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Indianapolis Colts head coach Frank Reich made some tough decisions during Saturday’s 27-24 loss against the Buffalo Bills, but one of them was a head-scratcher at the time.
On a first down run by Bills running back Zack Moss, the ball came loose as he was being tackled to the ground. Colts safety Khari Willis fell on it, and it appeared Indy may have come up with a huge turnover.
However, it was clear that Moss’ knee was down before the ball came out, and Reich challenged the ruling on the field. After the game, the head coach admits he should have waited.
“That was bad on my part. Come to think of it I should’ve responded that to Gregg (Doyel) when he asked the question. I should’ve waited,” Reich said after the game Saturday. “There was no hurry to challenge that. What we initially saw, the people on the sideline that I was in communication with – we all thought it was out. I could tell you the story behind the story but everyone thought it was out.”
With that in mind, Reich then went to the official, who told him that they weren’t going to review it and that a challenge would be in order if Indy wanted a review.
The problem this caused was that the Colts could have really used a timeout later in the game when they were trying to make a final drive happen. But because he lost the challenge, the Colts were down a timeout with a full quarter left to play.
“Then I had a conversation with the official, he said, ‘You’re going to have to challenge this if you want it.’ So I challenged it and I probably didn’t have to right at that point,” Reich said. “I could’ve waited and got more and more looks at it, got more and more confirmation so that was definitely on me. And obviously it is costly because then we don’t have a timeout at the end.”
In the heat of the moment, it’s always tough to know what decision to make. However, Reich will be looking at this decision as one of his regrets from the game and one he wishes he could have back.