ESPN NFL

Posted by ESPN.com's Paul Kuharsky

The number looks impressive, even now. The 2008 Indianapolis Colts allowed only six passing touchdowns in the regular season.

That’s the most efficient touchdown pass defense since the league went to a 16-game schedule in 1978. Previously the 1978 Denver Broncos and the 1990 Pittsburgh Steelers shared the record with nine.

“As a secondary we always preach being on the details,” cornerback Kelvin Hayden said. “We can’t help the way teams play us, we can just go out there and do our jobs. Six touchdowns, it really proves that we were really effective and it was the unit as a whole.”

He’s right about the whole unit.

Of the four starters, only free safety Antoine Bethea played all 16 games. Collectively the four -- corners Hayden and Marlin Jackson, safeties Bob Sanders and Bethea -- played in just 39 of a possible 64 games.

But defenses are generally not measured by passing scores or running scores surrendered, they are measured by overall scoring defense. And Indy, with 18 rushing touchdowns against, ranked seventh in points allowed per game.

Sunday, they won’t face the most threatening passing offense in the league when Jacksonville’s David Garrard throws to Torry Holt and several unproven youngsters.

Jackson is still pacing himself as he returns from knee surgery, so he will only play as the nickel for the Colts against the Jags. Hayden missed all four preseason games with a hamstring injury but could be ready to play. Jackson’s starting spot could be filled by Tim Jennings, who filled in last year, or rookie Jerraud Powers. Bethea is in place, Sanders will not be.

Out of that group, and with Dwight Freeney and Robert Mathis spearheading the pass rush, the Colts expect to play top-flight pass defense again, though it’s conceivable they could play better and rank worse than last year’s sixth if the run defense improves and forces people to throw more.

Colts president Bill Polian didn’t take the six touchdown passes against to mean much. They were a creation of offensive plans as much as defensive effectiveness, he suggested.

“I would say half our opponents played us -- I would say essentially to limit offensive possessions and in some case if they lost the game 10-6, so be it,” he said. “They weren’t going to expose their quarterback to a pass rush, they weren’t going to take chances with the football.

“They did not want to give us possessions and, hey, they knew if they pounded the ball on the ground in a steady diet they might be able to control the clock. As it happened we won the vast majority of those games. But that’s the way people played us. So the statistic in my view is misleading.”