Colts pocket timeouts as comeback plan blows up

INDIANAPOLIS – Matt Ryan was off and running on another final-minute scramble, desperate to lead another comeback win, as Indianapolis Colts interim coach Jeff Saturday pulled his microphone closer to his mouth for one of his first real decisions as an NFL coach.

Colts offensive play caller Parks Frazier was in his ear, watching from a sky box in Lucas Oil Stadium as Ryan did the improbable, much like he did two weeks ago against the Las Vegas Raiders, in their first win together in these roles.

But each game has its own personality, with its own traps and challenges. And this one on Monday called for Saturday to take control.

He had three timeouts. As Ryan lunged toward the first-down marker, he first had to see where the spot would be, and it would be 3 yards short. The time ticked below 50 seconds.

The timeouts stayed in his pocket. Instead, the Colts ran an inside zone play up the middle to Jonathan Taylor for no gain. They created a final play with 30 seconds left, and Ryan threw into double coverage to Parris Campbell, the ball hit the turf and the Colts lost 2417 to the Pittsburgh Steelers.

“I felt like we had time. We would have had timeouts afterwards,” Saturday said of the decision to run with Taylor. “We were in striking distance. So yeah, I never felt like the pressure of needing the timeout. Like I said, I thought the call was good. We were in that mode pretty much the whole second half, so it was pretty consistent with what we were doing.”

This was Saturday and Frazier trying to stick to who they were, even if they had to forge those identities on the fly three weeks ago. Saturday is a former 14-year center in the NFL, 13 with the Colts, and linemen love to run. Frazier likes to say he stays aggressive in his own ways, and he likes to show that aggressiveness can come through the run game. They know their best player is their running back.

This was supposed to be a surprise moment. In a passing league, in 2022, they were going to rush to the line with a defense scrambling and do something different. The clock felt inconsequential with those three timeouts. This was about the battle with downs.

“I mean, would I have liked him to snap it a little bit earlier? Sure,” Saturday said. “But again, I never felt pressed for time. I never felt like we wanted to get to something different.”

But this forged identity isn’t the only one in play for the Colts. They have a quarterback in Ryan who has been through this far longer than they have, with 38 fourth-quarter comebacks, fourth most in NFL history. He’s led this Colts team on five such comebacks already this season, representing their four wins and a tie.

Ryan is a quarterback. He scans the defense, finds the mismatch and throws the best option. He wasn’t that in that moment, because the Colts had dialed up a run. “I mean, I don’t mind the call,” Ryan said. “We were going with some tempo, trying to get that first and then probably bang a timeout after that first.”

Like so much with this team, this sequence will spark another chicken-or-the-egg debate. Did the Colts fail on execution when they took time to snap and Jelani Woods missed a block on Alex Highsmith and Taylor got tackled in the backfield? Or did they execute poorly because of the decision to run on 3rd-and-3, without the chance to survey a defense after a timeout?

What the Colts haven’t done this season is storm out to a lead and protect it throughout a game. They have chosen to live with fire, always coming back, fighting the clock and the pass rush and the decisions of whether to throw to win or to live through Taylor, the best player they have.

What’s left is a 4-7-1 team whose season is running out of time.