Were the Colts missing a lot of front-line performers Sunday? Sure. Was that any excuse for losing to the lowly Jaguars? Hell, no
The Colts haven't beaten the Jaguars on the road since 2014. It makes no sense. But let the Joe Flacco conversation now commence...
MY COUCH, Ind. – Yeah, I know, I know: The Colts flew down to Jacksonville and played a football game Sunday without the services of Anthony Richardson, Jonathan Taylor, Ryan Kelly, Kenny Moore II and Kwity Paye and continue to operate without DeForest Buckner, Samson Ebukam and JuJu Brents. They also lost right guard Will Fries during the game to an injury so disturbing, TV didn’t even show the replay.
That’s a lot of top-tier talent.
And it’s no excuse.
Well…it’s not.
There is never an excuse for losing to the Jacksonville Jaguars, who came into Sunday as the last winless team in the league, owners of a punchless offense (starting quarterback Trevor Lawrence had lost his nine previous starts) and a defense ranked 30th in the league in points and yards allowed.
The final was 37-34, but you knew that already. And it hurts. It really hurts. The Colts are now winless in the division while the 4-1 Texans, late winners over Buffalo, are starting to pull away. Think wildcard – if any playoffs at all for the 2-3 Colts, who play three of their next four on the road.
The Colts, led by defensive coordinator Gus Bradley (for now), have a shockingly long history of making struggling quarterbacks look like a cross between Dan Marino and John Elway. Especially Jacksonville quarterbacks, who’ve owned the Colts, beating them in Duval nine straight years and once in London, six times by double digits. Doesn’t matter who they are, Lawrence, Gardner Minshew of the Ghost of Mark Brunell, they light up the Colts every…single…time.
Maybe it was the injuries Sunday or maybe it was a lack of talent or depth – probably all of them – but the defense played horrifically for the third time in five games. This time, it wasn’t the running game – check that, it wasn’t solely the running game. This time, Lawrence had his way with the Colts (371 passing yards), which shouldn’t have been any great surprise given the fact Indy gave up 363 passing yards to Caleb Williams and 312 to Justin Fields.
We knew the secondary – and on this day, the striking lack of a pass rush – would eventually conspire to undermine the Colts. Sunday was the day. Lawrence had his game of the year because of course he did: He played the Colts.
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