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The Colts stunned the football world earlier this month when they named Jeff Saturday their interim head coach. The former offensive lineman had only coached at the high school level so questions rightfully came up about his lack of experience and his qualifications for the gig.
Saturday quieted critics a bit with a win over the Raiders in his first game but questions did still remained about whether or not he should have gotten this job and if he could succeed longterm.
Well, those questions are only louder this morning because of what happened at the end of Monday night’s Steelers-Colts game. Matt Ryan and the offense had a really bad time management fail in the final minute and it led to their drive coming to an end and the Colts losing the game, 24-17.
Some, uh, bizarre clock management by Jeff Saturday and the Colts on their final possession. 🏈🤔 #MNF pic.twitter.com/RunHFlFHY8
— The Comeback (@thecomeback) November 29, 2022
Saturday then backed up that fail with a really lame excuse after the game, saying he “didn’t feel like time was really of the essence at that moment.”
Time, however, was certainly of the essence at that moment and the Colts let it tick away before running two terrible plays and turning the ball over on downs at the Steelers’ 26 yard line with just under 30 seconds remaining.
It was a bad an embarrassing way to end the game and Saturday should take the blame for it. The Colts had three time outs remaining in the final minute but opted not to take one after Matt Ryan scrambled for 14 yards on a 2nd and 17 play in the final minute. Time ticked away as they lined up for the next play and as Ryan barked out the call. He then handed it off to Jonathan Taylor who was quickly tackled for no gain and the Colts finally called a timeout.
Again, they didn’t have one time out left in that final minute. They had three! A timeout before that third down play would have allowed Ryan and the offense to reset and they could have taken a few extra seconds to think over the play that they wanted to call.
Instead, they rushed into it and failed.
And that falls on the head coach who, again, has only coached at the high school level before taking over a NFL team.
Saturday said this about the 3rd down play:
“I thought we had a good play. And I felt like we would get it. Obviously, we didn’t do a great job on the backside, so it’s worse. But I felt good about the call before. Felt like we had time, we would have timeouts afterwards. We were in striking distance. So, I never felt like the pressure of needing the timeout.
“We just didn’t execute it.”
Again, they had three timeouts! That’s a lot of timeouts left with less than a minute in the game. Those timeouts don’t carry over to next week and there’s nothing you can do with them once the game is over. So using them in that moment sure seemed like it would have been a smart thing to do.
Instead, the Colts lost in embarrassing fashion and look like a lost franchise with a washed up QB and an inexperienced coach guiding them the rest of the way this year.
And they have nobody to blame for that but themselves.
Quick hits: New NFL Power Rankings… Jaguars safety rips Urban Meyer… Jason Garrett’s creepy smile… And more.
– Week 12 is in the books and it’s time for some new NFL Power Rankings, which have the red-hot Cowboys climbing the charts.
– A Jaguars safety took a beautiful shot at Urban Meyer while praising Trevor Lawrence and fans loved it.
– NFL fans had lots of jokes about Jason Garrett’s creepy smile on SNF.
– Here’s a look at the NFL playoff picture after Week 12.
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