INDIANAPOLIS — Just like that, they’ll need help.
That’s the bottom line after the Indianapolis Colts picked a very bad time to have a very bad day.
Atlanta Falcons 29, Colts 10.
And truth be told, it never was that close.
After the Colts grabbed a 7-0 lead — you remember that crisp, game-opening 13-play, 75-yard drive that Jonathan Taylor punctuated with a 1-yard touchdown on his return after missing three games, right? — it was all Falcons in every way imaginable.
At one point, they scored 20 unanswered points.
The Falcons’ final seven possessions: Tyler Allgeier’s 31-yard touchdown run and five Younghoe Koo field goals. Oh, and one Bradley Pinion punt.
The Colts’ final nine possessions, excluding a first-half kneel down: one Matt Gay field goal, one Gardner Minshew II interception and 200 total yards on 53 plays.
“We’ve got to look at ourselves hard in the mirror obviously after a loss like that, starting with myself, and get those things corrected,’’ Colts coach Shane Steichen said.
It came on the heels of a 30-13 domination of the Pittsburgh Steelers and, again, at a very inopportune time.
With a victory, the Colts would have moved to 9-6 and assumed sole possession of the AFC South lead with home games remaining against the Las Vegas Raiders and Houston Texans. The reward for a division title is a first-round home playoff game.
While the Colts were being run out of Atlanta — literally — the Texans were overwhelmed at home by Cleveland, 36-22, and Jacksonville saw its losing streak reach four in a 30-12 loss at Tampa Bay and the immediate future of quarterback Trevor Lawrence uncertain with a shoulder injury.
Follow along.
With two weeks remaining in a very strange 2023, the Colts, Texans and Jaguars sit atop the AFC South at 8-7. By virtue of tiebreaks, Jacksonville has the edge in the division race and the Colts still hold one of the Wild Card spots.
According to the New York Times’ playoff simulator, the Colts still have a 54% chance to earn their first playoff spot since 2020 and a 21% chance to capture their first division title since 2014.
But that’s tepid consolation considering how a win over the then-6-8 Falcons would have impacted the AFC South race.
And that frustration undoubtedly followed the Colts on their short flight back to Indy Sunday evening.
“We can’t have it,’’ Steichen said of the lack of team-wide execution and lopsided loss. “We’ve got two (games) guaranteed left to us and we’ve got to get it cleaned up in a hurry.
“We’ve got to move on because we’ve got two big ones coming up.’’
Minshew elaborated on the obvious — the Colts squandered a major opportunity.
“I think we’ve got to look at ourselves, tighten up and figure out what we’re going to do with this opportunity we’ve got in front of us,’’ he said. “There’s nobody I’d rather do it with and I’m excited for the guys we’ve got.’’
Minshew’s message in the locker room?
“I feel like Gardner said it perfect — ‘Don’t take it for granted,’’ linebacker Zaire Franklin shared with the media after game. “Being in a situation in December where you can fight for a playoff spot and play meaningful football, don’t take it for granted.
“Don’t feel like you beat a team on paper just because you all are supposed to be better than them. It’s hard to win in this league, and unfortunately, today was the lesser. We’ve still got two games left, and we’re back to work on Wednesday to get another win on Sunday.”
Minshew indicated the Colts might not have entered the game with the required sense of purpose. The win over the Steelers was their fifth in six games. The Falcons were coming off a horrendous 9-7 loss at woeful Carolina that was their fifth in seven games. And they benched starting quarterback Desmond Ridder in favor of Taylor Heinicke.
“I don’t know if we approached with the right urgency,’’ Minshew said.
He was just getting started.
“It’s a week-to-week league,’’ he said. “Wins don’t carry over and neither do losses. We’ve got to take it into next week and earn go earn a win next week starting with, shoot, whenever we leave here.’’
The trap, Minshew hinted, is getting preoccupied with the various playoff scenarios and ‘What ifs?’.
“You started looking at opportunities like this, and you start counting wins and you start doing schedule math and you look around,’’ he said. “It’s like, ‘Well, they lost to Carolina and we beat the Steelers.’ Well, you know what? You’ve got to go earn it right now. Take this event, take it lightly (and) you might not end up with another.
“Everybody thinks that you got all this time, you’re going to have all these chances to make playoff runs and it doesn’t work like that. We have to take advantage of them when we got them, and I’m excited to (see) how we respond and bring it next week.’’
Again, the Colts didn’t bring much of anything into a monumental game.
Offensively, they were unable to compensate for the loss of wide receiver Michael Pittman Jr. After being cleared from the NFL’s concussion protocol Friday, the team’s leading receiver experienced concussion symptoms after arriving in Atlanta Saturday and was returned to the league protocol.
Pittman was to have been a big part of the game plan. Without his 143 targets and 99 receptions — both No. 3 in the league — and overall impact, there was little rhythm after the opening drive. Six drives involved one or no first downs. The Colts converted just 5-of-14 third-down situations and were 1-of-3 on fourth down.
After bullying the Steelers a week ago — 170 rushing yards — the offensive line took a major step backwards: 92 yards on the ground, which included 31 on Minshew scrambles, and a season-high 6 sacks allowed.
Taylor got loose for a 13-yard run but managed just 30 yards on his other 17 attempts.
Defensively, it was a lost afternoon.
Gus Bradley’s unit set an Indy-era record with a 47th sack — Kwity Paye did the honors, but appropriately it was zero yards — but saw its streak of 19 games with a takeaway end. The Falcons bludgeoned the Colts for 177 yards on 30 attempts behind the tag team of Bijan Robinson (72 yards on 12 attempts) and Allegier (69 on nine).
And Heinicke, who led Washington to a win over the Colts in week 8 last season, passed for 229 yards and one TD, and directed Atlanta to 406 total yards.
The Colts offered a helping hand with one of their sloppiest tackling games of the year.
Franklin failed to come up with an interception when one of Heinicke’s passes hit him in the hands, and fellow linebacker E.J. Speed was penalized for a questionable late hit on the end of Allegier’s 19-yard run in the second quarter.
“Obviously, we didn’t come out with the juice,’’ tackle DeForest Buckner said after the game. “We got out there and got our butts whooped.
“Shoutout to the Falcons. They had a great game plan and they played hard today and came out with the win. For us, we’ve got to get better.’’
Special teams made it a team effort. When Koo banged a 49-yard field goal off the right upright in the second quarter and the Colts involved in a 7-all game, Ameer Speed was offside.
Given a mulligan, Cordarrelle Patterson converted a fourth-and-1 and the Falcons drove for Koo’s 23-yard field goal and a 10-7 lead that steadily increased.
It was that type of lost trip to Atlanta.
“We had a good game last week and we didn’t get it done today, Steichen said. “We’ve got to get it cleaned up in a hurry.’’