The Indianapolis Colts (6-8) have now lost four games in a row, six of their last seven and are officially out of playoff contention following Monday night’s humiliating loss against the New Orleans Saints (11-3).
There is plenty of blame to go around. Most of it will go on the shoulders of quarterback Jacoby Brissett, who has regressed incredibly during the second half of the season. But how much of that blame for the Colts’ monumental collapse should fall on the shoulders of head coach Frank Reich?
It’s a fair question to ask after the Colts’ season hit rock bottom on Monday night.
After a 5-2 start to the season, the Colts looked like they could be primed for a playoff run in the second half. That was truly astounding after having to go through Andrew Luck’s shocking retirement just three weeks before the start of the regular season.
But that beaming optimism came to a screeching halt. Over the first seven games, the Colts were leading the division and were a potential candidate to have a top-four seed in the AFC.
Over the last seven games, the Colts have come out victorious just once and are now officially eliminated from playoff contention.
There is a myriad of factors that have gone into the collapse of the Colts over the second half of the season. Reich deserves his share of the blame, but there are some bigger factors out of his control that has led to Indy’s demise.
Injuries
The Colts truly tried to embrace the “Next Man Up” mantra. And in some cases they did. However, the injury bug bit the Colts extremely hard this season. That doesn’t fall on Reich.
The entire starting wide receiver room has either dealt with season-ending injuries (Devin Funchess, Parris Campbell) or have missed multiple games due to injuries (T.Y Hilton). This already set the offense back without the benefit of having an elite quarterback.
Jacoby Brissett’s regression
Some of this is on Reich. While Brissett was enjoying a strong start to the season, he has come crashing down in a spectacular fashion. With accuracy issues and struggles with anticipation, Brissett has shown over the last two months that the Colts must begin working on a plan for his replacement.
We know Reich is a genius when it comes to aiding quarterback play and scheming an offense. And Brissett’s incompetence at times are simply a factor that Reich can’t control.
Reich can scheme players open all he wants but there’s nothing he can do if Brissett is erratic or doesn’t want to take the necessary risks—something we’ve seen far too much of this season.
Brissett’s regression should fall a bit on Reich’s shoulders because that’s his area of expertise, but there were plenty of factors that were out of the head coach’s hands.
Adam Vinatieri
Once a reliable and trustworthy kicker, the 46-year-old regressed impeccably to the tune of 14 missed kicks this season. He has since been placed on the injured reserve list but his failing season cost the Colts a few games in the win column.
We can all agree that Vinatieri’s struggles late in games aren’t on Reich, for the most part.
Not an uncommon situation
The Colts fell hard during the second half of the season. But this situation isn’t unique to just Indy. Several teams had to deal with the loss of their starting quarterback and some even found success.
Look at the Pittsburgh Steelers for example. They are a potential playoff team with two games left, and they lost their two biggest weapons in Ben Roethlisberger and Juju Smith-Schuster.
The New Orleans Saints—albeit a much more talented team—lost Drew Brees for essentially for six-game stretch (he played just nine snaps in Week 2) and are now 11-3 with a chance to lock up the top seed in the NFC.
The blame can be passed around everywhere. Reich deserves his share, certainly, but the bulk of the team’s collapse doesn’t fall mostly on him. There are simply too many factors outside of his control that has led to the exceptional downfall.
He’s still the right man for the job and if the Colts can get healthy and even upgrade at quarterback next season, this season will look like an outlier.