Opinion: Defending the Colts is starting to become a chore

The Indianapolis Colts are coming off an embarrassing loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in a game where they had four turnovers.

Looking at the box score and watching the game for a second time, it’d be easy to say the Colts got their behinds kicked. The Buccaneers outplayed the Colts in every offensive category, even gaining 233 more total yards than Indianapolis. However, if I told you the Colts had 1 turnover and the Buccaneers had 4, would you still believe they allowed 38 points to one of the NFL’s worst offenses?

Jameis Winston looked like Tom Brady in the 4th quarter; throwing perfect passes, leading his receivers to holes in the Cover-2 defense, and staying poised under the pressure Matt Eberflus was putting on him. Winston ended 33/45 with 456 yards 4 touchdowns and 3 interceptions – two to Darius Leonard with 1 returned 80 yards for a score.

Mike Evans beat Pierre Desir on a 61-yard catch and run but was injured on the play and didn’t return. However, Chris Godwin took over the game and torched the Colts defense and found every open hole imaginable catching 7 of his 9 targets for 91 yards. On the flip side, the run defense for the Colts was nearly perfect with 75 yards on 28 carries with a 2.67 average.

In the first 8 weeks of the season, the Colts dominated teams by using the running game and time of possession to beat superior teams – Kansas City anyone? The Colts average 31:39 time of possession on the season with 3 more minutes (33:13 second in the NFL behind Baltimore) in away games rather than home games which put them in the top 10 on the season. In the last three games, they’ve averaged 33:13 which is 3rd in the NFL behind Baltimore and Cleveland. In this game, the Colts only held the ball for 25 minutes with 35 going to the Buccaneers.

However ridiculous and cliche is sounds, the Colts lost this game for themselves and were outplayed by a vastly lesser team than themselves. Conversing with our editor during the game, I asked the question of “how did this team beat Kansas City and hold them to 13 points but allowed the Buccaneers to put up 38 points against them?” I’m left scratching my head as this team can’t play consistently to save their life quite honestly.

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Since week one they’ve lost a close game to a bad team in Los Angeles, then barely beat the Titans followed by a statement win against the Falcons without their starting safety. Then they were outplayed by the Raiders who have no offensive power right now, and go into the bye week with an incredible win holding the NFL’s best offense in the decade to just 13 points, all with a secondary that was subpar at best.

After the bye week, they take the lead in the AFC South by beating the Texans followed by a close win to the Broncos who were terrible under Joe Flacco. After that, it was a loss to the Steelers, a loss to the horrible Dolphins, a blowout win against the Jaguars followed by laying an egg against the Titans and Texans again being outscored 51-34 in two games. Then we get to today where they had 4 turnovers and capitalized on three of them and still got outscored while allowing 38 points to a team who can hardly stay on the field because their offense is so bad.

I’ve been saying this for years: the mark of a good team is beating up on bad teams and winning close games against good ones. The Colts have yet to show they are an elite team despite an offensive line that has allowed the 10th-least amount of sacks on the season and a team that has committed the least amount of penalties. The Colts should be winning games like this if they expect to get into the playoffs – I doubt they will in 2019. You can’t tell me the same team that held the Chiefs to 13 points can’t hold the Buccaneers to under 38 points for a win then expect to make the playoffs.

To close this out, I’m always going to be a Colts fan and I will continue to be so. However, it’s getting harder and harder to defend Jacoby Brissett as the Colts quarterback when they’re throwing less than 250 yards a game and struggling to beat bad teams. It’s hard to defend Matt Eberflus when they’re allowing 38 points to a bad team with their best player out and after getting 4 turnovers, still allowing the points up. It’s hard to defend a kicker when he’s lost 4 games for us if he made the kicks.

Most importantly, t’s getting hard to defend the Colts as a good team.