Knee-jerk Reactions: Colts defeat Jaguars 28-14 and earn 2020 playoff berth

The Indianapolis Colts managed to survive another second half collapse to defeat the Jacksonville Jaguars at home 28-14. Jonathan Taylor had a monster outing and ultimately is the primary reason Indianapolis came out on top. Taylor carried the ball 30 times for 253 yards and two touchdowns.

As good as this win feels as Colts fans, it is easy to be somewhat disappointed by how the Colts finished the season. In the end, wins are all that matters but both side of the ball have shown signs of real weakness in each of the last few games. The offense has been heavily inconsistent, Frank Reich’s play-calling has either been too aggressive and moved away from rushing the ball when the ground game was really working or too conservative and focused too heavily on the running game when the Colts needed to stay aggressive and keep the pressure on opponents.

Matt Eberflus’ defense has been horrifying with a lead. They play in loose coverage and generally very passive. After the defense dominates early playing aggressive football, without a resonable justification Eberflus takes his foot off of the gas and gives up easy scoring drives.

Why?

One thing is for sure, both sides of the ball will have to play a full game to have a prayer against the Buffalo Bills in a week. The Bills have too complete of a team, too many offensive weapons, too big of a quarterback advantage, and too strong of a defense to play good for a quarter and a half and hope to win a football game.

Jared Veldheer was a positive filling in for the injured Anthony Castonzo. The defensive line produced six sacks against backup Mike Glennon. One of those sacks was credited to Kemoko Turay, a great sign for a player who has been struggling to recovery from an injury in 2019. Philip Rivers managed only 164 passing yards, against the Jaguars.

Despite the reasons for some concern, the Colts won a must-win game and earned a playoff berth. For Colts fans, that’s what should matter today. There haven’t been a lot of reasons for Colts fans to be happy since Andrew Luck announced his premature retirement so we should all take this and the Colts should use it as a springboard to build from in 2021 and beyond.