If the back half of this Colts season is a rehearsal for interim coach Jeff Saturday, the end to Monday night’s loss to the Steelers likely won’t earn him a passing grade.
Indianapolis fell to Pittsburgh on Monday, 24–17, with Saturday squandering some valuable time on his team’s final drive thanks to a failure to effectively use his timeouts.
The Matt Ryan-led offense took over at the Colts’ own seven-yard line with 3:52 left in the game. The team moved down the field at a relatively leisurely pace, but found itself in a time crunch in the last 90 seconds or so of game time. After taking a seven-yard sack to set up a second-and-17 from the Steelers’ 40-yard line, Ryan scrambled for 14 yards to get to a manageable third-and-3. Even after that play, Saturday elected to hold onto all of his timeouts, allowing 25 seconds to come off the clock before Jonathan Taylor was stuffed on a run on the next play. Saturday finally took his first timeout after that play.
