The Indianapolis Colts had another disappointing season but specific moments should motivate the entire organization to do better this offseason.
The Indianapolis Colts are slowly turning into the laughingstock of the AFC South after their horrific fall from grace after Andrew Luck retired. Since then, it has been a revolving door at quarterback which has left the team scrambling to find their next franchise play-caller. This has also led many players and fans to question the direction and leadership of this team. This upcoming offseason is going to be extremely important for re-establishing a direction for the Colts.
What should motivate the organization is the several embarrassing moments this team suffered during the 2022-23 NFL season. The entire offseason was spent hyping up this team with owner Jim Irsay saying they were “all chips in.” That couldn’t have been farther from the truth. After trading for Matt Ryan, fans and the organization thought they found their key to reclaiming glory in the AFC South.
While this season was plagued with several embarrassing moments below are three that stand out the most. Hopefully, having suffered these embarrassing events, the Indianapolis Colts will be motivated to make the necessary changes to break the cycle of the last few seasons.
3. Week 1 tie with the Houston Texans
Nothing is worse than a tie in sports. After all that time playing, no one can say they won. That is exactly what happened to the Colts in Week 1 of the 2022-23 NFL season. The team spent the whole offseason talking about how they didn’t want to suffer the same fate as last year and start off slow. With the Week 18 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars fresh in their minds, they wanted to start out this season, with a new, veteran quarterback, firing on all cylinders.
Well, quite the opposite happened. Indianapolis got the ball to start the game and Jonathan Taylor rushed three times for a whopping nine yards leaving the team to punt on their opening possession of the season. At the end of the first half, the Colts had three points to the Texans’ 10. Plus Matt Ryan had already thrown an interception.
Then the team decided to turn things around in the second half going on a 17-0 run to tie the game at the end of regulation. Now, on paper, this game should not have been close yet somehow we allowed Houston, who picked third overall in 2022, to hang with us; at least that was the perception. Then came overtime.
To start OT, Indianapolis’ defense came up big stopping the Texans on their opening drive and setting up their offense with the ball at their own 31-yard line. The Colts managed to drive all the way down the field until they stalled out at the Houston 24-yard line. In perfect range for a game-winning field goal, Rodrigo Blankenship steps up and misses the kick. In a normal season, this would have been the most embarrassing moment. For the Colts…this was just the beginning.