good burst in pursuit, but lacks the bulk to stop the run head on.

Josh Williams will see plenty of playing time at tackle as well, while first year man Keith Wright looks to be involved as well.

Unless this group can learn to stuff the run better, the Colts will always be vulnerable to top running teams who can keep Peyton Manning and company off the field and keep games close.

David Thornton starts at weak side linebacker and has shown a lot of potential.

Thornton is a speedy player who also shows great tackling skills.

His weakness has been in pass coverage, but the 6'2" 230 pound North Carolina alum is only starting his third year in the league and could still improve in that area.

The tools are certainly there.

Thornton led the Colts with 145 tackles last year.

Rob Morris is slow for a middle linebacker and a liability in coverage, but he plays a very smart game and somehow gets the job done.

He is in the last year of his contract so look for him to try to have a big season.

Defensive coordinator Ron Meeks would like to see more big plays out of Morris.

The third linebacker spot is wide open after the departure of Marcus Washington via free agency.

Gary Brackett, Gilbert Gardner, Jim Nelson and Cato June will all vie for the spot, but none of them really fit the scheme well.

June is still learning to play linebacker after playing safety in college.

Nelson is a special teams ace with experience, while Gardner is a raw third round pick out of Perdue with good speed.

Fourth round pick Kendyll Pope has even more speed than Gardner, but lacks size and strength to hold up at the point of attack and defend the run.

Pope may be a good fit in the Colts nickel and dime defenses if he learns the defensive system quickly.

The secondary will have new faces as both starting corners from a year ago, Walt Harris and David Macklin, have departed.

Dungy's staff is hoping that whoever starts will be better at zone coverage so the Colts can play more "cover-two" and less man-to-man than they did a year ago.

The cover-two zone is Dungy's specialty, but the Colts lacked the personnel to play the defense well during the past two seasons.

The top three candidates to start at the corner are Donald Strickland, Nick Harper and Joseph Jefferson.

All are likely to see plenty of action.

Strickland has good speed and has a nose for the ball.

The second-year man from Colorado started eight games in 2003 and hopes to contribute more this year.

Jefferson has good size and is a physical tackler, but missed all of 2003 with a pelvis injury and played safety in 2002.

His lack of experience could prevent him from starting early in the season.

Harper had four interceptions to lead the Colts last year, but a back injury shelved him late in the season.

Even before the injury, his play started to tail off after a promising early season start.

Mike Doss will start at strong safety.

While he is undersized, Doss hits hard and reads plays well.

The free safety will be Idrees Bashir who is decent in pass coverage, but not much in run support.

Bob Sanders, the Colts second round pick out of Iowa has more speed than Bashir and could give him a run for the starting job before the year is over.

More big plays are needed from this unit.

The Colts gave Manning a $98 million contract this off-season, making him the NFL's highest paid player.

He deserves to be in such elite company as he was the league's co-MVP last season.

However, if the Colts defense doesn't improve in the two key areas of stopping the run and pressuring the passer, Manning and the offense will have trouble equaling the 12 wins the team earned last season.