Stampede Blue
The Indianapolis Colts‘ offense began the season on a historic pace. Head coach Shane Steichen had seemingly resurrected quarterback Daniel Jones, running back Jonathan Taylor kick-started his MVP campaign, and the offensive line was mauling defensive fronts at will.
Through seven weeks, the Colts’ offense was the most efficient offense by points per drive this century. As of the past games, however, kinks in their armor have appeared. Most notably and recently, the offense collapsed down the stretch against the Kansas City Chiefs, eventually losing 23-20 in overtime.
Four straight 3-and-outs. The Colts offense had an 11-point lead entering the fourth quarter, only for it to evaporate entirely to the tune of four straight 3-and-outs. In 12 plays during that stretch, Daniel Jones and Co. totaled just 18 yards of offense (13 yards if you include the strategically taken delay of game on 4th down).
There’s a lot that’s already been said regarding Shane Steichen’s playcalling and late-game management. It was a bizarre effort, not just by Steichen, but from the entire offense. It does start and end with his leadership, however. In his post-game press conference, Steichen was noticeably frustrated and explained that the offense’s shortcomings were due to a lack of execution, but made sure to admit that it starts with him.
“There was a lot of stuff that I wanted to get called that I felt good about in the pass game, and we just weren’t efficient doing it, and it starts with me,” Steichen explained.
Colts quarterback Daniel Jones has undeniably come back down to Earth after an MVP-like first half of the season. Most notably, his ball security and steady hand in the pocket have evaded him in recent weeks, throwing four interceptions and fumbling six times in the two games prior to Sunday’s showing in Kansas City. Although he came out of the bye week with zero turnovers against the Chiefs, Jones seemingly struggled down the stretch as he went 3-9 passing for 17 yards in the 4th quarter/overtime.
Jones wasn’t afforded his typical slew of play-action rollouts that Shane Steichen usually provides him, nor the shot-yardage quarterback sneaks. Pure speculation, but it could point to a lingering fibula injury that popped up on Wednesday’s practice report. Jones did take off on a couple of scrambles for first-down gains, but something to monitor as this Colts offense aims to work out the kinks.
Head coach Shane Steichen has shown in the past his unwillingness to feed his best offensive player, and it came back to bite him yet again versus the Chiefs. In his defense, Chiefs defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo had completely sold out his defense to stop MVP-candidate Jonathan Taylor through the first three quarters, and while it worked, this was the same timeframe that saw Steichen’s Colts offense work up a two-score lead. During the aforementioned collapse of a final stretch, Daniel Jones did make checks at the line a couple of times, presumably out of a run call, but all in...
