The Indianapolis Colts understood they needed to play one of their best games to have a shot on Sunday against one of the NFL’s best teams.
Indianapolis spent the most of the day shooting itself in the foot. The Colts suffered a 24-6 loss to the NFC-leading Detroit Lions on Sunday, losing the final game in the season’s most difficult stretch.
The schedule lightens significantly after this week, and Indianapolis (5-7) is in contention for a postseason spot, thanks to a big matchup against Denver.
But Sunday’s game was a litany of missed opportunities to come up with the kind of win that could have made Indianapolis a clear playoff contender.
PENALTIES, RED ZONE FAILURES LOOM LARGE
The Indianapolis offense got off to a solid start behind Anthony Richardson.
The Colts racked up more than 200 yards of offense in the first half and drove down inside the 10-yard line twice, but the offensive line failed to create any openings for Jonathan Taylor on the first trip and tight end Drew Ogletree dropped a touchdown pass on the second, forcing Indianapolis to settle for field goals.
For most of the first half, the Colts offense ran step for step with the Lions in terms of yards per play, but Detroit was able to cash in its opportunities, staking the Lions to a 14-6 lead.
Penalties kept the Indianapolis offense from getting back on track in the second half.
The Colts were penalized 10 times for 75 yards, wiping out at least 74 yards of completed passes by Richardson, and there were at least two other penalties declined by Detroit.
Unable to get out of its own way, the Indianapolis offense ground to a halt in the second half
ANTHONY RICHARDSON GETS NO HELP
Richardson’s numbers, 11 of 28 for 172 yards, look more like his starts in the first half of the season than the breakout performance he turned into a win over the Jets last week.
Richardson wasn’t perfect, but he was far from as bad as the numbers. The Colts quarterback had at least 74 yards of passes wiped out by penalty, had another long gain erased when Ashton Dulin couldn’t get his feet in bounds and tossed a handful of throws into the dirt to avoid making a larger mistake.
Under pressure all day, Richardson also rushed for 61 yards on 10 carries, putting together a start that looks better on tape than it will on the stat sheet.
COLTS OFFENSIVE LINE STRUGGLING
The problems up front have been percolating for a few weeks now.
Indianapolis has been starting three rookies on the offensive line, and Taylor’s production has suffered, limited on most plays to a couple of hard-won yards because there has been so little room to run.
The problems are at a fever pitch now. Richardson was not sacked, but he was hit six times, and those numbers were kept down by the amount of throwaways he made. Taylor picked up just 35 yards on 11 carries.
The Colts offensive line also contributed heavily to the penalty number, holds and false starts plaguing the offense on a day when they couldn’t get anything. Undrafted rookie right guard Dalton Tucker continues to struggle, and without the blocking up front, Indianapolis can’t get much of anything going.
The Colts defense did not get steamrolled by a Detroit offense averaging more than 39 points per game over its last seven games.
Paced by DeForest Buckner, Indianapolis sacked Jared Goff three times and made enough plays to keep the score in check.
But the Colts never forced a turnover, left the middle of the field open and struggled to make plays in the red zone, giving up 391 yards and 24 points on a day when a sloppy Indianapolis offense needed them to be just about perfect against the NFL’s best offense to have a chance.
