ATLANTA — 'Twas the day before Christmas and all through the Falcons' house, not a creature was stirring, not even—most notably—the Colts' offense and defense.
It was not a merry Christmas Eve for the Colts in Atlanta Sunday afternoon. Indianapolis was dominated by the Falcons 29-10, dropping its record to 8-7 on the season.
Jonathan Taylor was back for the Colts after missing three games due to thumb surgery. Braden Smith, Zack Moss and Michael Pittman Jr., though, were all ruled out for this game.
The Colts, however, started off clicking — 13 plays, 75 yards and a welcome back to Jonathan Taylor. He punched it in from one yard out to start things off as Indy jumped out to a 7-0 lead.
The Falcons, though, responded as new starting quarterback Taylor Heinicke hit Kyle Pitts for a 24-yard touchdown pass to even things up at 7 a piece. Atlanta's drive took just five plays to go 75 yards.
From there, it was tough sledding for the Colts. Atlanta took a 13-7 lead into the locker room at half and started the second half out with a bang.
Indianapolis didn't seem to have an answer for the Falcons' rushing attack. Tyler Allgeier sprinted 31 yards to the house early in the third quarter to give Atlanta a 20-7 lead. The Falcons scored 20 unanswered points after the Colts were leading 7-0.
With under five minutes to go in the third quarter, the Colts showed some signs of life. Gardner Minshew ran for 24 yards—the longest run of his career—to set them up inside the 15. However, Indy could only muster a Matt Gay 33-yard field goal, cutting the deficit to 20-10.
The fourth quarter saw the Colts be unsuccessful on a fourth down play and Minshew throw an interception that all but sealed their fate. The Falcons tacked on three more field goals, and the Colts fell 29-10.
“We have to look at ourselves hard in the mirror after a loss like that, starting with myself, to get those things corrected," head coach Shane Steichen said after the game. "You have a big win the week prior, and then you go do what we did today. We can’t have it. We have two guaranteed left to us, and we have to get it cleaned up in a hurry. They’re at home, so I know we will get those things cleaned up. I have full confidence in the guys in there that we’ll get it cleaned up for the last two.”
The Colts could only muster 262 total yards on the day. Meanwhile, the Falcons sacked Indianapolis six times. Defensively, it certainly felt like the Colts' worst performance of the season, giving up more than 400 total yards to Atlanta.
"If I had an answer for you, I’d give you a perfect answer. Credit to the Falcons. They did a good job up front with their defensive line in some of the things they were doing. Again, that starts with myself. I have to be better for the guys going forward," Steichen said.
"It starts with all of us," Zaire Franklin continued. "It starts with myself first. I’ve got to be better. I’ve got to play better, and it continues on from there. A disappointing performance. I really liked our plan coming in and understanding what they were going to do. We’ve just got to execute.”
Now at 8-7, it undoubtedly feels like the Colts must win its two remaining games to make the AFC Playoffs. Steichen and players alike have said they have confidence in being able to learn from this quickly.
"I feel really confident about the guys playing at home. We have a big one next week against the Raiders that we have to get ready for and get things corrected from this game, then we have to move on. We have two big ones coming up,” Steichen said.
"You got to take what you can from this and learn from it," Gardner Minshew said. "There’s a lot of good learning out there. You know, it is a game, I don’t know if we approached it with the right urgency. You know, I think we got to look at ourselves, tighten up, and figure out what we are going to do with this opportunity we got in front of us, but there’s nobody I’ll rather do it with. I’m excited with the guys we got.”
"Being in a situation in December where you can fight for a playoff spot and play meaningful football, don’t take it for granted. Don’t feel like you beat a team on paper just because you all are supposed to be better than them. It’s hard to win in this league, and unfortunately, today was the lesser," Franklin said. "We’ve still got two games left, and we’re back to work on Wednesday to get another win on Sunday.”
Indy has the Las Vegas Raiders next Sunday and the Houston Texans the following Sunday—both games are at home.
