Getty Indianapolis Colts quarterback Matt Ryan has 9 fumbles in the first 4 games of the 2022 season.
As the saying goes, once is an accident, twice is a coincidence, three times is a pattern.
The Indianapolis Colts and quarterback Matt Ryan are now trying to figure out what four times means.
That’s because for a fourth straight game on October 2, Ryan recorded a fumble. In fact, he fumbled twice in the 24-17 loss to the Tennessee Titans.
Ryan now has 9 fumbles through 4 games this season. At his current pace, Ryan is on track to set the NFL’s single season fumble record, which is 23, before Thanksgiving.
His fumbling has been a consistently huge problem for Ryan and the Colts offense. The veteran signal caller addressed the issue in front of the media on October 2.
Asked Matt Ryan about his fumbles — nine in four games: “Been a very uncharacteristic four-game stretch. It’s something I gotta be better at, something I gotta clean up.”
Ryan’s Fumbling Problem Uncharacteristic?
The 15-year veteran quarterback is a pretty even-keeled guy. Ryan has displayed that calmness throughout his career in just about every media interview he’s done.
So no one can really fault him for what he said after the loss to the Titans. But at this point, a lot of Colts fans want to see more action as opposed to the same clichés for the media.
Over his whole career, Ryan hasn’t been prone to losing the ball a lot. But since the 2015 season, he’s finished in the NFL Top 10 in total fumbles three times. His worst fumbling season came in 2015 when Ryan lost the ball 12 times.
He’s well on his way to surpassing that career high this season. Ryan may also need to avoid another fumble in the final 13 games of 2022 in order to avoid his fourth Top 10 finish in fumbles over the last 8 seasons.
In his last 116 starts, Ryan has fumbled the ball 65 times. After his 3 fumbles in Week 4, Ryan now has 98 career fumbles, which moves him into a tie for 22nd place on the all-time fumbling list.
The players still ahead of Ryan on that list are all quarterbacks who played in the NFL a long time. Ryan is in his 15th season and has played in 226 games. It’s almost inevitable that he was going to finish his career high on the fumbling list.
But his fumbling problem has been progressively getting worse over the years. He needs to correct it immediately to help the Colts turn around their 1-2-1 start.
Colts’ Offensive Line Problems
One factor contributing significantly to Ryan’s fumbling issue is his team’s offensive line.
At the beginning of his career, Ryan played on an offense that featured a lot of veteran players. His fumbling issues began in 2015 when Dan Quinn took over as Atlanta Falcons head coach.
Ryan didn’t have a fumbling problem when he won MVP in 2016 or during 2017 when he led the Falcons back to the playoffs, but the Atlanta offensive line progressively grew worse from that point forward. Ryan led the NFL with 48 sacks taken in 2019 and had 10 fumbles, which was sixth in the league.
This season, the Colts offensive line was supposed to protect Ryan a lot better than Atlanta’s unit did in recent years. But that hasn’t happened to begin 2022.
Ryan has been sacked 15 times in the first 4 games this fall. He’s on pace to suffer more than 60 sacks, which would blow away his career-high 48 sacks from 2019, assuming he stays healthy and starts the entire season.
The Colts started Will Fries for the first time at right guard in Week 4, benching the struggling Danny Pinter. But it made little difference, as Indianapolis rushed for under 2.0 yards per carry and allowed 3 sacks, 5 tackles for loss and 5 quarterback hits.
That’s not acceptable for a team that possesses the most expensive offensive line in the league according to Spotrac.
Twitter Reacts to Ryan’s Fumbles
Regardless of his fumbling history with the Falcons, Colts fans are about fed up with their new quarterback’s inability to hold on to the ball. A lot of Indianapolis fans voiced their frustration with Ryan’s fumbling woes on Twitter on October 2.
I’ve never seen someone fumble as consistently as Matt Ryan does. You have to try to be that bad at holding onto the football
Matt Ryan has gotten rid of it during the pressure earlier in the drive, but on 3rd and 15 didn’t and got sacked for a fumble.
Titans ball at the 32 now
Another fumble…Matt Ryan also just doesn’t look good. Another horrible start for the Colts
Members of the Colts media also reacted to Ryan’s fumbling issues on social media, but were unable to present what the true problem could be.
It’s easy to say Matt Ryan is “washed” or whatever pejorative you prefer. But, I would argue that there is no plausible explanation for the ball security in particular. I don’t get it. He’s never been this way, not even in the worst moments in Atl. Never seen anything like it.
Matt Ryan is 1-for-6 with a fumble. Lowest possible passer rating 39.6. Bright side: Can only get better.
Matt Ryan’s 10th fumble of the season is incidentally the only one I don’t blame him for.
A Matt Ryan fumble. Shocker