This is a tough pill to swallow for the Indianapolis Colts. It's often said, and rarely true, but this is truly a team that beat themselves in Week 4. It's hard to win any game, let alone one against a premier team in the NFL like the Los Angeles Rams, when a single player wipes 14 points off the board.
Let's not sugarcoat it. This is a game that will go down in the loss column. As the old adage goes, there are no points for moral victories in football. Still, that's not to say that this game didn't give a lot of Colts fans hope for the season.
This Indianapolis Colts team went into a hostile environment against a team that should have beaten the reigning Super Bowl champs in Week 3, and they can honestly say that they very easily could have won the game.
Indianapolis Colts winners and loser from Week 4's loss
The Colts may have notched their first loss of the season, but they proved they can hang with the best the NFL has to offer. Let's look into which players shone, and which players fell short (and fell short hard).
Winner No. 1: Tyler Warren
At this point, it's really a question worth asking. What can't this guy do? Warren is one of those rare players that transcends their position. He's a guy that's limited by just calling him a tight end. Tyler Warren is a football player, and to limit him in any way would be doing the man a disservice.
Head coach Shane Steichen proved that against the Rams. Oh, you're in the red zone and in desperate need of a short-yardage conversion? There's no need to give the ball to one of the best running backs in the NFL. Instead, just give the ball to ol' reliable, Tyler Warren, and sit back to watch him go to work.
Warren may have notched the first touchdown of his burgeoning NFL career on the ground, but don't let that take any focus away from what he did through the air. The tight end racked up five receptions for 70 yards, good for the second most on the team for the day. It truly felt like anytime Jones needed to convert on a throw, Warren would be open for him.
Winner No. 2: Jonathan Taylor
Taylor didn't have the gaudy numbers that he's been putting up this season against the Rams (though he should have if not for a certain play being called back). Still, that didn't stop him from retaining the title of NFL rushing yards leader through four weeks.
Taylor continues to prove himself to be one of the best backs in the entire league. Unfortunately, he was robbed of a potential career-defining highlight towards the end of the game, when a would-be 55-yard rushing touchdown where he rumbled down the field was called back because of a holding call on Adonai Mitchell (more on him later).
Taylor might not have had eye-popping numbers in the box score, but anyone who really watched the game knows that his numbers to end the day don't tell the full story. This is an elite running back, and he was still the offensive engine against the Rams.
Winner No. 3: Laiatu Latu
Laiatu Latu is a player who's caught a lot of flak from Colts fans in his recent games. He hasn't put up the big sack numbers like some of the counterparts from his draft class, i.e., a Jared Verse. However, to anyone watching the game against the Rams, Latu made a huge impact.
He only racked up one sack for the day, but Latu was constantly pressuring Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford. Latu racked up nine pressures on the day and notched an elite grade (per PFF) of 90.2.
Latu didn't have a disappointing rookie season, per se, but he was overshadowed by later drafted rushers like Jared Verse of the LA Rams and Chop Robinson of the Miami Dolphins. This year though, through the first four weeks of the season, Latu has truly come into his own.
If Latu can reach his full potential and pair with a still dominant DeForest Buckner, this pass rush could have some real juice come the end of the year.
Loser No. 1: Adonai Mitchell
It truly couldn't have been anyone else. Mitchell's play in the Colts Week 4 game was a microcosm of all of the headaches he's caused Indianapolis since he was made a Colt. Fans of the team were already fuming when he turned a would be explosive touchdown into a back breaking touchback by fumbling the ball through the back of the endzone.
That was bad enough, but then on a drive that could've won Indianapolis the game, he was called for a holding that negated one of Jonathan Taylor's best runs of his career. It's rare that a game can be truly put on one player, and it would be disingenuous to say that Mitchell singlehandedly cost the team the game, but he certainly hurt them more than he helped in Week 4.
It was such a disastrous performance that many Colts fans are calling for Mitchell to be cut. It might end up that he was never the answer here in Indianapolis, but to give up on a player of Mitchell's talent this early in his career would be a mistake.
We can only take the optimistic route and hope that by experiencing such a cratering rock bottom, Mitchell will grow to move past his maturity issues and become a better player for the team going forward.
Loser No. 2: Lou Anarumo
Lou Anarumo had a rough outing versus the Rams. There's no way around it. Yes, this Rams offense is a very good one, and Matthew Stafford ranks among the elite of the elite in the quarterbacking department. Unfortunately, Anarumo didn't do much of anything to put up a fight against them.
Even the vaunted Philadelphia Eagles let up a good amount of points to this Rams offense, and Puka Nacua has been on an absolute tear this season. Still, the Colts' offense did enough to keep them in this game. The team had just punted back to the Rams with about two minutes left in the game. The defense needed a stop.
And in this critical situation, one that could very easily (and did) lose the game for your team, you send out a unit of only ten men to defend on a play that resulted in an 88 yard game winning touchdown for the other team?
It's one thing for that touchdown to happen. As we've established, the Rams field a potent offense. But to only put 10 men on the field at that vital of a point in the game is an entirely different beast.
Essentially, it's coaching malfeasance. Anarumo had an amazing start to the year against the Dolphins, but he really needs to shape up if the team is going to contend with elite teams late in the year.
Ultimately, this game was a loss. Unfortunately, the Indianapolis Colts can no longer count themselves among the ranks of unbeaten teams this year. Luckily, what we can say is that they can hang with the very best in the NFL. It wasn't the desired result against LA, but despair not, Colts fans. It's only one game, and the team showed a lot of promise.
With any luck, they'll continue to dominate in a soft stretch of the next four games (outside of a matchup against a tough Chargers team). There's much football to be played yet, and we haven't seen anything near the ceiling of what this team can truly be.