Enemy Reaction 2025: Indianapolis Colts

Alrighty, this is a weird one. The Seattle Seahawks narrowly beat the Indianapolis Colts, so this is as close to doing an Enemy Reaction for a Seahawks loss as I’ve ever come. Not that the Seahawks haven’t had close wins before, but the thought of losing to 44-year-old Philip Rivers at quarterback as a two-touchdown favorite was indeed, deeply unsettling.

I wrote that first paragraph without an inkling of what our own game threads looked like. How did Colts fans feel watching their team valiantly almost pull off a shocker? Let’s find out together. Stampede Blue is SB Nation’s Colts site. Game thread screenshots are light mostly because this was a weirdly low-incident game throughout the afternoon.

Note: It’s hard to fit game thread images into this article without them automatically shrinking. Whether on mobile or a tablet or desktop, you may have to tap the screenshots twice to get the full image dimensions.

Philip Rivers throws his first touchdown pass in five years (13-3 IND)

Josh Jobe flagged for pass interference, extending Colts drive (13-12 IND)

Jaxon Smith-Njigba gets loose for 39 yards, setting up go-ahead field goal (15-13 SEA)

Alec Pierce catches back shoulder pass from Philip Rivers (15-13 SEA)

Blake Grupe hits from 60, Colts lead (16-15 IND)

Jason Myers responds from 57, Seahawks lead! (18-16 SEA)

Coby Bryant picks off Philip Rivers, game over! (18-16 SEA FINAL)

Post-Game Recap: Shane Steichen’s game plan nearly worked (JJ Stankevitz, Colts.com)

Shane Steichen, over his three years as the Colts’ head coach and playcaller, has largely trended toward being an aggressive decision-maker. But aggressiveness was not what the Colts needed against the Seahawks – the plan was to control the clock, run the ball and grind out a low-scoring win.

It nearly worked.

Every head coach’s decision-making comes under scrutiny in a loss, and Steichen on Sunday was asked to explain a few things about the final minute of game play.

On a third-and-seven at the Seahawks’ 46-yard line, Rivers handed off to Taylor for a four-yard gain. Seattle used its last timeout, and Grupe connected from 60 yards.

“Soft zone, got it closer to field goal range,” Steichen said. “Instead of throwing incomplete, now you’re probably in no-man’s land, probably going to go for it there. So got it into field goal range.”

[…]

The larger point here is Steichen adapted to what the Colts needed on Sunday. It didn’t work, no matter how close “almost” was here. But Steichen showed he can shift his team’s mentality given the circumstances, and that’s an important thing to note as the Colts look to scrap together some wins to close out the 2025 season.