Did no one see the DE offsides on the forth down play? Not even close. 1/2 yard offsides.

Nope. Wasn't sold on Richardson before, injury didn't help. If Daniels was there with no trade up, I'd consider it.

If Minshew lays that pass out in front of Goodson, I think he might score! It was the right call, not sure about Goodson being in there instead of Taylor or Moss, but I really blame Minshew more than Goodson.

I want only one in and that one out in the Wild Card.

o


There was that ......

And there was the Colts' defense crapping the bed twice on the Texans' final TD drive ......

And there was Jonathan Taylor going out of bounds twice on the Colts' final drive, instead of staying in-bounds and turning it up-field ......

And there was the missed receiver in the end zone in the 1st quarter, making the Colts settle for a FG instead of a TD ......

And there was Matt Gay's 57-yard FG attempt that banged off of the uprights, denying the Colts of 3 points and giving the Texans' great field position ......

And there was Mo Alie-Cox dropping a ball right in his hands, with plenty of daylight in front of him ......

o

Also not enamored with Steichen’s tendency to take Taylor out in crucial situations. Hopefully this changes going forward. Also would've loved a PA screen to Pittman on one of those second or third and 6 or less plays.

That was the right play call. They just didn’t execute it. Pass could have been a bit better but it hit him in his hands. Frustrating thing about Minshew, he looks great at times but just doesn’t quite get it done.

I do question taking Taylor out there. They likely would not have gone far in the playoffs, but would have been nice to get in.

Houston got really lucky on a couple plays there at the end.

After his other plays on the series, fuck Taylor. He should have been out. He ran stupid and soft. Like late Indy Eric Dickerson.

Most likely he was out due to the thumb injury. Still I think he’s a soft me first player.

That was the right playcall with Taylor in the game. The right playcall with Goodson in the game would've been a screen to Pittman or a QB sneak.

Unfortunately, the better team won tonight, and while all the fear of Trevor Lawrence was misplaced, the place to put that fear is C.J. Stroud and the Texans.

Better team by way of just outclassing us at QB. Stroud can hit a 75-yard bomb on the first play of a game, Minshew can't. He also made some stupid-good throws at the end of the game where I thought he was dead to rights.

Minshew just doesn't have the talent or even the coolness to match that. He gets antsy and balls get away from him.

I don't feel that way about the rest of the IND/HOU rosters.

I absolutely agree with you on that. The problem with that is I'm not sold the Colts have the QB position solved, I am sold the Texans have the QB position solved, and as we saw for about 20 years, an elite QB outclasses a superior roster with a middling or inept QB every time.

Tough to see the season end on such a pants shitting play.
I think not having taylor in there will be second guessed. He willed himself back
into the game, you ride him to the end.
In the end though this was a very flawed team that went a lot further than
people had reason to expect. The coach is a keeper. All eyes will be on
Richardson next year. We all saw the light go on with him but he has to
show he can stay healty or it wont matter. And hopefully Ballard will
avoid the habit of leaving certain areas of this team embarassingly thin
which seems to happen year after year.

After riding Taylor down the field to take him out right there has got to be the dumbest shit I’ve ever seen. It’s 4th and 1 not 4th and 5… not to mention you telegraph the play having Goodson in there, and let’s not forget Minshew hadn’t thrown a pass the entire fuckin drive. That should be an easy slam dunk… two biggest paid guys on the fuckin team Taylor runs right behind Nelson…. WTF are we doing

Overall I mean whatever this team over exceeded due to the weakest schedule in NFL history they played 3 maybe 4 actual NFL qbs this year so it would’ve ended with an embarrassing playoff loss most likely. It will not surprise me if the Texans and jags get totally blown out in round 1. AFC south is a joke

Good post. My thoughts exactly.

Colts went a lot further than anyone thought they would.

Its hard to see that now, after a loss like that, but it’s true.

It’s up to AR how far they can go in the future.

Plus, now they have a 3rd place schedule next season. That can only help.

The future is still bright.

After a good night's sleep, I still hate the way that game ended! But now the thing troubling me the most is I see the Colts as the third best team in the AFC South next season too! You know Houston is going to get a stud RB and add another quality WR next season. Jaguars are already a very good team and will only be better next year. So even if we improve and AR stays healthy, we could be a better team and still finish third again!

Outside of about 3 or 4 teams the entire NFL is a joke right now! I still think the Jags are a pretty decent team and if Lawrence is back 100% they could win at least 1 playoff game. At one point during this season, I honestly felt the Jags were contenders, if they can get healthy at the right time, they are still a very damgerous team!

Last night was an exception for me. Usually, when we lose close games with that much at stake, I rerun the mistakes in my head and can't sleep. Last night, I was upset with the last offensive play, but went to bed and was able to get to sleep quickly. This team vastly overachieved, given the circumstances. AR will return, and that will be an upgrade. Taylor should be ready to pair up with him immediately, instead of having no snaps together. Downs proved he was the right pick, and will only get better. AR will be able to get the ball to Pierce, making the run game open up even more. The young guys on the Oline should get better. The young secondary now has a season of experience, and should get another piece through the draft. Have to extend Pittman Monday. Have to get another WR and Edge rusher in the draft. Maybe sign Tee Higgins.

As Ed would always say, the future is bright, so :cool::cool::cool:

OK, I slept and...I am still mad. When the game was on the line and you HAD to have ONE yard, they got cute with the pay call. Your best offensive weapon, a RB, was not on the field on a day when the pass game was ridiculously bad and a RB who NOT been on the field for a single play was in the game, not even RB2, but RB3/4! I am sure the thinking was the other team would not expect the ball to go to RB3. Keeping the ball on the ground and out of the QBs hands was CLEARLY working. So on the most important play of the game, they left it to a QB with maybe 100 yards passing. I get it, it was a short pass, but COME ON! They got cute and outsmarted themselves. That is all.

Possible silver lining is that Hou just barely beat us w/ our back QB, and they needed to make some great plays along w/ some really bad mistakes from us to do so. Makes me think that if AR had stayed healthy and continued to progress through the year that we very well could have beat them handily.

Hou will probably get better in the offseason as they have plenty of cap space and due to the Watson trade and another trade w/ Philly pretty much have their normal allotment of draft picks.

The Jaguars probably won't be able to add anything in FA and might have to release some guys. They don't have much cap space and have to pay Josh Allen along w/ some other players like Ridley. Also, they need to figure out what to do w/ Lawrence.

Ballard's going to have his work cut out for him this offseason. Not only do we have plenty of our own we need to re-sign (MPJ, Grover, Blackmon) and possibly extend (Defo, Franklin, Speed), but we need some serious improvement in the secondary at both CB and S, more pass rush, and more weapons for AR.

Well said and unfortunately I share your concern highlighted.

For instance down the stretch has shown that we desperately need improvement in the secondary. But it would be a very Ballardesque thing to do to just stick w/ what we have and maybe add 1 or 2 mid round high RAS development guys to the mix.

The only way drafting Jayden Daniels makes any sense whatsoever is if either AR's rehab takes a horribly wrong turn or AR starts indicating that he's going to pull a Luck on us.

you will always question richardson. because you are more worried about being right than you are about being honest or the colts winning.

its why people don't take you seriously

Ballard has to change his thinking about free agency.

If they telegraphed it then the Texans didn't get receive the message because there wasn't a defender near Goodson.

I think Grover and Pitt are the most important to keep.

I wouldn’t be surprised if Braden Smith is released. Been nothing but hurt and they seem to like Freeland.

Goodson is a receiving back he’s not getting tough short yards, that’s part of the play design Pittman sets a pick on the defender responsible for covering Goodson, which he did. Play was there the throw was bad… didn’t throw a pass the entire drive. If it’s 4th and 5 or beyond I could’ve understood it but cmon it’s 1 yard and we have Nelson

Maybe on Smith. We'd have to eat $6M in cap space but would save ~$10.7M. Guessing it depends on if we need the cap room. Currently we have plenty at $71M, but let's see what it looks like after we hopefully re-sign/extend some of our own.

The last play for the Colts was the right call in my opinion. Taylor was hurt, and Steichen called a timeout to see what defense the Texans were in. They were in a run blitz and since Hughes left the game, the Colts were getting stuffed at or behind the line of scrimmage. If the play works, everyone would be praising Steichen.

It was not the play call, it was the shitty execution.

That's actually incorrect. Minshew completed 2 passes to Downs earlier in the drive, but that doesn't really change your point that the play call took the ball out of our RBs hands and into Minshew's despite the fact that we had been running the ball most of the drive. I actually wouldn't have minded seeing Moss get some carries inside the red zone at the end since he seemed to be fresher at that point in the game.

o


Don't feel too badly about l Nico Collins l burning us ...... the 3rd-round draft pick in the 2021 draft had what was by far his best season to date this year.



2021: ll, 33 ll Catches llllllll 446 llll, Yards llllllll 13.5 ll YPC llllllll 1 ll TD lllllllllll (14 GAMES)


2022: llt 37 ll Catches llllllll 481 llll, Yards llllllll 13.0 ll YPC llllllll 2 ll TD lllllllllll (10 GAMES)


2023: llll 80 ll Catches llllllll 1,297 ll Yards llllll) 16.2 ll YPC llllllll 8 ll TD lllllllllll (15 GAMES)

o

I don't even care about the rest of the games any more other than I am rooting for Jax and buf because I don't want shitty pittsburgh to make the playoffs.

I feel empty again after another Colts season.

One thing that irritated me was Steichen taking the timeout on 4th and 1. Just run a play. If it doesn't work, now you have three timeouts to stop the Texans and then to at least have a drive with 40 seconds left. Probably not going to get a TD anyway, but it at least gives the team another chance.

o


That's what I said, at the time that it was happening.

o

Steichen said he called the timeout to see what defense the Texans were in. He found out and called the right play. That timeout he used was to win the game right then and there. I don't have a problem with it at all. Steichen is a hell of a good coach, glad we have him.

Look, as far as I’m concerned, it was a great call. Houston was playing one of those 5 man fronts that have bedeviled the Colts run game all season. They double-teamed Pittman, leaving Goodson alone in the flat with clear sailing to the five. Heck, with a well placed pass, he might even evade a tackle and score.

When Steichen drew up the play, he couldn’t have anticipated that Minshew would screw up or that Goodson would drop it. As Greg Doyle said, the throw was the equivalent of a layup in basketball. Any journeyman Quarterback should complete it in his sleep.

With the season resting on one play, I don’t have a problem with Steichen calling a timeout in order to dial up the perfect play. And, the call was pretty darned close to perfect…Goodson’s uncovered in the flat for a first down and then some. It doesn’t get any better than that.

The only reason they like Freeland is because there’s no one else on the roster to turn to.

I was at the game so didn’t hear JT was hurt. I’ll take back some or my criticism of him on his last two runs. And if he was hurt to the degree he needed to avoid contact and run out of bounds, he shouldn’t have been in there. He obviously kept them in the game, but man those were not the runs you want in that situation with that much on the line.

Agreed. The team had passed the point that they could expect another possession. That was the one. They had the perfect play call and they didn’t execute.

That one catch late was ridiculous. I thought Stroud was just avoiding a sack, and we would get the ball back. Collins comes from nowhere, and makes that catch. We likely win if not for that.