The Indianapolis Colts can be criticized for a lot, but no one can accuse them of not being relentless. Over the last two weeks, Indy has proven that it’s a team that will fight to the final whistle. In Week 3, it was a gritty overtime win against the Baltimore Ravens that showed that, and in Week 4, it was an overtime loss to the Los Angeles Rams.
Yes, the Colts ultimately lost the game 29-23, but Indy almost completed an epic comeback. Indianapolis was trailing the game 20-0 at halftime, and was even down as much as 23-0. However, they fought back into the game, tying it at 23 at the end or regulation. Unfortunately, Indy loss in overtime.
In the end, Indianapolis wasn’t able to overcome various embarrassing moments throughout the game. Let’s take a look at some of the things that led to this Week 4 loss for the Colts.
3. Colts had too many costly mistakes
From the very first drive of the game, Indianapolis was making the kind of avoidable mistakes that lose games. It all started when Indy was about to force the Rams to punt on the first drive. On a third down, Los Angeles quarterback Matthew Stafford ran out of bounds, well short of the first-down marker, but Colts linebacker EJ Speed hit him late. That kept the drive alive, and the Rams eventually scored.
That was only the start. Anthony Richardson lost a fumble on a promising drive, Matt Gay missed a field goal, and Indy went on to have many more costly penalties throughout the game. The Colts finished the game with eight penalties for 80 yards, helping the opposing team out a lot.
The reason teams usually have to make comebacks is that they make mistakes that lead to an early deficit. That’s exactly what happened to Indy, and they couldn’t overcome those mistakes.