INGLEWOOD, Calif. — Colts cornerback Mekhi Blackmon tripped and fell on the biggest Rams play of the day, stumbling out of coverage while Los Angeles wide receiver Tutu Atwell raced away with the game.
But the play wasn’t Blackmon’s fault alone.
There should have been help.
“If you go back, I think we only had 10 guys on the field,” free safety Camryn Bynum said. “That’s just bad ball. … Regardless of what happened with Mekhi, we could have had an extra guy out there to help.”
Atwell caught the pass in full stride, without any Colts around him, and raced 88 yards for the go-ahead score in a game the Rams won 27-20.
The Colts had little excuse for their substitution error.
Los Angeles went deep to Atwell on the first play of a drive, immediately after Rigoberto Sanchez launched a punt to pin the Rams at their own 12-yard line. Indianapolis needed a stop to have a chance.
Indianapolis defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo, who does not speak to the media after games, called a five-man pressure, lining up middle linebacker Zaire Franklin at the line of scrimmage with the defensive linemen.
“Man, I was locked in,” Franklin said. “I was in the rush, just kind of talking through responsibilities. I was up front, we set the blitz, we had a (rush) game, I know Samson (Ebukam) said he was half a tick away, (Matthew) Stafford threw it up and it was a touchdown. I was with the d-line.”
Bynum was the furthest Colt back, surveying the defense.
He didn’t realize Indianapolis was missing a defender until was too late.
“It was the leadup to the play, was looking around and something just felt off,” Bynum said. “But obviously, they’re about to snap the ball, so you’re looking around like, ‘Who do I have? Where’s their guys?’ … That’s just something that can’t happen, from top to bottom. From us as players to the coaching, we’re all one team.”
Bynum and Franklin did not reveal who was responsible for being on the field for the play.
The entire defense, from Anarumo on down, deserves blame for failing to realize the Colts were playing at a disadvantage. Indianapolis still had all three of its timeouts; the Colts could have stopped play and sent the right personnel onto the field.
“That’s something we can’t let happen, especially in the fourth quarter, let alone at all,” Bynum said. “That’s on every single one of us, not noticing it, making sure we had the correct people out there. … Because 10 versus 11 people, that’s a loss every time, no matter what.”
Joel A. Erickson covers the Colts all season. Get more coverage on IndyStarTV and with the Colts Insider newsletter