Another year has now officially passed without the Indianapolis Colts having won the AFC South title.
With the Houston Texans defeating Miami on Sunday to improve to 9-5 on the season, coupled with the Colts’ loss in Denver, dropping them to 6-8 on the year, the Texans clinched the AFC South title.
With three games left in the season, the Texans are up three games in the win-loss column on the Colts and hold the head-to-head tie-breaker, having beaten them in both matchups this year.
This is now the second straight season that the Texans have won the division and the sixth time since 2015. The Colts, however, have now not won the AFC South since the 2014 season–a full 10 years ago.
Not only did any hope of the Colts hanging in the divisional race disappear into the mile high air on Sunday, but likely their playoff hopes did as well. Although technically still not eliminated, their chances are quite small and would require a lot of help from the Los Angeles Chargers.
The start of the game against Denver couldn’t have gone much better for the Colts, but all of that was wiped away in what seemed like in the blink of any eye following a second half collapse from the offense, while the Indianapolis defense did just about everything they could to keep them in the game.
Adding to the pain of now not having won a division title in a decade was the fashion in which the Colts lost. This included a fumble by Jonathan Taylor that took a touchdown off the board, another fumble from Michael Pittman, a stagnant passing game, an overwhelmed offensive line, and a trick play that put the Colts’ playoff hopes into the hands of AD Mitchell.
Unfortunately, as much as Sunday’s loss might sting, that performance is closer to the norm for the Colts in recent years than the outlier. Star players didn’t come through in big moments and there was little complementary football or consistency from the offense. From the coaching to the play calls to the execution on the field, the Colts fell apart.
At some point, if improvement is to be expected, teams have to stop doing the same thing over and over and over.
