Former Colts center Jeff Saturday isn’t taking Indy’s loss to the Jags all that well and vented about it on the “Pat McAfee Show.”
The Jacksonville Jaguars came into Sunday’s game +14.5 point underdogs to the Indianapolis Colts, but just as they did against the heavily favored Buffalo Bills Week 9, the Cardiac Cats pulled off a miracle. Not only were they victorious, though, they won by over two touchdowns and helped eliminate the Colts out of postseason contention.
The Jags’ upset left many Colts fans, players, and coaches distraught, and as a result, it’s going to take a while to get over. That appears to especially be the case for Colts legend Jeff Saturday, who is now an analyst at ESPN.
On an appearance on the “Pat McAfee Show,” Saturday called the loss to the Jags an “epic failure” that “broke” him.
“Epic failure. It broke me,” the former Colts center said. “I don’t know that I’ve ever seen a game that hurt that much that I wasn’t in. My stomach hurt for everyone who was a Colts fan or part of the organization. We can talk about (Carson) Wentz and him not getting it done, but we got beat up. It wasn’t even close. They beat the brakes off us and we had no answer. I never saw that coming.”
Saturday is right, the Jags beat the Colts in every aspect of the game even when taken out the fact that quarterback Carson Wentz was sacked six times. They converted almost half of their third-downs (7-of-15), they won the turnover margin at a 2-to-0 rate, held the Colts to under 100 rushing yards, and won the time of possession battle, too (33:19 to 26:41).
However, there was just a positive vibe surrounding the Jags from the jump as they scored a touchdown on the first drive, and quarterback Trevor Lawrence hit receiver Laquon Treadwell on a 2-yard touchdown reception to end it. It was then that Saturday started to realize that the Colts were in for a long day.
“The first drive, you’re seeing (Jacksonville) convert and growing in confidence,” he added. “You see Lawrence starting to feel good. We had zero pass rush. He’s back there smoking a cigarette, taking his time. No issues. No worries. That got us off our game. We never got into a rhythm with (running back Jonathan) Taylor. We kind of allowed them to dictate when we were going to try to run, and our offensive line didn’t play well. […] Everyone had issues that showed up in big moments.”
While some were stunned, the Jags did prove they were capable of hanging with the Colts earlier this season as Lawrence had a chance to march the Jags down the field for a walk-off score Week 10. However, the Colts’ defense made a huge play as defensive end Dayo Odeyingbo stripped Lawrence and the ball was recovered by Indy.
Lawrence didn’t take that loss well and got his revenge on the Colts after going 23-of-32 (71.9%) for 223 yards and two touchdowns on Sunday. Unfortunately for Saturday and the Colts, his revenge came when they needed a win the most, and now the team will have to wait until next season to chase a Super Bowl title.
