The Indianapolis Colts put up a fight against the Jacksonville Jaguars in their final regular season home game on Sunday, but suffered their second loss to the Jaguars this season, this time by a score of 23-17 inside Lucas Oil Stadium.
On Saturday, the Houston Texans clinched their spot in the NFL Playoffs with a 20-16 win in Los Angeles against the Chargers. That result officially eliminated the Colts from playoff contention a day before they hosted the Jaguars, but Indianapolis certainly did not back down from confrontation despite there no longer being postseason implications for the home team.
After the game, Colts head coach Shane Steichen fielded questions about the team’s pregame mentality with awareness of their elimination from playoff contention.
“There was no lack of effort out there,” Steichen said, “those guys were flying around, obviously had some big-time stops, special teams made some plays, guys were fighting.”
The Indianapolis offense scored 17 points against Jacksonville, without much of the explosiveness that led to the 27 points scored against San Francisco on the same field the week prior. Nonetheless, the offense achieved many of its goals from earlier in the season.
Philip Rivers completed 17 of 30 passes for 147 yards, a touchdown and an interception. Tyler Warren was his leading receiver, hauling in all five of his targets for 43 yards. Jonathan Taylor, per usual, led the way on the ground with 21 carries for 70 yards and a touchdown.
The Colts were able to lean on the run game enough to assist Rivers in his conduction of the offense, and Rivers proved to be capable of pushing the ball down the field, unloading multiple throws that tore through the defense and propelled Indianapolis to points.
All things considered, though, the Colts offense was not the best to take the field in Lucas Oil Stadium on Sunday afternoon. Indianapolis posted 3.7 yards per play to Jacksonville’s 5.4. The Jaguars outgained the Colts 370-204, securing five more first downs and three more third down conversions on the day.
Trevor Lawrence completed 23 of 37 pass attempts for 263 yards and an interception. Parker Washington totaled eight catches for 115 yards, while Travis Etienne Jr. tallied 17 carries for 76 yards on the ground.
It’s no secret that the Jaguars have an extremely potent offense, one that had scored between 34 and 48 points in its past three games heading into the trip to Indianapolis. In Indianapolis, the Jacksonville offense was similarly efficient to the rest of the second half of the season. However, early turnovers stunted its production for the majority of the contest.
A wild fumble on Jacksonville’s only drive of the first quarter led to an Indianapolis touchdown and a 10-0 deficit. In the final seconds of the first half, the Jaguars were poised to tie the game or take the lead, but Lawrence’s pass intended for Washington was intercepted in the end zone by Germaine Pratt. Lengthy Jacksonville drives with sustained efficiency were nixed by turnovers, which allowed the Colts to stay in and lead the game much longer than the box score suggests they should have.
Although turnovers certainly played a significant role in the flow of the game, the Colts defense had its merits in other ways as well. In the secondary, Sauce Gardner returned from injury and made his presence known by critically deflecting a pass in the red zone. The majority of the defense’s success, though, came via the front seven.
Defensive coordinator Lou Anaroumo elected to blitz early and often, frequently coming after Lawrence all afternoon long. In the end, the Colts walked away with two sacks, six tackles for a loss and seven hits on the quarterback.
Etienne Jr. was held to under 80 yards and multiple of Lawrence’s passes were batted down at the line of scrimmage, but the story of this side of the ball was Lawrence’s ability to consistently beat the blitz.
The Jaguars quarterback was hit seven times and pressured plenty more, but only sacked twice in part because he utilized his hot routes with great effectiveness time and time again. As a result, the Indianapolis pass rush was rarely rewarded for its efforts, and the Jacksonville offense stayed on schedule.
After four quarters, the Jaguars were the better team and the one most deserving of victory in spite of the two first half turnovers. Their reward is not only their 12th win of the season, but also the assurance that control over the AFC South is in Jacksonville’s hands. A win next week against the Tennessee Titans would secure the division title and a home playoff game for the Jaguars.
After the game, Steichen spoke on the six-game losing streak the Colts have yet to break with one game left to play.
“You’ve got to fight and find ways to win tight games,” Steichen said, “and that’s what this league is at the end of the day, and we haven’t done a good enough job of that and that starts with me.”
The Jacksonville Jaguars will play their final regular season game at home against the Tennessee Titans with a chance to win the division. The Indianapolis Colts, on the other hand, will not play inside their own building again until 2026. In their final regular season opportunity, the Colts travel to Houston, where they will pursue revenge against the Texans.
The postseason is out of the cards once again for the Indianapolis Colts, but the team displayed a great deal of fight and energy in their last home game this season. Next weekend, Colts fans will have one last opportunity to cheer on their team before a puzzling and troubling offseason ensues.
