Colts’ Stat of the Game: Week 8 vs. Commanders

The Simple: Colts 1-3 in redzone trips, two fumbles lost

The result of this game can be attributed to just these two stats: the redzone inefficiency, and the two fumbles lost in Commanders’ territory.

First, let’s take a look at the Colts’ struggles once they reached Washington’s territory. Indy’s offense had four drives of over 50 yards, yet none of those resulted in a touchdown, with two field goals and two fumbles (to be discussed later). The Colts struggle a lot to move the ball down the field, so when they actually manage to get some sort of momentum going it is really discouraging watching them waste opportunities with such indifference. Everything needs to improve in order for the Colts to finally start reaching the endzone with some level of consistency. First of all Frank Reich needs to be much better at playcalling, sure the two fumbles were most certainly not his fault, but the lack of creativity and refusal to reuse what worked in the past (Targets to the massive tight ends for example) is baffling. It seems like he just wants to outsmart everyone, instead of sticking to proven formulas. Sam Ehlinger was not to blame for Sunday’s struggles, but he did lose a fumble. The main culprit in my opinion has to be the offensive line, who once again had a rough outing, and could not open up a single running lane for JT to go through, and failed on the most important play of the game on 3rd and goal.

The other reason the Colts lost to the Commanders is the two fumbles in opposing territory, fumbles that costed Indy a minimum of 6 points, with which they would have easily won the game. The first one was a bad play by Sam Ehlinger, where he seemingly tried to cover the ball but his knee ended up popping it loose, and was recovered by Da’Ron Payne. The second one was a mistake by running back Jonathan Taylor, who just left the ball too exposed as linebacker Forrest forced the ball loose.

The Complicated: Colts’ offense once again held under 21 points.

The Colts’ offense has scored over 21 points just once this season, in the Week 6 win against the Jacksonville Jaguars. This unit is the embodiment of the word underperforming right now, as they cannot get anything going. A terrible and boring season for the so called “offensive mastermind” Frank Reich, some worrying regression from the offensive line, and injuries to the MVP of the unit means that the Colts are near the bottom of the NFL in almost all relevant offensive stats. Dead last in offensive EPA, 28th in EPA per pass, 28th in EPA per run, last in giveaways... the list goes on.