Shane Steichen says Joe Flacco will still be the starting quarterback 'right now'

The Indianapolis Colts suffered a humiliating loss to the Minnesota Vikings during Sunday Night Football, and while losing would be bad enough in and of itself, the Colts didn't score a single touchdown. The only points scored on offense were two field goals from Matt Gay, and their sole touchdown came from the defense. They had just 23 minutes of possession throughout the entire game.

This is even more embarrassing than it normally would be; head coach Shane Steichen made the decision to bench Anthony Richardson, the 22-year-old who was supposed to be the future of this franchise, in favor of Joe Flacco, the 39-year-old veteran. The reason Steichen gave for this decision, which was roundly criticized, was that Flacco gives the Colts the best chance to win right now. Sunday's abysmal showing has just made the situation even worse for Steichen, who seems bound and determined to dig his heels in and pretend nothing is wrong.

Flacco is still QB1... for now?

At the post-game press conference, Steichen said the Colts will continue to keep Flacco as their starting quarterback, and oddly claimed that Flacco's performance was not absolutely terrible.

"He was fine," Steichen said. "Obviously he's been playing in environments like this before."

When he was asked if Flacco was still the starting quarterback, Steichen answered, "Right now, yes."

He then bizarrely claimed that switching quarterbacks didn't have a negative effect on the morale of his team, despite the numerous media interviews given by the team indicating otherwise. "It's just like with any position," he said. "You gotta roll and, you know, next guy up, and you know, obviously, Joe went in there tonight for us."

Steichen was then reminded of his own words -- that Flacco gives the Colts their best chance of winning -- and asked if he still felt that way. "Right now, yes," he answered.

He further added that he never considered putting Richardson into the game after seeing Flacco struggle.

Flacco's performance was not good

Steichen seems to have a problem admitting the reality of the situation, which is that Flacco simply did not play well. He finished the game with 179 yards, zero touchdowns, and one interception; he completed 16 out of 27 pass attempts. When it came to third downs, Flacco was 3-of-9 for 47 yards.

The offense also lacked the explosive quality that Richardson was able to provide. All of his struggles aside, he had a league-high 12.3 air yards per attempt, compared to Flacco's 7.7 air yards per attempt last night, the lowest for the Colts so far this season.

But, the argument goes, Richardson isn't accurate. Well, last night, neither was Flacco. He repeatedly threw terrible passes, missed wide-open receivers, and threw to receivers who were under heavy coverage, leading to either incompletions or interceptions. He was sacked three times on the final drive alone; while part of the blame there lies on the offensive line, it can't be ignored that Richardson was able to run and avoid being taken down, if not outright throw off defenders and still make incredible throws.

Ultimately, this was the Colts' worst offensive performance so far this season by virtually every metric. Red zone drives, first downs, points scored, total yards... all were the lowest of the year so far.

There's nothing positive to be said about the offensive performance last night, and that's a big problem when the Colts just ditched their young QB in favor of a veteran who was supposed to put them on the road to the playoffs.