3 biggest reasons Colts suffered heartbreaking loss to the Raiders

The Indianapolis Colts suffered a heartbreaking loss in Week 17 against the Las Vegas Raiders.

Entering Week 17, the Indianapolis Colts had three possible paths to clinch a playoff spot. One of the scenarios was beating the Las Vegas Raiders, that didn’t happen. Neither did any of the other two scenarios.

The only thing the Colts had control over was the game with the Raiders, and that slipped out of their hands with a last-second field goal by Daniel Carlson that put Las Vegas up 23-20 as the clock expired.

A quick look at the box score and it appears as if Indianapolis executed the formula that usually wins them games. Jonathan Taylor ran for more than 100 yards, the offense protected the football and the defense forced two turnovers.

Despite doing all of those things, Indy had its fair share of mistakes that lost this game. Here are the three biggest reasons the Colts suffered a heartbreaking loss to the Raiders.

Colts couldn’t consistently convert third downs

Jonathan Taylor had a successful day on the ground with 20 carries for 108 yards and one touchdown. Carson Wentz had a mediocre day through the air completing 16 of 27 passes for 148 yards and one touchdown.

What was bad offensively for Indianapolis was third-down conversions. On Sunday, Indy was just 3-11 on third down. That resulted in the Colts punting five times against Las Vegas.

On those five drives, Indianapolis had three that were three and out and two that were just five plays. The Colts were struggling to consistently generate offense all day and rarely were able to pick up the necessary yardage in crucial situations.

This forced the defense to spend a lot of time on the field and allowed the Raiders to keep the game close. If Indy has any plans of advancing to the playoffs and making a serious run, the team will have to be able to draw up productive plays on third down.