The Indianapolis Colts traveled to Arrowhead Stadium to take on the Kansas City Chiefs, fresh off their Week 11 bye week. Early on, it was all sunshine and smiles, but offensive ineptitude and late defensive breakdowns allowed the Chiefs to crawl back and eventually secure the win.
The Colts have enjoyed one of the easiest schedules in the league in the weeks before their bye week, but the latter half of their season looks to be one of the toughest in the league. Indy has a sterling record, but they need to prove that they can beat quality teams.
If Week 12 is any indication, there are severe limitations to this team. Daniel Jones and company couldn't move the ball to save their lives from the fourth quarter onwards, and while the defense put up a valiant effort against the best quarterback in the world, even they eventually fell.
Daniel Jones made the Colts rethink everything in Week 12
Loser No. 1: Daniel Jones
Daniel Jones had a game against Kansas City that simply cannot happen for a guy who is supposedly a franchise quarterback. Frankly, from the start of the fourth quarter onwards, Jones was flat-out terrible.
The game was 20-9 in favor of the Colts at the start of the fourth, and Patrick Mahomes brought the Chiefs down the field to score a touchdown (and a two-point conversion). From then on, Jones went three and out, and then three and out again to give Mahomes the ball back, after which the quarterback was able to tie the game and send it to overtime.
In overtime, the Colts got the ball first, and Jones immediately couldn't convert when it mattered, punting the ball to the last man in the world you'd want to punt to in a sudden death situation. The Colts would go on to lose the game largely because of Jones' inability to drive the offense when it mattered.
From near interceptions to flat-out misses, Jones was simply not good enough today, and that could very well factor into the Colts' offseason decision of whether to pay the man franchise quarterback money or not
Winner No. 1: Laiatu Latu
Today was a day when almost nothing the Colts' offense did could successfully drive down the field against the Chiefs. The only reason that the Colts were able to hold a lead throughout the vast majority of regulation was because of the stellar play of Lou Anarumo's defense
The Colts offense started with the ball, but fell short of scoring on their first possession of the game. They punted to the Chiefs, but on only the Chiefs' second play of the game, Latu was able to tip a pass from Mahomes and catch it himself for the interception.
Latu's key play set up the Colts to punch in their first touchdown of the game, and helped establish an early lead over Kansas City. With that being his third interception of the season, the young defensive end has joined historic company. Not only that, but Latu finished the game with two half sacks on the stat sheet and was a key component in pressuring Mahomes all game long.
Unfortunately, it wasn't enough to beat Kansas City, but the defense of the team can only do so much when the offense constantly lets them down to end the game. The defense was forced to be on the field for basically the entirety of the third quarter onward, and it's only natural that they tire after all of that time.
Loser No. 2: Shane Steichen
Shane Steichen mishandled the end of this game, and there's no way around that fact. Jonathan Taylor had a fairly poor day for his standards, but Daniel Jones had a far worse one. Despite the fact that the Colts had the lead for the whole fourth quarter and Jones was struggling, the team's head coach refused to consistently hand the ball off to the team's best player.
Giving Taylor the ball consistently was the only thing that kept Indy from falling in Week 10 to the Atlanta Falcons in Germany. One would think that Steichen would have learned his lesson and trusted the man who is arguably the best running back in the world to keep his team in the game, but instead he opted to put the game in Daniel Jones' hands.
Jones responded by giving Mahomes chance after chance to work his way back into the game, which eventually resulted in the Colts' defeat. Trusting the run game would not only have kept the offense on the field longer, but it would have given the very much gassed defense a chance to finally rest instead of going right back on the field.
Loser No. 3: Jonathan Taylor
Let's be real, the main reason that the Colts have been able to be so good this year is because Jonathan Taylor has been out of this world. Unfortunately, Taylor's worst game of the year couldn't have come at a worse time.
Realistically, with how deep the offensive weapons run in the Colts' offense, the team should still be able to put up points when Taylor doesn't have his superman cape on, but Week 12 proved that this is not the case.
There was a lot of early debate in the year as to whether Taylor's success was because Jones' passing opened up the offense for him, or whether Taylor's rushing threat was the reason for Jones' success. That question was unequivocally answered against the Chiefs.
When Taylor wasn't putting the team on his back, the offense that has been crowned as the best in the league couldn't do anything against a Chiefs defense that has been fairly middling all year.
Taylor is still the best player on the Indianapolis roster, and his stay in the loser category is sure to be a short one. Unfortunately for him and for the team, this week was far from his best, and it showed that the Indianapolis Colts can really only go as far as Jonathan Taylor is able to take them.
Winner No. 2: Zaire Franklin
For the vast majority of the game against the Chiefs, the Colts' defense was nothing short of elite, and Zaire Franklin was a huge part of that. The man was all over the field alongside running mate Germaine Pratt (who also had a standout game), and he helped hold the Chiefs offense to only nine points through three quarters.
It could be argued that the defense ultimately failed the Colts if one were to just look at the box score of how the fourth quarter and overtime played out, but anyone who watched the game live knew that the defense gave Indianapolis' offense every chance to further their lead. The defense can be amazing, but when the offense forces them to be constantly on the field, eventually, they're bound to break down.
That being said, don't let the loss take away from how great Franklin (and the defense as a whole) was for most of the game. Early in the season, the defense looked like it was the Achilles heel for this Colts team, but against Kansas City, it was the far better unit. Franklin himself forced a Chiefs fumble when they were threatening to score, and he recorded 14 total tackles and one tackle for loss.
Ultimately, this is the most worrying performance that the Colts have put on the field all season. It's one thing to beat up on bad teams; it's one thing to lose to a good team like the Rams because of self-inflicted wounds, but it's another for the offense to completely shut down when it matters most.
Daniel Jones had performed all season like he deserved franchise quarterback money, but his inability to put any pressure on the Chiefs' defense late in the game is very concerning. If Jones can't perform when it matters most now, what's to say that he's going to be any different in a playoff setting?
Still, this is only one loss. Kansas City (despite its record) is a good team, and, understandably, they could win in a down-to-the-wire, neck-and-neck contest. The Colts play against a Texans team that is heating up in Week 13, and they need to prove in that game that they are for real.
Otherwise, the accusations that they may just be an above-average team that has benefited from an easy schedule may start to ring more true.