The Indianapolis Colts end the 2024 season with a win over the Jacksonville Jaguars and in overtime. They’ll finish the year 8-9.
Before we start dissecting the offseason and what’s ahead, let’s take a look back at the Colts’ Week 18 performance with our instant takeaways.
– On paper, it was a good day for the Colts offense, who generated almost 400 yards. Joe Flacco created some explosive plays, with Josh Downs and Michael Pittman totaling over 150 yards, while Jonathan Taylor averaged nearly 5.0 yards per attempt. That ability to move the ball in both the running and passing games helped keep the Jaguars’ defense off-balanced and guessing, to a degree.
– However, the Colts couldn’t quite finish drives. What often stalled several possessions was struggles on first or second down that put the offense behind the sticks and in third-and-longs. The Colts were only 3-for-9 on third downs and 0-for-1 on fourth downs.
– Another successful opening drive for the Colts’ offense. Despite the overall issues this season, Indianapolis has been pretty good with their opening script. But they struggle at countering the defensive counters and making quick adjustments.
– It was a mixed bag from the defense. I loved the third down blitz in overtime, but when the defense needed to come up with a stop in the fourth quarter, they allowed 10 points. Overall, it’s not like the Jaguars went wild against the Colts’ defense, averaging roughly 5.0 yards per play, but that’s not been a good unit either. There was some positives with a takeaway and holding up in the run defense, but there were missed tackles and big passing plays again.
– Despite all the issues the Colts’ defense has had this season, they’ve been good at generating takeaways. In the last four games, they’ve forced eight interceptions.
– Jonathan Taylor eclipsed the 100-yard rush mark for the fourth straight game. The one-two punch of Bernhard Raimann and Quenton Nelson on the left side have been a formidable duo in the run game.
– Matt Gay missed another field goal from over 50 yards. He’s now 11-for-22 on such kicks the last two seasons. It was, however, an overall steady year for him.
– Another game, another big play for Alec Pierce. He will finish the year averaging over 20 yards per catch. And while pass interference yards isn’t a stat that’s kept, Pierce picked up a lot of yards for the offense that way as well, including 38 more yards on a flag today.
– The pass rush didn’t do a great job getting after Jones, who was pressured on about 30% of his dropbacks, according to PFF. With that said, with how quickly he often gets rid of the ball, creating that pressure isn’t always easy either.
– JuJu Brents would exit the game early with a groin injury. This was his first game back after being activated off injured reserve. The Colts put him right back into the mix, starting opposite of Jaylon Jones when in nickel.
– Not that the Jaguars have had a highly productive pass rush this season, and they were without Josh Hines-Allen, but the Colts offensive line gave Flacco time, for the most part. That, too often, hasn’t been the case this season. Matt Goncalves also exited with a concussion.
– That fourth-down run by Flacco was another head-scratching play call and puts a bow on what we’ve seen from the Colts this season. I do not know why with Flacco as the quarterback Shane Steichen would dial up an RPO.
– As he has for much of the season, Josh Downs provided a go-to option for the passing game and provided some stability into the second half as moving the ball became more difficult.