Another week but a similar story for the Indianapolis Colts. The defense held on as long as they could while the offense sputtered, ultimately resulting in a loss that now has the Colts at 4-6 on the year.
I’ve now had the chance to go back and rewatch the Colts’ performance and made note of my key observations as I watched the second time through.
– I guess we’ll start with less of an in-game observation and more of a 30,000-foot view of where things stand for the Colts. By benching Anthony Richardson, the Colts put aside their long-term plan at the quarterback position. We will see how things unfold, but if Joe Flacco remains the starter this season, which seemed to be Shane Steichen’s plan from the start of this, Richardson–who is inexperienced and needs reps–will enter his third NFL season with just 10 career starts. This decision was made because Flacco was said to give the Colts the best chance to win and make a playoff push. However, the Colts are now 0-2 since he took over and are 1-3 on the season in games he starts. Now at 4-6, the Colts are barely hanging on to their playoff lives while Richardson isn’t getting the reps he needs. The decision to put Richardson’s development on hold for a chance to be the 6th or 7th seed was already incredibly questionable, but now that doesn’t even seem to be in play. This is not a good spot to be in with, at least for now, both the short term and long term plans for the Colts in question.
– With Josh Allen, we saw that having a mobile quarterback can bring to an offense, both on designed runs and in Allen’s ability to extend plays. That element is just about non-existent with Flacco at quarterback. While we can speak with absolute certainty, there were some sacks that Richardson may have been able to evade, not to mention that the failed fourth-and-one attempt in the second half could have ended differently with Richardson’s mobility in play.
– There’s only so much a defense can be expected to do against the Josh Allen offense. He’s just too good to keep down for an entire game. The Indianapolis defense did a very good job through much of the game of keeping Allen and the passing game out of sync. The Colts also rallied to the ball to limit YAC opportunities, forced turnovers, held their own in the red zone, and held James Cook to a modest 4.2 yards per rush. At some point, the Colts’ offense has to reciprocate and help the defense out.
– In recent weeks it looks like the Colts do want to get the running backs involved in the passing game, but they just don’t have the personnel to do that consistently. The running back room has also struggled at times in pass protection as well. If the plan was to have this position take on a larger role in the passing game, then adding that skill set to the backfield should have been a larger priority in the offseason.
– When you don’t have a reliable option in the passing game at running back, or tight end in the Colts’ case–that group has been incredibly quiet all season–it limits the options in the passing game and makes things easier for the defense.
– The Bills entered the game as one of the best at creating takeaways on defense. They also have one of the highest-scoring offenses in football. That Josh Allen-led unit doesn’t need help putting up points, but Flacco and the Colts’ offense helped them out in that regard anyways.
– It seemed to be either explosive runs for Jonathan Taylor or hard fought yards–with little in between. The Bills made adjustments in the second half and defended Taylor better, but that still shouldn’t be an excuse for Shane Steichen giving him only five carries in the second half. The Bills won by multiple scores but it was a one-score game until 10:28 left in the fourth quarter, as ESPN’s Stephen Holder noted. Running the ball was always going to be the Colts’ path to success against Buffalo and it was abandoned, putting more burden on a struggling passing game.
– With Michael Pittman out, AD Mitchell stepped into a larger role and put together his best performance of the season. He has been trending in an upward direction as of late, with receivers coach Reggie Wayne saying last week that he just needed more reps. For an offense that needs juice, even when Pittman returns, Mitchell’s role needs to be more defined than what it has been.
– Flacco was supposed to add stability to the short and intermediate passing games, but that hasn’t necessarily happened, and the Colts also lost the big play potential that Richardson did bring.
