Dopey Report Card: Colts vs. Chiefs

In which we ask the multimillion-dollar question, what happened to Jonathan Taylor in the fourth quarter and overtime?

The Dopey Report Card…

RUN OFFENSE

Remember Jonathan Taylor? Kind of a short, muscular guy, runs with power and the speed of late-model BMW? Guy who leads the league in every rushing category? That guy? Yeah, that guy. For the life of me, I don’t know how Shane Steichen could ignore his best player throughout the fourth quarter when the Colts were leading and in overtime. We overuse the term “malpractice,” but that was inexcusable and inexplicable. I’ll have more to say about other coach’s decisions later in the report card, believe me. I understand, the Chiefs were totally committed to stopping the run with heavy boxes and run blitzes, but at the very least, you’ve got to make Kansas City dip into its stash of timeouts. Four possessions in the fourth quarter and OT: Four three and outs. Three Taylor runs. Little more than three minutes of possession time. Give the Chiefs enough chances, they’re going to beat you. End of story.

Grade: D

RUN DEFENSE

I’m not sure how deep the Colts can go in the playoffs this year if DeForest Buckner doesn’t return from a neck injury that landed him on the IR. He’s that important. The Chiefs, and primarily Kareem Hunt, finished with 41 rushes for 148 yards, a 5.4 yards-per-carry average. Two Colts defenders stood out (well, more than that; they limited KC to 23 points, so a lot of guys played well), but Germaine Pratt and Laiatu Latu stood out. Pratt finished with 20 tackles (15 solo), two tackles for loss and one pass defensed. Latu, who is slowly but surely coming on in the middle of his second season, had six tackles, a sack, a pass defensed and an interception, his third of the season (incredibly).

Grade: C-