Behind any win or loss, there are always a litany of factors that contribute to the outcome. But on Sunday against the Detroit Lions, the Indianapolis Colts red zone struggles and numerous penalties were a lot to overcome.
When facing a team of the Lions’ caliber, who came into Week 12 ranked first in scoring offense and fifth in scoring defense, a clean game is essential, however, that eluded the Colts.
Let’s start with the red zone. On two of their first three possessions, the Colts moved the ball well between the 20 yard lines and made their way to the red area twice. Unfortunately, instead of scoring two touchdowns, or even one, they settled for a pair of field goals.
Contributing to those drives stalling out were more self-inflicted mistakes. On the first possession, a penalty inside the five yard line took them from a 3rd-and-2 at the Lions’ four-yard line to 3rd-and-7.
Then on their second red zone trip, what should have been a touchdown pass was dropped by Drew Ogletree. Scoring on the Lions was never going to be easy as they entered the game with the third-best red zone defense, but the Colts put themselves in a position to do so, but couldn’t capitalize.
The Detroit offense, meanwhile, was 3-for-4 in the red zone. At halftime, with the Lions up 14-6 at that time, the difference was each team’s red zone success.
Penalty-wise, the Colts were flagged 10 times compared to the Lions’ five. Not only did these penalties put the Colts in some disadvantageous situations with additional yards to pick up, but they wiped away some big plays as well.
Penalties took away plays of 21 yards, 19 yards, seven yards, and 30 yards from the Colts’ offense and forced them to punt in the second half rather than picking up what would have been a critical fourth-down conversion.
Five of those penalties came against the offensive line, which in addition to the penalties, had a rough day with Anthony Richardson too often throwing with defenders in his face.
Against the best team in football, the Colts found success moving the ball on offense and they held the highest-scoring offense to X points under their season average.
However, not being able to take advantage of their red zone opportunities coupled with a number of penalties, made an already difficult task–winning this game–even more challenging.
