The Indianapolis Colts (4-6-1) pushed themselves further out of a potential playoff run after a late fourth-quarter collapse resulted in a 17-16 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles (9-1) on Sunday at Lucas Oil Stadium.
The defense was stout for the majority of the game, allowing just 314 total yards and 17 points to one of the best offenses in football. Unfortunately, the Colts offense went back to its deplorable ways, scoring 16 points in total despite getting a touchdown on the opening drive of the game.
Here’s what the Colts had to say after the Week 11 loss:
Jeff Saturday's opening statement
Interim HC Jeff Saturday: “A tough one, right? We had everything in front of us. We didn’t execute enough to get the win. Disappointing loss, obviously. Just too many mistakes. I mean, too many penalties, too many negative plays. You know, missing kicks. You just can’t play a team that good and give them that many opportunities. We just left them in the game. And ultimately (they) made one more play than we did.”
Negative plays hinder aggressiveness
Interim HC Jeff Saturday: “No, I thought our defense was playing good. I thought they were playing good enough to win. So I thought any points were good points. But, again, the negative plays that set us back into field goals. You know, those – I mean, it takes you out of any kind of aggressive mindset, right? So you can give up a negative run, or a sack – man, there’s no discussion at that point. So, yeah, I mean, I think that falls in line with the negative plays more than aggressive mindset. So, again, just disappointment from that perspective.”
Pass protection was a 'mixed bag'
Interim HC Jeff Saturday: “I think that’s kind of mixed bag, right? I mean, listen, they’re a very good front. And when their ears are pinned back and they know what’s coming it’s going to be tough, it doesn’t matter who it is. So I thought, when it’s late in the game, the advantage always goes to the d-line, right? I mean, you think about that from a football perspective. But there were some where coverage was really good downfield. We were trying to buy that split second, just couldn’t get it to where we wanted it to. You know, Matt’s (Ryan) trying to step up to find his way. So I think it was a mixed bag. I think some of that was good for him even though he had pressure. And then some of it, you know, wasn’t good enough. So we’ll go back and evaluate. But, you know, overall, again, I think it goes back to missed opportunities and just negative plays.”
Learning moments for young OL
Interim HC Jeff Saturday: “Yeah, young players and penalties. And I told Bernie (Bernhard Raimann) early, the holding call down the field, when a guy’s spinning away from a play you’ve got to let go and push and transition. And, again, that’s just teaching. And we just got to continue to teach him. Like you said, you kind of grunt and bear it with some of that, just because of the age of the players and how little they’ve actually played. Again, those are just details we got to continue to fine tune and train, teach things for (Will) Fries. And, you know, staying tight in there, thinking about they’re going to do – they’re going to shift late, they’re going to do things to try to get you to jump or move. And you just got to settle in. But a lot going on. I thought the guys battled and fought. I thought effort was great in all three phases. But, again, I talked about it on day one. I told the guys in the locker room – execution is what defines this game. And that means you have to – in the moments that matter, you’ve got to execute and we just didn’t do enough of it.”
Had the game won
C Ryan Kelly: “Yeah. We certainly should have had more touchdowns. We shot ourselves in the foot a couple of times in the red zone. You look at that. A lot of should’ve, would’ve, could’ves right? But the NFL is not like that. I thought the defense played a great game, hanging in there. They are a great defense, a good team but I thought we should have won that game.”
Missed opportunities
QB Matt Ryan: “I think that’s the hard part, is, you know, it’s not one thing. I think throughout the course of the year, we’ve all taken our turns. We just have to execute. It’s boring, but we have to execute better than we have. And it’s like, the devil’s in the details. It’s over and over and over and over. When the margin of error is small, when you’re playing against really good football teams, the margin of error is small. And we’ve shown, you can go toe to toe with them, but you can’t make the mistakes that we made today if you expect to win.”
High energy on opening drive
QB Matt Ryan: “It was good. I thought it was really good. You know, Pitt (Michael Pittman Jr.) created an explosive play for us on that first third down, and then, you know, back-to-back runs. I think, if I’m remembering it correctly. But back-to-back runs kind of kept us going with JT (Jonathan Taylor). And that was huge and then to be able to punch it in and start the game the way you want to start, I thought that was great. The energy was great. Honestly, the effort and the energy were there the entire day. And I’m proud of the guys for that, but we certainly have to execute better than we did.”
Different look on Eagles game-winner
LB Zaire Franklin: “Yeah, we were in our zone defense. I was responsible for three-vert so I’m queuing three. They were scheming it up very well. Usually, they run a quarterback draw out of the empty. We scouted them, against us they use the back as a lead blocker and swinging (Jason) Kelce as well for two lead blockers. It’s tough because against Houston, he did the jump pass. So, I didn’t want to leave three and give up the touchdown. Really, just a good call by them. Just have to better in that situation.”
Rodney McLeod's impact
LB Zaire Franklin: “He’s amazing. Every time he is out there, there’s leadership, communication, and playmaking. He knew what this game meant to him, he knew that he was going to show up today, and he knew he was going to make plays. Rodney (McLeod Jr.) is always around the ball and always talking about the ball. He made a great impact today for sure.”
'We beat ourselves at the end of the day'
DE Yannick Ngakoue: “Just little mistakes on our part. We beat ourselves at the end of the day. A couple of misfits. They are a good football team too; you know what I mean? Their record shows for itself. We just have to come up with those wins, we need those wins.”
