Long before this season of change began for the Indianapolis Colts, defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus went about setting the standard for his unit.



The new defensive play caller, who was installing a brand-new scheme, cued up some examples of what he hoped his players would emulate.



You might say he aimed a bit high. Eberflus showed his defenders film cutups of the Steel Curtain-era Pittsburgh Steelers. He dived into the archives and pulled out clips of Tony Dungy’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers defenses. Then he threw in some of Dungy’s Colts teams and Lovie Smith’s Chicago Bears defenses of the 2000s.



The Colts don’t have anyone the likes of Mean Joe Greene, Warren Sapp or Dwight Freeney, but Eberflus was attempting to make an important point nonetheless: This scheme, which at its core is, similarly, a Cover 2-based system, can be wildly successful.



“We’ve seen when it’s done the right way, how good it...