5 Things Learned: Colts Season Ends In Stinging Fashion

1. A Play Call, Personnel Decision, To Forget

A Play Call, Personnel Decision, To Forget: Shane Steichen had such a damn impressive rookie season as a head coach and play caller. But this was an awful mistake at the most important point of the season. Facing a 4^th-and-1 with 1:06 to go in the game, and down 6 points, the Colts failed in coaching first, and execution second. With the game on the line, Steichen stayed away from an offensive line that had controlled the line of scrimmage in the 2^nd half against a beat up Houston defensive line playing on a short week, bypassed a running back who was having arguably the best night of his immensely decorated career and instead put the game on the right shoulder of a quarterback who was having one of the worst games of his 37-start professional career and a running back who had 6 career catches to his name. Hell, the one time Gardner Minshew threw in Tyler Goodson’s direction on Saturday night prior to the final play was also an errant pass out of the backfield. A philosophy of “players, not plays” was not something Steichen adhered to on the most important play of the season. The head coach decided to take a timeout—which meant the Colts had no chance and getting the ball back had the 4^th down failed—and kept Taylor off the field, not even using him as a decoy. In place of using Taylor then, the Colts didn’t even run a play for other reliable offensive threats in Michael Pittman Jr., or Josh Downs, or Zack Moss. Nope, it was a for a player that has been on the practice squad for the majority of the 2023 season. Taylor said he had repped that very play in practice this week, but the Colts still opted for Goodson in that moment. Could the play have been executed better—by both Minshew and Goodson? Certainly. But, more than anything, Steichen handcuffed the Colts, putting the season in the hands of two players who either lacked experience (Goodson) or ability (Minshew) on Saturday night to deliver. Again, Steichen had so much brilliance to his first season at the helm, but there’s no excusing leaving Taylor on the bench, and putting the season in the hands of two players who had not earned the game-day trust to be relied upon in that moment.

2. Nico Collins Torches Colts

Nico Collins Torches Colts: One of the biggest reasons why I was confident in a Colts win on Saturday night came from how depleted the Houston wideout room was. Behind Nico Collins, the Texans entered Saturday with a No. 2 wideout (John Metchie III) having 15 total catches on the season. Given that, it meant the total secondary game plan for the Colts had to go towards limiting Collins. Well, whatever plan the Colts had looked elementary, the coverage they attempted on Collins offered little resistance and the tackling effort against him was poor. It was a three-pronged whiff against the only legitimate wide receiver threat the Texans had on Saturday. No bigger issue of that came on the first play of the game. On a 3-person route, the Texans had Collins running deep, a tight end running underneath and a running back coming out of the backfield, somehow it was Collins left 1-on-1 with JuJu Brents, C.J. Stroud uncorked a 75-yard touchdown offering quite the thunderbolt form the Texans. Collins finished Saturday night with 9 catches for 195 yards. All other Texans wideouts had 11 yards on 2 catches. It was a beyond inexcusable game plan from Gus Bradley/execution form his defenders. Is there an extended Steichen/Bradley conversation that needs to be had in the offseason?

3. Heroic Effort From Jonathan Taylor

Heroic Effort From Jonathan Taylor: Saturday night was why you pay Jonathan Taylor the amount the Colts did. Frankly, Taylor was probably the only Colts player who gave them a playoff-level performance. The feeling of a Taylor home run was there all night, and it finally struck on the opening drive of the third quarter. That’s when Taylor turned a potential tackle for loss into a 49-yard TD, with a beautiful cut to his left, and then took off for the desperate injection of life. On a night when the Colts offense couldn’t rely on the right arm of Gardner Minshew, it was the team’s star running back showing why he deserved the contract he eventually got back in October. Adding to the heroic night for Taylor was him exiting late in the 3^rd quarter to the locker room. His return was initially listed as “doubtful” due to an ankle injury. Taylor did come back though, carrying the ball 7 straight times to put the Colts in a position to win the game on that final drive. For the game, Taylor had 30 carries for 188 yards in what will be viewed as one of the greatest games of his young career. And he certainly deserved one more play.

4. Not Enough Game-Changing

Not Enough Game-Changing: When your first third-down conversion of a game comes at the two-minute warning, it’s more than likely you are going home losers. And that was the case for the Colts on Saturday night. Besides Jonathan Taylor, the Colts just didn’t create enough game-changing plays/moments, on either side of the ball. While C.J. Stroud and Nico Collins combined for one of the most impressive performances you’ll ever see, the Colts were left watching in awe. Michael Pittman Jr. had 3 catches on the first 5 plays of the game. He had 2 grabs the rest of the game. A pass rush that had pulverized C.J. Stroud in Week Two was mouse-quiet in the first half. While more pressure moments arose in the second half, the Indy defense allowed Houston to convert down and distances of 2^nd-and-20, 2^nd-and-14 and 2^nd-and-13 on the eventual game-winning touchdown drive. A defense that has had issues at home in finishing off games over the last year finished Saturday with just 2 sacks, 4 quarterback hits and 1 pass defensed on Stroud’s 26 pass attempts. That’s not enough playmaking against a depleted Texans offense. The storyline was a big one last week, and should have had more attention this week, with the Colts facing their first starting quarterback in more than a month. Julian Blackmon created some more free agency leverage based off how his fellow Colts safeties played on Saturday night. Safety coverage busts defined both Houston first-half touchdowns. Blackmon went on IR two weeks ago, but the Raiders just didn’t have the quarterback to truly test that absence. Houston does, and it showed on Saturday night with the Colts lost way too often on the back end. There were moments on Saturday where the coverage busts were such an issue, you pondered if the Colts only had 10 defenders on the field. Saturday was a reminder that Blackmon is an important re-sign candidate in a free agency class with several notable Colts (Michael Pittman Jr., Grover Stewart, Kenny Moore).

5. Another Year Watching

Another Year Watching: Let’s focus on the short term to start—this one stings. Getting a chance on your homefield to clinch a playoff berth is not an opportunity that annually grows on trees. So this hurts. Losses to the likes of P.J. Walker, Jake Browning (by 20 points) and Taylor Heinicke (by 19 points) will be viewed as massive missed chances over the course of the season, even if the Colts had Gardner Minshew under center. No postseason for the Colts means now 9 years without a division title and just 1 playoff win, as the Colts are in easily their worst postseason rut of success in 35 years. Yes, preseason expectations weren’t high. Why? Because this franchise is in a rebuild. Why? Because the Chris Ballard era has had little, to no, postseason success. There are certainly reasons for hope to latch onto moving forward, besides Anthony Richardson, and some were seen in 2023 (Shane Steichen, an emergence of Bernhard Raimann at left tackle and other youngsters flashing from Dayo Odeyingbo to Josh Downs). But that doesn’t lessen this immediate sting, and the continued feeling of the Colts watching the playoffs, while more than half of the league has won a division and/or multiple playoff games since Indy last did.

6. QUICK HITTERS

QUICK HITTERS

-Injury Report: The following Colts were inactive on Sunday: CB-Chris Lammons (ankle), S-Henry Black, DT-Adetomiwa Adebawore, OL-Jack Anderson, RB-Trey Sermon. The following players got injured and did not return: TE-Will Mallory (hamstring), CB-JuJu Brents (hamstring), RT-Braden Smith (knee).

–Key Stat: Texans wide receiver Nico Collins had 9 catches for 195 yards. All other Texans wideouts combined for 2 catches for 11 yards.

–What’s Next: The Colts (9-8) season came to an end on Saturday night.