Film Session: Colts’ long third downs led to ugly loss at home

Every win in the NFL season is important, but more importantly, winning at home feels the best in front of the crowd. The Colts lost last week’s game due to long third downs and lack of consistent running game.

It’s easy to blame the Colts loss on Jacoby Brissett for his awful interception. But doing so wouldn’t lay the blame correctly. The whole Colts team got outplayed, and Rock Ya-Sin made some rookie mistakes leading to first-downs and a touchdown.

The offensive line made multiple mistakes, especially on the right side in false starts, missed blocks, and whiffed assignments. The consequence of said issue is the lack of running game and no runs over 12 yards in this game against a defense that missed Vontaze Burfict for most of the game. With 55, the Raiders defense is average at best and below average without him.

The same can be said for the Colts defense. Rock Ya-Sin bit on a play-action pass and couldn’t get deep enough and the safety, Clayton Geathers, had to cover two players at the same time while Derek Carr just threw to the open receiver in the endzone. Rookie mistakes happen, but this is where Malik Hooker‘s ball ability and quickness was missed. The defensive line got off blocks and made some good plays, but ultimately, the Raiders big offensive line won the day opening up holes for rookie running back Josh Jacobs.

The secondary didn’t fare much better as they bit on play-action passes multiple times leading to big plays and missed assignments on blocks and gap discipline. They lacked size against the bigger Raiders offensive line but the signing of Trevon Coley should help with that.

The biggest issue the Colts faced in the loss against the Raiders was the long third downs. Of the 16 third-downs they had, 12 of them were over 8 yards, and 3 were over 12 – mostly due to penalties You cannot expect to win games when you’re having 1st and 20 every few plays or even 3rd and 8 on every drive. More importantly, you can’t allow the other team to have 3rd and short on every drive either.

The Colts must do better against Kansas City if they want to win.