The Indianapolis Colts are once again in familiar territory to start the week after the 20-3 loss to the Los Angeles Chargers in their Monday night Week 16 matchup on December 26.
With the loss, the Colts dropped their fifth consecutive game and their eighth loss in the last nine outings. After the game, Colts reporters had plenty to say about the loss.
Colts’ Offensive Woes
After the game Colts reporter for 1070 The Fan, Kevin Bowen, shared his five thoughts on the performance, highlighted by his criticisms of the Colts’ “embarrassing” offense.
“So much of this 2022 season for the Colts can be summed up by the defense quite often doing its part, and the offense not even sniffing complementary football,” Bowen wrote.
Another week. Another embarrassing offensive performance by the #Colts (4-10-1).
And, again, on national television
5th in draft order. At Giants and vs. Texans left. Time for Sam Ehlinger again.
According to Bowen, the bright spot for the Colts on Monday night was their defensive performance, including the interior work of defensive tackles DeForest Buckner and rookie Dayo Odeyingbo.
The Colts defense had a decent performance against the Chargers, having held opposing quarterback Justin Herbert without a touchdown and forcing an interception and fumble. On the season, the Colts have recorded 43.0 sacks, their most since 2005, but have lacked the support on offense.
New Quarterback, Same Results
Colts Insider for the Indy Star, Nate Atkins, voiced his criticisms of the Colts offense, calling the performance ‘listless.’ Atkins believes the Colts had their spirit broken after the historic loss to the Minnesota Vikings and that at this point, they’re just playing out the season.
On Monday night, the Colts attempted to stymie their offensive woes by going with quarterback Nick Foles, the third starting quarterback of the 2022 season. Starting the year with veteran Matt Ryan behind center, the Colts gave rookie Sam Ehlinger a chance after a mid-season benching of Ryan, before turning back to Ryan after two lackluster outings by Ehlinger. After the loss to the Vikings on December 17, the Colts again made a change with interim head coach Jeff Saturday giving Foles the starting nod.
Despite the change behind center, the Colts showed little signs of improvement in the loss. For the eighth game this season, the Colts offense scored 1 or fewer touchdowns in a game, and for the second time this season, the Colts did not produce a single first down, going 0-10 on third downs.
Atkins called Foles’ performance at quarterback “hard to watch” and cited Foles’ lack of chemistry and timing for his poor performance. Foles began the season third on Indy’s depth chart, and in his media availability leading up to the game, spoke about how we had not had a chance to throw to the starters since the preseason.
That lack of cohesion and practice with his team reflected in his performance. Foles finished the game going for 17-of-29 for less than 150 yards. Foles was also sacked 7.0 times out of his 29 dropbacks and turned the ball over 3 times via interception.
“This was a brutal performance,” Atkins wrote.
The Lucas Oil Stadium crowd was pretty good tonight, considering the state of things. But they just rained boos down after that failed fourth-down attempt and are now headed for the exits and a reasonable bed time.
The Colts have two games remaining on the season, against the Giants and Texans respectfully, and for the Colts fans, it is officially time to root for a high draft pick.
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Colts Criticized for ‘Embarrassing’ Performance vs. Chargers