1. What Anarumo did in the 2021 AFC Championship was remarkable.

What Lou Anarumo's Cincinnati Bengals defense did to Andy Reid, Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs in the 2021 AFC Championship game is widely regarded as one of the best in-game adjustments in recent postseason memory.

Anarumo, after Mahomes shredded them for 220 yards and three touchdowns on 18/21 passing in the first half, threw a remarkably effective wrinkle at the Chiefs' offense. Instead of blitzing out of desperation, Anarumo consistently called for only three defenders to rush the Chiefs' quarterback – meaning eight players would drop into coverage.

The Bengals dropped eight defenders into coverage on 18 of Mahomes' dropbacks in that game, 12 of which came in the second half and overtime, per Pro Football Focus. For context: No other team in the last five seasons has dropped eight defenders into coverage more than nine times in an entire playoff game. This was the ultimate schematic changeup, and it worked.

In the second half, Mahomes completed eight of 15 passes for 55 yards, was sacked four times and threw an interception. Then, in overtime, Mahomes threw incomplete twice before he was picked off by safety Vonn Bell, setting up a field goal that sent Cincinnati to the Super Bowl.

Dropping eight was remarkably effective: On those 12 snaps, Mahomes' passer rating was 6.3.

Getting Mahomes – who's established himself as one of the best playoff quarterbacks in NFL history – to struggle like this was an exceptional achievement for Anarumo and the Bengals' defense. And stuff like this is why Bengals players took to calling Anarumo a "mad scientist."

2. What happened in 2024?

The Bengals' defense allowed 25.5 points per game in 2024, 26th in the NFL, and had some high-profile games in which they struggled to keep opponents out of the end zone. In a five-game stretch – from Week 8 through Week 13 – the Bengals allowed 174 points (34.8 points/game), and they lost four of those five games. It was a stretch that ultimately sunk Cincinnati's season, though over their final five games, the Bengals allowed 94 points (18.8 points/game).

Notable here, though, were the losses of four key veterans in free agency over the last two seasons: Cornerback Chidobe Awuzie (2024), defensive tackle D.J. Reader (2024) and safeties Jessie Bates III (2023) and Vonn Bell (2023). Those four players accounted for plenty of snaps and production during their time in Cincinnati (Bell returned in 2024 after spending one year with the Carolina Panthers):

• Awuzie (2021-2023): 37 games, two interceptions, 23 pass break-ups, 74.1 average PFF defense grade
• Reader (2020-2023): 44 games, 123 tackles, 7 tackles for a loss, 3 sacks, 20 QB hits, 78.7 average PFF defense grade
• Bates (2018-2022): 79 games, 14 interceptions, 29 pass break-ups, 479 tackles, 73.3 average PFF defense grade

"Jessie is a great football player," Anarumo said. "He's a problem solver. He can go get the ball. He's a guy that does a lot of – he checks a lot of boxes. Smart, good tackler, great ball skills, communicates. So, you get a guy like that, certainly it's going to hurt any defense. He's shown his worth in Atlanta. D.J. Reader was another key component for us that went to Detroit (in 2024). So, I think anytime you're strong up the middle, that's going to be something that helps, again, any defense, not just ours."

While Anarumo received plenty of praise – and even a handful of head coaching interviews – during his six years in Cincinnati, ultimately, head coach Zac Taylor decided to move on from him as defensive coordinator following the 2024 season.

"I just felt like we needed a change," Taylor said. "I thought long and hard about it. Lou's been doing this for six years here and the success that we've had he's been a big reason why we've had a lot of the success. I don't take this lightly; put a lot of thought into it. It's not an easy day for any of us. I just felt like we need to perform better as a football team. It's not in any specific one area. I think we've got to be better in all three phases of our team and these are the decisions I made today and we'll work to be better."

Taylor added he expected Anarumo – along with a handful of other defensive coaches who were let go – to "land on their feet very quickly." Anarumo and the Bengals parted ways on Jan. 6; it took Anarumo just 15 days before he signed on as the Colts' defensive coordinator.

And that two-week gap – which, in the NFL coaching carousel, was certainly quick – speaks more to Anarumo's coaching style, philosophy and well-earned reputation than anything that happened during the 2024 season.

"I think we all deal with different types of things as the seasons change, whether injuries or things like that," Anarumo said. "So, I just feel like if you're not consistent enough – and that's something that we weren't maybe the last year or two, that'll affect how wins and losses end up. Last year, '23 Joe (Burrow) went down for us. And then this year, they put up some great numbers and we had some of our issues that we had to deal with. But you know, you learn from those things. You move on, and on to the next."

3. How much does Anarumo blitz?

Colts general manager Chris Ballard was asked during his end-of-the-year press conference a few weeks ago if he thought there's value in being more aggressive as a defense.

"I definitely think there is value," Ballard said. "You have to be able to affect the quarterback. You do."

The Colts, from 2022-2024 under defensive coordinator Gus Bradley, blitzed at the lowest rate in the NFL (18.3 percent). Blitzing is not some panacea, though – the other four teams with bottom-five blitz rates all put together good defenses in that stretch (49ers, Jets, Texans, Bills). The Colts in 2023 set an Indianapolis-era franchise record with 51 sacks despite blitzing on 17.3 percent of opponent dropbacks, 31st in the NFL.

But in 2024, the Colts' defense generated 36 sacks (T-26th) with a 28.9 percent pressure rate (28th). Bradley did turn up the dial a bit on blitzes – 21.5 percent, 29th – and called 11 simulated pressure looks (four players rushing but disguised as to who, often with defensive linemen dropping into coverage). Those were the first simulated pressures he called since the halfway point of the 2022 season.

Anarumo, by contrast, will blitz more frequently than Bradley and even Matt Eberflus, who blitzed at the fourth-lowest rate in the NFL during his time as the Colts' defensive coordinator (2018-2021). But Anarumo is not Brian Flores or Todd Bowles or Wink Martindale: He blitzed on 28.6 percent of opponent dropbacks from 2019-2024, 18th in the NFL.

What Anarumo did more of, though, was vary his blitz looks when he did send pressure. Of the Bengals' blitzes under Anarumo, per Pro Football Focus:

• 18.9% were simulated pressures (8th)
• 56.2% were 5-man pressures (30th)
• 20.2% were 6-man pressures (4th)
• 3.5% were 7-man pressures (7th)

While plenty can change once Anarumo gets to know his players on defense, his background tell us he'll blitz a little more – but, more importantly, the how, when and why of his blitzes will change on a weekly basis.

4. Why Anarumo varies the coverages he deploys.

Anarumo has an extensive background coaching defensive backs, which shows in the distribution of coverages he ran in Cincinnati. Looking at 2021-2024, per Pro Football Focus, the Bengals ran:

• Cover-0: 5.1% (6th)
• Cover-1: 20.7% (13th)
• Cover-1 Double: 0.5% (6th)
• Cover-2: 14.9% (9th)
• Cover-3: 28.9% (22nd)
• Cover-3 seam: 4.8% (13th)
• Cover-4: 10.7% (24th)
• Cover-6: 7.0% (19th)
• 2-Man: 0.9% (17th)

Not only does Anarumo have a history of changing what coverages his defenses lean into on a week-to-week basis, he emphasizes disguising those coverages, too. Having a full menu of coverages at his disposal makes it harder on opposing quarterbacks – it's less likely he's bluffing before the snap than other coordinators who lean into one or two schemes.

Or maybe he is bluffing. That's the conundrum Anarumo can put quarterbacks in with this kind of versatility.

"You have to be flexible these days and multiple," Anarumo said. "When you're playing the quarterbacks, especially on our side in the AFC – going against Joe (Burrow) every day in practice, trying to guard Tee (Higgins) and Ja'Marr (Chase), guys like that. It lends to not just, 'Hey, you're going to be in this coverage. You're going to stay in that.' It'd be a long day.

"And then going through the playoffs and things like that and to the Super Bowl, you have to keep those great quarterbacks off balance. I think you have to make them uncomfortable. Even the best ones at times – you're not going to fool them all day, but if it's in the most critical situation, that's what you're hoping to do. And certainly, we've had some success doing that."

The balance for Anarumo here is not overloading his players with too much information to take in – the goal, still, is for those guys on the back end to be able to play fast no matter the coverage that's called.

"I think it's important that first and foremost (we) play smart, fast and physical," Anarumo said. "If they're hesitant because they're processing things, then they can't play fast. So, we'll balance that. Maybe we're not going to be early as where we were (and) left off. But, after being with a group of guys for so long, this is a fresh start, but we've got veterans in there too. We may call it X, they called it Y – there will be some similarities. So, we'll play a balancing act. I'll never overload them with too much so that sort of bogs them down. I want them to be out there processing and get off blocks, making tackles and having fun."

5. Anarumo's approach to tackling.

Speaking of making tackles: One of the Colts' biggest issues in 2024 was the 170 tackles they missed, per Pro Football Focus, which was the fourth-highest total in the NFL. Anarumo on Thursday was asked how he'll go about fixing such a glaring issue about this defense.

"I think it's a combination of everything," Anarumo said. "There are some dynamic playmakers in this league, as we all know, good luck trying to tackle some of these guys one on one. So, I think the more people you get around the ball, the better tackling team you're going to be. We certainly have our drills that we do to help that. And it's not just, 'Hey, the rules limit us to when we can take guys to the ground or be physical during training camp (or) whatever.' I mean, in my mind, just a little football, tackling is about timing and angles more than anything. So, you can work on those things when you don't have shoulder pads and helmet on. You can do that anytime. So, we'll make sure everybody is finishing in the right position, and it starts there. We have a process that we go through, to try to help them become better at that."

What Anarumo said about getting players around the ball echoed what linebacker Zaire Franklin said following the Colts' disastrous Week 17 loss to the New York Giants.

"When you play defense, it's not really a one versus one thing. It's really 11 versus one," Franklin said after the Colts gave up 45 points and were eliminated from the playoffs. "I don't think we play with that type of mentality. I think too many times it's too many one-on-one tackles. And the reality of the situation is there's a lot of extremely talented guys in this league, and they're going to make the first guy miss. But when you watch a lot of great defenses, people swarm and everybody's trying to get in on the tackle. So obviously, we all gotta do better tackling, myself included, that's something I'm gonna work on moving forward. But I think we could play better together as a defense."