Colts’ Stat of the Game: Week 11 vs. Eagles

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

After an oasis of production against the terrible Raiders’ defense, the Colts’ offense came crashing down back to reality against the talented Eagles. The offensive line could not block at all for Matt Ryan, and failed to open up any sort of running space for Jonathan Taylor after the first drive of the game. The defense even gave the offense four short fields to work with, yet they only came up with 6 points on those drives. No matter if it is Reich, Saturday, or whomever is running this team, this offense is just not properly built for success in today’s NFL. Matt Ryan is not bad by any means, but it is evident in my opinion that “average” just does not fly today in the NFL if you want to have a constantly succesful offense.

The Complicated: Raimann and Fries allowed 4 pressures each, Pierce held to 3 catches, Ryan held to under 7 yards per attempt again, Colts finally win the turnover battle, Colts finally score on the opening drive.

Raimann and Fries are now seemingly the starting left tackle and right guard respectively for the rest of the season, and they both had really tough games against the Eagles. Raimann struggled against the veteran Brandon Graham, and allowed what was essentially the game sealing sack. Fries was just abused on several snaps by either Linval Joseph or Suh. Couple that with the struggles of Ryan Kelly at center, and no matter how good Braden Smith or Quenton Nelson are, the unit just will never perform up to the standard.

Alec Pierce struggled on Sunday, and was held to just 3 catches on 8 targets, for just 27 yards. Matt Ryan targeted him deep several times throughout the game, and the rookie just failed to corral those contested catches.

A number that I really like for determining how good a quarterback was is yards per attempt, and the number that usually is the treshold is 7. Ryan was held under that number again this season, as the lack of explosive plays is now perhaps among the biggest issues this offense is having.

The Colts losing the turnover battle has been a common theme this season, so it was refreshing watching them win it for once. The defense forced two fumbles on key possesions, but the offense just could not do enough with those possesions.

After failing to score points on the opening drive every single game this year, the Colts finally scored a touchdown to start the game. Led by MPJ and Jonathan Taylor, Indy orchestrated a fluid 10-play drive that ended with a one-yard touchdown run by the Colts’ running back.