In what was essentially a must-win game for the Indianapolis Colts in order to keep their playoff hopes alive, the offense collapsed in the second half of their eventual loss to the Denver Broncos.
With a 13-7 lead to start the third quarter, the Colts’ defense forced an interception, giving the ball back to the offense. On the second play of that drive, Jonathan Taylor broke free through the right side for what should have been a 41-yard touchdown run.
However, it wasn’t. In what was an incredibly costly mistake, Taylor dropped the ball prior to the goal line with the ball then rolling through the end zone and out of bounds. By rule, it is treated as a fumble and is a touchback, which gave the Broncos the ball at their own 20 yard line and took the touchdown off the board.
So instead of being up 20-7, the Colts still led 13-7.
The defense would continue to come through as best they could throughout the second half, oftentimes even being put in difficult situations.
The Denver offense would finish the game averaging just 3.3 yards per play. For some context, the Bears currently rank last in yards per play this season with 4.5.
Following Taylor’s fumble, the Colts’ offense would punt on their next possession after only three plays. When they got the ball back, Michael Pittman fumbled on the first play of that drive.
Within the Colts’ first three possessions of the second half, their two star players on the offensive side of the ball were responsible for a pair of fumbles that sucked the air out of that side of the ball.
The Colts took a more run heavy approach in this game, and while it was tough sledding at times against a very good Broncos’ run defense, Taylor did find some success, as did Richardson on some designed runs.
The duo would total 153 yards on the ground at over 5.0 yards per carry, even with the Denver defense daring the Colts to throw the ball at times.
But without any sort of passing game to lean on, the offense lacked consistency. If the running play didn’t pick up positive yards, the Colts found themselves behind the sticks and in predictable passing situations, which this unit just isn’t good enough to overcome–or at least not regularly.
The entire passing game operation looked disjointed. Richardson was off-target–and threw two interceptions–he was frequently under pressure, the offensive line was penalized on numerous occasions, and there were some drops and a lack of steady separation by the pass catchers.
The back-breaker for this Colts team came in the fourth quarter when Shane Steichen dialed up a trick play to AD Mitchell. On a quick throw to Mitchell, he made the decision to throw it back to Richardson, but the pass was intercepted and returned for a touchdown.
While you can look at Mitchell’s decision to make that throw back to Richardson, the decision to call this play by Steichen is the far bigger issue.
With their season hanging in the balance, Steichen dialed this play up for Mitchell, who has often played only 10-12 snaps per game this season, putting a monumental decision–whether to throw the ball or run–on the rookie’s inexperienced shoulders.
Although it doesn’t much matter given the outcome, the start of the game couldn’t have gone much better for the Colts’ offense. They scored a touchdown on the opening possession and then followed that up with a field goal and on both drives they converted some crucial third downs.
But when the game was on the line, when it mattered most, when plays needed to be made, the offense collapsed. From the coaching to the play calls to the execution on the field. The Colts fell apart.
