5 biggest takeaways from the Colts’ 2022 season

The foremost tell-tale signal that this wasn’t going to be the season as anticipated was when the Colts tied the Texans within the season opener, 20-20, in extra time.

They got here out flat in that recreation and needed to rating 17 fourth-quarter factors simply to even it up by the tip of regulation. A Rodrigo Blankenship missed discipline objective secured the tie and simply days later the staff launched him, solely to signal Chase McLaughlin.

Indianapolis would observe that up with their continued woes enjoying in Jacksonville with an embarrassing shutout loss to the Jaguars. When all hope was misplaced to start out the 12 months, they introduced again perception with a surprising win over the Kansas Metropolis Chiefs. The eventual No. 1 seed of the AFC.

That top was rapidly worn off when a loss at residence to their divisional rivals, the Tennessee Titans. Regardless of falling to a 1-2-1 document within the first quarter of the season, the Colts went on a two-game successful streak to recover from .500 and had their second shot to knock off the Titans to get again on monitor for the anticipated season for the staff.

As a substitute, that was the start of the unraveling 12 months for Indy after getting swept by Tennessee. Matt Ryan was benched the next day for Sam Ehlinger. That transfer was adopted up with a loss to the Washington Commanders regardless of having a two-score lead within the fourth quarter.

Two days later, offensive coordinator, Marcus Brady, was let go and Frank Reich took over his duties. In fact, that didn’t final that lengthy as a result of Indianapolis would lose to the New England Patriots that following Sunday and by Monday morning, it was considerably surprisingly introduced that the franchise was firing Reich.

Simply once you didn’t suppose the season might get any crazier, inside hours it was introduced that Jeff Saturday could be taking on because the interim head coach. Within the span of three weeks, the Colts benched their quarterback, fired two of their coaches, and named an ESPN analyst with solely highschool teaching expertise as the brand new chief of the franchise.

Jim Irsay said his perception in Saturday because the potential long-term reply for the pinnacle coach of his staff and, for one week, he regarded like the neatest man within the room. Saturday made the swap again to Ryan because the quarterback and Indy would go on to beat the Las Vegas Raiders in Saturday’s teaching debut.

Much like the win over the Chiefs, that constructive feeling for the Colts was rapidly erased. They’d observe it up with two blown fourth-quarter leads towards the Philadelphia Eagles and Pittsburgh Steelers. They made historical past by giving up 33 unanswered factors within the fourth quarter towards the Dallas Cowboys, regardless of being down 21-19 when the ultimate quarter began.

Then it was the historic second-half collapse to the Minnesota Vikings—the biggest blown lead in NFL historical past—that broke the staff.

They didn’t look aggressive of their subsequent two video games towards the Los Angeles Chargers and New York Giants. The ultimate look for the Colts was completely symbolic of how the season went for them.

Towards Houston, they began the sport slowly, stormed again to have a fourth-quarter lead—and in true Colts vogue—couldn’t shut out the sport, leading to a 32-31 loss to the Texans. In hindsight, it was helpful for draft place.

It was a bumpy highway for the franchise and this shall be one for the followers of the Colts to neglect.