Another week another spectacular late game meltdown from the Jeff Saturday Colts. Usually I do this by quarter but I’m just going to bring you the biggest plays of the game regardless of quarter.

What a wild game.

---

“Highlights”

Things started well if you were hoping for a loss.

It got even better though.

The Texans would go on to kick a field goal.

Zack Moss had a great day.

Michael Pittman Jr. only had three catches (he needed four to get to 100 receptions). But this was one of them.

The Texans offense didn’t seem like they really wanted to win.

Neither did the Colts offense as this was the next play.

Even when the drives looked good, they ended up bad.

I really like Zack Moss.

The Texans answered.

Then they remembered they should lose.

And they tried to lose, really hard.

The Texans defense even got in on the tanking action:

Just want to tip my cap to Zaire Franklin:

During the pandemic the Colts mascot, Blue, produced 9 episodes of a kids show on YouTube called House of Blue. In one of the episodes Zaire Franklin appeared talking to Gunner and Teegan (Blue’s real life children) about what he had been doing during lockdown. He told them he had been reading and he recommended the book The Alchemist. The fact that he agreed to be on the mascots show and then was so gracious with his kids told me everything I needed to know about who Zaire Franklin is and I couldn’t be happier that he played as well as he did even though this season was an awful slog. It’s always nice when great people turn out to be great players when they get the opportunity.

Now that I’m done handing out Franklin’s flowers, I’ll get back to the game. The Colts were this close to finishing this game out:

But wait, there’s more!

Lovie Smith wasn’t done helping out the Chicago Bears (you know the team he coached to a Super Bowl appearance in 2007). Given that the Bears lost today, this play sealed their fate, giving them the number one overall pick in the 2023 NFL Draft:

The Colts tried their best to get in field goal range:

Instead this is how the game ended.

---

So that does it for the Indianapolis Colts 2022 season. The Bears now hold the first overall pick, the Houston Texans have the second. The late games will determine the Colts draft position but they will draft no worse than fifth. If the Arizona Cardinals or Denver Broncos somehow get a win, the Colts will move to fourth. If both teams win (highly unlikely) the Colts could draft as high as third overall.

It’s been a crazy season for the Colts and their fans. Come July we’ll all be begging for football to be back but the end of this season seems merciful in the moment. This offseason will be the one that determines the next half decade (or more) for our Colts. There’s plenty of entertainment to come.

Stay tuned and go Colts.